This ECM Puristika was bought in June 2025. This machine is not as big as many other machines because it does not contain the parts for hot water production. It is thus a pure espresso machine.

For me, this kind of machine is perfect as I use a microwave oven to heat up milk for cappuccino or caffelatte drinks.

I make coffee drinks so that espresso will go directly over hot milk. The crema of espresso stays on top of the milk. It is necessary to stir the milk a little bit with spoon before enjoying the drink.

In my cappuccino there is 14 centiliters of milk and doubleshot of espresso. In my caffelatte the amount of milk is 20 centiliters. I use here the italian terms for these drinks, although milk foam is missing from the drinks.

Some baristas may consider it an unholy habit to heat up the milk with a microwave oven. This is, however, a quick process. While the microwave oven is working a minute or so, I have time to grind the beans for the (double)shot of espresso.

I do not have any milk foam in my coffee drinks, but I suspect there is very little to taste in milk foam. Neither do I dilute the milk by pumping hot steam into it.

In 1989 I was living in England, but I had a very good reason to make some travels to Spain and Portugal. During those travels I learned to truly enjoy espresso-based coffee drinks, and, so, I decided to buy an espresso machine for myself.

Bought in April 1989 for £39 in Cambridge, England, my first espresso machine is this Russell Hobbs. It is manufactured in Switzerland.

I bought this Krups machine in 2000. This is also a very simple machine in which steam is used to force water to go through the coffee.

These steam-driven machines operate much in the same way as traditional Italian moka pots.

In 2001, I bought this simple Krups to the country house. Notice that the portafilter is made of plastic. The price of this machine was 295 FIM (49€).

After having used the simple steam-driven machines for about 15 years, I read a newspaper article which emphasized that a proper espresso machine needs to have a pump to create a large pressure to force water through ground coffee.

My first machine with a pump was bought in 2005. This AEG EA 150 was a reliable German machine. The price was €148.

I needed a machine with a pump for the country house. Therefore, in 2006, I bought a Krups XP 4000. (The machine in this picture is not my machine.)

This cheap machine is my worst experience. I bought it in 2010, and it broke completely almost immediately. I did not go to complain in the shop because I did not want to operate such a machine again.

As the earlier machines in the country house broke, in 2010 I bought another AEG EA 150. This was a second-hand machine which I got for €40.

Gaggia Baby Class is a machine I bought in August 2012 as I wanted an Italian machine. In reality, this machine was made in Romania, but it made better coffee than my earlier machines.

This machine has a quite large portafilter. As my earlier pump-driven machines, it comes with a pressurized filter basket, and thus requires less skill in coffee making.

Then, in April 2013, I bought the second Gaggia Baby Class. The price of this machine was around €300. The machine was cheaper than the first Gaggia as I bought it from Germany.

In March 2016 I bought an ECM Casa IV, which is shown here with the second Gaggia. This machine comes with a non-pressurized filter basket. With this machine I finally started to learn something about the making of really good coffee. (It took me only 27 years to learn these things.)

When you use the non-pressurized filter baskets, you have to adjust the grinder so that a certain amount of espresso comes in something like 25 seconds.

Then, in April 2017, I had to buy another ECM Casa IV for the country house as I could not stand the coffee I was making with the older machines. These macnines cost €850. They are made in Germany with some Italian parts.

To make espresso coffee, you also need a suitable grinder. The grinder must be a burr grinder which can be adjusted for pefrect coarseness of coffee. Here are two espresso grinders that I have used. They cost something like €200 ... €300.

A new grinder, Eureka Mignon Turbo, was bought together with a new espresso machine in June 2025.

Crema is the foam that is formed when espresso is made. I make milk-based coffees so that I first heat the milk in a microwave oven, and then I let the espresso coffee go directly over the hot milk. Usually the crema stays on top of the drink.

This picture shows coffee made with Gaggia Baby Class, which has a pressurized filter basket for coffee.

Here you see crema of coffee made with ECM Casa IV which has a non-pressurized filter basket for coffee. When you compare this to the previous picture, you can notice that the bubbles in the crema are smaller.

Making espresso with with pressurized filter baskets is easier than using non-pressurized filter baskets, but if you want to make really good coffee, you need to learn to use the non-pressurized baskets.

Here is pure espresso in a small cup.