Dualit Espress-auto 3-in-1 coffee machine review

There’s no denying that Dualit has an eye for style and the Espress-auto 3-in-1 coffee machine looks fantastic with its polished metal finish. We’d go so far as to say that this is one of the best looking machines we’ve tested.

Style-wise, this is one of the best espresso machines we’ve seen

It gets its 3-in-1 name from the fact that the machine can use Nespresso-compatible NX capsules sold by dualit, ESE pods or ground coffee. If you’re after flexibility this machine would appear to be perfect.

As it’s designed to work with a variety of different capsules, the controls are a little different to most espresso machines. There’s a button to dispense a single shot of espresso, a double shot (or two cups), and a free-pour button that pours until you hit the button again. Water goes in the 1.5L reservoir at the back, which you can fill in situ or remove using the handle to fill under tap.

To pour an espresso you need to wait for the machine to heat up, with an indicator light showing you when it’s at temperature. In the meantime you can use the cup warmer to heat your cups in preparation.

There’s plenty of room under the group handle, with 96mm for mugs. Our test mug fitted underneath with no problem.

We used ground coffee in the group handle, using the filter for two cups. We lightly tamped using the tamper end of the provided measuring spoon. We weren’t impressed with the first results, with the coffee pouring out incredibly slowly, producing little crema and having a bitter taste to it.

No matter how we adjusted the grind or tamped the coffee, we couldn’t get satisfying crema

We experimented with different grinds and levels of tamping pressure, but the best we could get was a thin crema on top. Taste and its best was acceptable, but lacked the richness we’d come to expect from our test coffee. We were also a little disappointed that the coffee temperature was just 50C, which is a little cool.

The slow pouring appears to the be the issue with this machine and examining the filter there’s actually only one small hole the coffee can come out of, which appeared to be restricting the flow.