Once you’re all set up with your Gaggia coffee machine you’ll soon master exactly how it works so you can make your perfect cup of coffee every time.

Here are the tips of the barista trade to make that magic happen in your own home.

Firstly, you’ll always need a very finely ground coffee for your Gaggia coffee machine. The holes are tiny in the filter holder so the finer the grind, the more flavour and crema you’ll get as the hot water flows through the coffee. We do our own top quality Gaggia brand ideal for our machines which you can get direct from our website at https://www.gaggiadirect.com/coffee1.html

When making your coffee always heat the filter holder up first – you can run some hot water through your machine over the holder and into the drip tray to do this - and do the same with your cup.

Hot water is dispensed from a coffee machine at 80°C to 90°C and if it hits a cold cup that temperature will quickly come tumbling down. Many Gaggia coffee machines even have cup warmers on the top of the machine so you don’t have to run hot water over them.

If it’s manual, pour your coffee into the filter holder (called a portafilter in Italy), level it off and then push it down with a little weight called a tamp so it’s nice and condensed. This will get you more flavour out of your coffee as the water will seep through it evenly.

If there isn’t enough coffee in there or it’s not been pushed down sufficiently the water would go through unevenly and too quickly, leaving your coffee taste falling short of what should now be high expectations.

The hot water will come through at a set pace on the vast majority of Gaggia machines so you need to get your coffee amount just right to make the most of that water flow. Don’t worry, you’ll quickly learn what’s right for you.

The first 20 seconds of the hot water flowing through the coffee gets the best flavour so don’t keep running it through the machine to try to fill an americano. Use an expresso or two and then add some hot water from the machine. Think of it like a teabag – you wouldn’t use it twice and, likewise, the coffee residue will deteriorate after that initial 20 seconds.

Don’t have the water too hot as it will burn the coffee – that’s why it’s vital to warm the cup first.

Don’t overheat your milk as you’ll caramelise it and it’ll taste bitter.

All Gaggia coffee machines come with their own inbuilt milk frothers so you can do just what you want with your milk – air it, warm it or froth it big-style. And it gives you that great authentic barista sound!

That’s also how you sort out your cappuccino and your lattes – you’ll quickly get to know how much milk to put in and how much frothing you want.

You also get your hot water from here in case you just wanted to make yourself a cup of tea but, come on, get a grip. This is coffee talk, not tea talk.

Top of the range Gaggia automatic coffee makers have digital displays showing images of the drinks, several milk frothing options and you can even set up your own profile to save the perfect settings for your individual taste, from the strength of the coffee to the heat of the water.

Yes, Gaggia is your ultimate coffee gadget.

So it’s goodbye café society and your fiver a cuppa. Hello to top quality coffee, made to perfection to your own personal preference and in the comfort of your own home for 15p.
That’s some difference.

By the way, if you ever get stuck working out your machine or making your ideal cup of coffee than you can contact us directly in seconds on Zoom and we’ll talk you through it.
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Read more about that at https://www.gaggiadirect.com/blog/why-gaggia-uk-directs-forever-customer-care-service-is-the-best-in-the-coffee-business

When you’re choosing a coffee machine think about how much control you want to make your ideal cup of coffee.

Spare a thought too about how much making your coffee can save yourself possibly hundreds of pounds a year and also make a positive impact on the environment.

Here at Gaggia there are two types of coffee machine – manual and automatic – and all our 20-plus models are made in Italy so expect plenty of iconic style.

With manual you do it all yourself – grinding your coffee beans, loading your coffee into the filter holder (called a portafilter in Italy), levelling it off, pushing it down in a process called tamping and then frothing your milk.

Make sure you’ve enough coffee in your holder and it’s tamped down properly to make the most of the speed the hot water goes through it.

You have that control to do it just how you want and once you’ve mastered it then your machine will make that perfect cup of coffee every time.

The other way is to go automatic and it’s all done for you.

In short, think of an automatic coffee machine as having a tiny barista inside it. All you need to do is pop your coffee beans in the top. When you’re ready for a drink select what drink you want – it may be an expresso or an americano - push a button and the exact number of beans needed to make the drink go through the grinder and drop into the brewing unit.

In automatics the tamp is pressed up rather than down to make it firm and even and the hot water is also forced up through the coffee and then out into your cup.

When the hot water has gone through the coffee to make the drink the coffee ground left is known as a puck – small and round like an ice hockey puck - which drops into a holder. It takes around 10 pucks before it needs emptying.

Automatic machines will sort out the amount of water you need –  30ml to 90ml for a single expresso up to 240ml for an americano.

Coffee machines pump at between 9 to 15 bars of pressure and produce hot water at around 80°C to 90°C although you can change the temperature on some machines along with the coffee strength from 7 grams to 11 grams.

You can even put pre-ground coffee in too without having to lift the beans out – ideal for those wanting a spot of decaffeinated coffee.

The beauty of the Gaggia filter holders is that the vast majority are 58mm in diameter which means they fit any Gaggia machine stretching back to the 1940s. That dimension has never changed which makes the machines so universal and iconic.

Coffee capsules are convenient but they can be expensive. We do a couple of coffee capsules machines here at Gaggia but have found that people prefer to have more choice and control over the coffee they make.

Coffee capsules are also pricey and not good for the environment with the capsules being thrown into the waste bin and then landfill.

Prices vary but for a decent coffee pod you’re looking at around 30p to 35p a cup.
Our Gaggia coffee – ground just right for all our machines – is £15 for a kilogram and with between 7 and 11 grams needed per cup it works out around 12p to 15p a cup. That’s suddenly sounding like 1970s prices!

And, of course, you can dispose of your old coffee grounds right where they should be … on the ground in your garden helping to give your plants a boost and keeping slugs at bay.

Read more about that at https://www.gaggiadirect.com/blog/are-coffee-grounds-good-for-your-garden-and-compost

By our maths a cup of coffee made with one of our Gaggia automatic or manual machines will cost you half what a capsule would and if you have four cups a day that’s the best part of £450 you’ll be paying out yearly for capsules. Your ground coffee or coffee beans will come in at around half that.

What a win-win for you and the environment so go green by putting your coffee grinds on your garden, not a capsule in your bin.!

If you do want a capsule-style that’s not a capsule yet works in any Gaggia machine then we have Easy Serving Expresso pods – ESE for short – which pay a passing resemblance to those instant real coffee bags but these are small, round and slot perfectly into your coffee filter holder.

Gaggia coffee machines start at £179 for the basic manual up to £1,800 for the top-of-the-range automatic that’ll do anything you’d expect a coffee machine to do … and then a whole lot more. It has a digital display featuring 19 pre-set drinks and you can control everything on it, such as the water temperature and even the flow rate.

The £179 version makes life easier for beginners as the coffee filter holder has one hole rather than several to pressurise the flow more and get that nice creamy effect.

The automatic range starts at £299 with the digital display ones £425 and upwards.

It’s a small price to pay for thousands of cups of great coffee, especially when you get the great Gaggia warranty and our unique forever customer care.

Read more about that at https://www.gaggiadirect.com/blog/why-gaggia-uk-directs-forever-customer-care-service-is-the-best-in-the-coffee-business

So there you have it. A quick guide to buying the Gaggia coffee machine that suits you down to the ground.

For more advice phone us Monday to Friday on 01422 766972, email us at [email protected] or contact us instantly on Zoom at https://www.gaggiadirect.com/meet-us-live.html and we can show you the different machines in our showroom and what they do.