Café Affetto Automatic Espresso Machine review: The best option for beginners, but it won't impress the pros

When you buy through our links, Business Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

When making espresso at home, choosing the best espresso machine can be tricky, and serious espresso drinkers have a reputation for being particular. Many professional machines require other special equipment like espresso grinders and tampers to use properly. Easier-to-use automatic espresso machines don't often brew shots to satisfy experienced espresso drinkers — the ones that do can cost thousands of dollars, like our favorite, the Jura Z10. 

Balancing ease of use, cost, and quality of espresso is challenging, but we like GE's Café Affetto as a straightforward choice for under $600. With its built-in grinder and simplified brewing system, the Café Affetto provides an easy shot of espresso packed with flavor. We noticed some inconsistency in brewing and wish there were more manual controls, but we still recommend this machine for beginners. 

Design

The Café Affetto has a sleek, modern design that sets it apart from most classic-style espresso machines. The machine is available in white, black, or gray colorways, and each design has copper accents on both the brew head and the bottom of the drip tray.

All of the Affetto parts fit together snugly, and the machine feels sturdy and well-designed. The copper coffee spout is adjustable so that different sizes of the best espresso cups or mugs can fit beneath it. The machine is a little over a foot tall, similar to most coffee makers, but it has a length of 20 inches. Be sure to measure the depth of your counter before purchasing. 

Grinder and steam wand

The Café Affetto also has a built-in conical burr grinder with five different settings for coarseness. Brewing espresso usually requires one of the best coffee grinders, which can be expensive, so having a built-in grinder is a major bonus. 

If you want to make cappuccinos or lattes, you can get the Café Affetto with a built-in steam wand and milk pitcher for frothing milk. In our tests, the steam wand worked well for frothing milk but was limited in its range of motion. It moves only about 45 degrees from its vertical position which makes steaming the milk a bit awkward. On the plus side, the steam wand is removable for easy cleaning.

Brewing espresso

Brewing with the Café Affetto couldn't be easier. First, make sure the water tank and the bean hopper on the grinder are both full. Place your chosen glass or mug under the copper spout and then, using the touch menu, select between espresso, Americano, or "My Cup" to decide what type of drink you'd like the machine to brew. 

Once you push the button, the machine first rinses both the brew head and the steam wand. Then, it grinds the beans and automatically doses and tamps the grounds. The coffee then comes out of the copper spout directly into your cup without any input from the user. For espresso hobbyists, this is probably a negative, but it's a major plus for casual and busy espresso drinkers.

Cleaning

The exterior surfaces all wipe down easily with a damp towel, and the drip tray is removable for easy rinsing. Spent coffee grounds are stored in a plastic catch inside of the machine that you'll remove to dump out the grounds. The machine also gives notice on the control panel when the catch is full of spent grounds. 

There are some hard-to-reach areas inside the machine where coffee grounds can build up. To ensure your Café Affetto is properly cleaned, make sure to regularly get under the hood and wipe up any coffee residue or grounds that have accumulated inside the machine.

Cons to consider

Although the machine is very easy to use and performs as advertised, the ease of use means there aren't any manual controls. Brewing top-notch coffee with any method, using the best coffee maker or the best French press, is all about controlling the brewing variables — this machine gives the user very little control over the brewing process. The "My Cup" setting allows for some customization by connecting the Café Affetto to the local WiFi network and then, through a proprietary mobile phone app, adjusting the brew settings. In our testing, we found this process to be awkward and overly complicated.

Another issue we ran into was inconsistency. Sometimes shots of espresso would be watery and under-extracted. Without changing any of the settings, the next shot pulled would come out perfect. Without direct control of many of the variables, it's hard to know for sure what caused the differences between shots.

What are your alternatives?

If you're looking for something between the Cafe Affetto and a manual machine, the Breville Express Impress is a good place to start. It's a semi-automatic espresso machine that has 25 grind settings and a ThermoCoil heating system. You can pull a nearly perfect shot one-handed. Read more in our full Breville Express Impress review.

Of course, the quickest and easiest option is a pod machine, like the Nespresso CitiZ Original Espresso Machine. Original Nespresso machines use 19 bars of pressure to get the closest to espresso that a pod machine can. Find the rest of the best Nespresso machines in our guide.

The bottom line

The Café Affetto works as advertised — the built-in grinder and straightforward controls make brewing espresso as easy as pushing a button. Unfortunately, that ease of use comes with a bit of a trade-off. The machine doesn't allow for a lot of customization, and the brewed coffee can be inconsistent. If easy, straightforward brewing is what you want, this machine delivers, but other similarly-priced machines on the market have the ability to brew much better shots of espresso.