Good Food says Gaggia Classic is the best manual expresso machine in 2025
 
Gaggia coffee machines have been very highly rated after being reviewed by three national magazines.

Good Food, Good Housekeeping and Tech Radar all love Gaggias.

Good Food rated the Gaggia Classic espresso machine as the Best Manual Expresso Machine in 2025, rating it 5 out of 5.

They say it’s easy to use with an efficient steam wand, a good tamper and coffee scoop and love its professional grade accessories and specifications.

The review adds: “Designed and made in Italy, the Gaggia Classic is pitched as a state-of-the-art coffee machine for the home – a statement we don’t disagree with.

“Much of this is due to the impressive functionality hidden behind its stainless steel body, such as the solenoid valve which is responsible for controlling water temperature inside the filter holder, but you can also feel it in the parts for manually making coffee.

“The chromed brass group and filter holder are the same size, weight and style of those used with professional commercial machines, designed to control the heat during brewing for optimal extraction.

“There’s space to store and warm five espresso cups on the top. Even with its state-of-the art style, this is still one easy-to-use machine.”

Tech Radar says the Gaggia Magenta Plus is the best bean-to-cup coffee machine in 2025 for budding baristas.

The magazine’s reviewers say it’s simple to use, drinks can be customised, it gives the user control over milk steaming and produces smooth coffee with a thick crema.

The review states: “The Gaggia Magenta Plus is an excellent bean-to-cup coffee machine for those who want more input into the finished drink. It’ll still take care of grinding fresh coffee beans and pouring coffee. This machine delivers four types of coffee in 30 seconds flat.

“We were impressed with the espresso’s robust crema and rich flavour on the test. We also liked that the drinks can be customised regarding strength, aroma, drink size and temperature.

“For milky drinks you’ll need to become familiar with the steam wand and master the correct technique for texturising milk but it’s not too tricky once you get the hang of it.
“This sleek black machine looks great on your counter and it’s more affordable than most bean-to-cup machines.”

Good Housekeeping also highly rates the Gaggia Magenta Plus, saying its review team rigorously reviews each coffee machine, measuring their performance against its detailed protocols so readers can shop with confidence.

They state: “We’ve been testing products at the Good Housekeeping Institute for 100 years so we know quality when we see it.”

The 2025 review of the Gaggia Magenta Plus adds: “With an innovative, professional-style steam wand this machine is a standout if you love milky coffees and want more control than most offer. It reaches a range of temperatures quickly and will help you whip up any style of drink in a jiffy.
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“It’s a thoughtfully designed machine that comes with clear instructions and an intuitive digital interface and controls. It’s compact, efficient and you can also adjust the settings to suit your taste.”

The new Gaggia Classic GT is here … and coffee experts and coffee lovers are raving about it.

This is the first time Gaggia has included two boilers in its domestic coffee machines, instantly putting it at the top of the prosumer pecking order.

The dual boiler – one is brass and the other stainless steel just for steam and hot water - means you can be making your coffee and frothing your milk or dispensing hot water at the same time with the latest PIDs to control your water temperature to within just 1°C … that’s literally fine-tuning it to the nth degree.

By the way, if you want to know what PID stands for on coffee machines it’s Proportional Integral Derivative (of course) which means the water temperature is constantly monitoring the small adjustments made to keep it at the set temperature. 

The Classic GT also has a fancy programmable digital display screen and even has its own dial to show the brew pressure. The stainless steel wand means you can let your latte art run riot.

This machine heats up really quickly to get you brew-ready in just five minutes, full steam power in seven and it takes just 20 seconds to heat 5oz of milk to 140°F.

It has automatic and manual pre-infusion and there is room on the warming plate for six expresso cups so, well, why not have a select coffee party to celebrate getting one.

The Classic GT even has a hot water dispenser for teas, herbal infusions or American coffees.

The machine has five toggle switches to control the main power, manual pre-infusion, brewing, hot water and steam and the style flows through even to the tamper which comes complete with a black wooden handle complete with the Gaggia logo. 

You can preset the volume dispensed for your expresso so once you’ve perfected it, set the dial and it’ll be exactly the same every time.

It also has a timer so the coffee machine will be all ready for you when you get up in the morning.

Here at Gaggia we can fully demonstrate the machine to you live if you contact us on Zoom at https://www.gaggiadirect.com/meet-us-live.html.

Alternatively, coffee bloggers have been giving the machine thorough test runs, showing you all the Classic’s amazing features.

A great British one is Coffee Kev which you can watch on  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQLgSfOxpjc&t=355s and he’s also written an incredibly in-depth review too at https://coffeeblog.co.uk/gaggia-classic-gt-dual-boiler-review

While from the USA we have Wholelattelove which you can watch at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eTlnWctCTA&t=10s or read at https://www.wholelattelove.com/products/gaggia-classic-gt

Wholelattelove says: “Despite being one of the easiest-to-use prosumers out there, the Gaggia GT delivers precision, power and features enough to satisfy even hardcore espresso enthusiasts.

“The Gaggia Classic GT offers a unique feature set with the brand’s legendary build quality and a price point that simply can’t be beat. The precise PID-regulated boilers, low-flow pre-infusion, and intuitive display make producing cafe-quality beverages on the GT easier than on just about any other prosumer out there.”

One customer, Mark W from Carlisle, who has already got his machine from Gaggia UK says: “This Gaggia GT machine is everything it claims to be and so much more. You can use this machine to consistently pull espresso after espresso that is rich, full bodied and perfectly extracted. The machine is easy and intuitive to use and easy to clean. The Gaggia GT provides coffee that would tax the abilities of many professional machines.”
So why brand it the Classic GT?

Well, the GT tag on cars is well-known with these vehicles having extra style and power … just like the Gaggia Classic GT. It even has a ‘go faster’ red stripe running along the bottom of the machine.

The GT marque originates from Italy and stands for gran turismo (grand touring) to bridge a sports car with a luxury one so it should have a big engine, a comfortable ride, a luxurious interior and elegant bodywork but be able to handle like a sports car when needed.

So you can see why the technology, design and performance on the new Gaggia Classic GT are all so outstanding, taking the art of coffee-making to the next level of luxury.
The new Gaggia Classic GT delivers exactly what it promises … performance with panache and all for £1,699.

If you want to upgrade your Gaggia Classic or any other model please email us for a quote at [email protected]

​For more information and to order from Gaggia UK go to https://www.gaggiadirect.com
Or simply call us direct on 01422 766972 or check out our virtual assistant.

This is what the Telegraph said about the Gaggia Magenta Plus being the Best Automatic Bean-To-Cup Coffee Machine, scoring it 9 out of 10 and praising its “consistently good quality results.”

“Adjustable ceramic grinders offer five settings from fine to coarse and allow you to modify the amount of coffee used in each brew. There’s also an option to use coffee grounds – useful if you’re out of beans.

“An LED touch screen offers a choice of four coffee styles - espresso, espresso lungo, coffee and Americano - with options to vary size, temperature and strength and it’s very simple to navigate. The base plate can be raised up and the dispenser can be lowered too so a wide range of cup sizes can easily be accommodated.

“The espresso created was smooth and rounded with an excellent crema.”

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.

Further to my blog about the new 2023 Gaggia Classic, please find a video review by 'The Home Barista'  - an accurate and useful explanation. Thank you Anthony.