Saeco Intelia Deluxe vs Lavazza Blue Espresso Machine (Comparison & Review)

How well do you think a $50 espresso machine compares to a $1,500 machine? Well that is the question we set off to answer. We thought $1,500 seemed a bit expensive for an office espresso machine so we put it head-to-head against the Lavazza Blue. Why the Blue? The Slickdeals community voted it to be the #1 espresso machine deal of the year when it was on sale for $50. No, this is not the cheapest espresso machine of all time, it is just the best deal (according to a community of 13 million deal experts).

Espresso Machines featured:

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0:00 Introduction
0:37 Why These Machines?
0:52 Design & Features
2:11 Testing the Machines
3:28 Taste Test
4:17 Speed and Temperature Test
5:36 Final Thoughts

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[emotionz]

Need to compare identical beans and roast. Not sure if intelligentsia discloses and makes available what they put in their pods, but worst case just open a pod and manually feed the grounds into the Saeco.

[RonaldWoan]

You can adjust grind and water temperature on the Intelia Deluxe...

[stealthis]

I love the way they interact with each other. They are perfect for this.

[qijq]

The Saeco makes milk-based drinks too, so it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. Having said that...

I have the Lavazza blue mini, and it is an engineering marvel. It really does produce a cafe-quality espresso. I was a barista in an espresso bar thirty years ago so I know what a PITA getting an excellent espresso is. I've bought several good espresso machines in my lifetime for home use and just stopped using them because the process is so complicated and so messy that getting that great shot was never worth the effort. The Lavazza machine is the first home espresso machine I enjoy using. It's simple, it produces fantastic espresso, cleanup is a breeze, and it's inexpensive. It's easily worth three times the going price.