What your coffee maker says about you

Janne Iivonen

Britain has become a nation of coffee lovers. From an unshakeable morning ritual to a mid-morning pick-me-up or even a late-night hit (decaf is also on the rise), we’re downing more cups than ever.

According to the British Coffee Association, Britons now drink 98 million cups a day, a significant jump from 70 million in 2008. And while surveys vary, it seems that, in 2023, coffee overtook tea as the nation’s favourite caffeinated drink.

Despite rising prices, Britons are consuming more coffee on the go than ever, yet our home brewing is also becoming increasingly complex. Philips says the coffee machine market has grown 31 per cent over the past year, while John Lewis reports a 235 per cent year-on-year rise in sales of Sage’s the Barista Express coffee machine – which has a £729 price tag.

Instant coffee once ruled. It was then superseded by the cafetière, before the Nespresso machine had a significant spell in the limelight. There is now a staggering array of devices, enough to make a Starbucks barista groan with confusion, from high-tech machines to simple manual devices designed to create the best cup. Like your choice of clothes, pub or supermarket, how you make your coffee says a surprising amount about you.

The full barista experience coffee machine

Coffee Espresso

You’ve developed an unhealthy flat white obsession, spaffing £5 every morning on a comically undersized cardboard cup with an annoying logo at the local coffee shop. Now you’re in debt, and the only solution is to recreate that satisfyingly velvety brew at home.

It might well take a year of making coffee every day for your £1,000 machine to pay dividends, so you’d better get brewing. Luckily, you can now pass yourself off as a mustachioed, mulleted Australian whose latte art is as necessary as an espresso before bedtime. Macchiato? Check. Latte? Check. Perfectly frothy cappuccino? Check. You can even spend 10 minutes making the most painstakingly involved espresso (those who don’t know how should search “espresso workflow” on social media).

You are not alone: #HomeCafe is trending on TikTok, there has been a huge rise in sales of Trewithen’s “barista milk”, and, according to Pinterest analysis on behalf of the homebuilder Redrow, there was a 433 per cent rise in searches for “coffee station at home” in 2025. Your cafetière has been consigned to the scrapheap, and your Nespresso machine is gathering dust. Once you go flat, you never go back.

AeroPress

Coffee Aeropress

A relatively recent invention, the AeroPress is indelibly linked with the coffee hipster. This simple device, they will tell you, is the simplest, quickest, most affordable way to make the perfect cup of coffee.

That’s all well and good, but the amount they’re spending on single-estate, light-roast, tastes-like-lemon-juice beans shipped across the Atlantic by sailboat quickly negates any savings. The AeroPress user is a serious coffee drinker, one who worries about water ratios and calcium content. If only they kept quiet about it...

The AeroPress is highly portable, so if you’re unlucky, you might have a devotee next to you in the office, the coffee at which they wouldn’t be seen dead drinking.

V60

Coffee V60

A close relative of the AeroPress nut, the V60 fan loves a cheap, manual device, one that takes up minimal space in the drawer yet brews a mean, clean cup of black coffee. But they’re a little more classy about it. They have a rare vinyl collection, read Camus and smoke rollies. Though the V60 is easy to use, its user is still meticulous. Each morning they dutifully precondition the filter (a reusable cloth one), fill it with beans ground to just the perfect size (medium-fine) and twirl the water (just off boiling point) for exactly the right number of seconds.

There is a subset: the relapsed V60 devotee. Long gone are the days of following packet instructions. The coffee is a last-minute bag of Lavazza from the corner shop, the boiling water scalds the coffee, the all-important swirl a distant memory; coffee is just a mechanism for waking up. Half an hour later, the Nespresso pod is whacked in for another pick-me-up.

Stovetop / Moka pot / Bialetti

Coffee Bialetti

Whether it’s deployed by an insufferable hipster, the owner of a wholesome rural retreat or a geriatric Italian, this enduringly popular favourite is the epitome of style – at least, its owners think it is. It’s the Versace of the coffee world, a rare coffee-making contraption to have graced the Museum of Modern Art in New York. If the morning coffee is an important ritual for many, nothing could be more ritualistic than the stovetop pot. The clank of aluminium, the firing up of the stove, the pleasing bubbling of the Bialetti reaching its frothy crescendo. And, at least 10 per cent of the time, its sidetracked user returns to burnt coffee overflowing from its canister.

Sure, a modern coffee machine makes a better espresso, but the stovetop aficionado likes their coffee tasting of rocket fuel (it’s the unfiltered cigarette of the coffee world) and wouldn’t own anything so crass as a pod machine. The Bialetti sits beside the volcanic orange Le Creuset casserole and the Peugeot salt and pepper grinders on the counter. It oozes class, but, by God, do they want you to know it.

Cafetière

Coffee Cafetiere

Many hanker for the halcyon days when a cafetière was the height of sophistication. The French press, as Americans and insufferable snobs call it, is as easy as it gets. Ground coffee in. Boiling water in. Wait. Plunge. The trouble is, as everyone tells you – though you never asked – it doesn’t make the best-quality coffee. Those pesky grounds might find their way into your mug, yet they refuse to leave the filter afterwards without a fight. The cafetière is certainly not easy to clean. But who cares? It’s simple, it’s versatile. One for grandmas and teahouses, the cafetière is ripe for a semi-ironic Gen Z rediscovery.

Instant

Coffee instant

The terrible coffee that refuses to die. According to the British Coffee Association, 80 per cent of British households still buy instant, and, while it’s particularly popular with those over 65, it’s not surprising this foul-tasting brew endures. It requires minimal effort and, as we all know, people love anything that requires minimal effort. It’s the coffee equivalent of an Iceland ready meal. It’s instant noodles. It’s Homer Simpson resting a beer on his paunch. Its drinkers are stuck in the Eighties, or don’t actually like coffee.

Nespresso machines

Coffe pods

There was a moment in history when George Clooney’s swarthy face was everywhere, and everyone lapped up the Nespresso machine. Pod lovers still dominate, with about one in five Britons who have a coffee machine opting for a variant, according to Helena Hills, co-founder of TrueStart Coffee. But who are pods really for? They’re not cheap, and they certainly don’t taste good. They supposedly save time, which is why they’re popular with students and rushed parents, an ever-present in private hospital waiting rooms, but anyone who has encountered an unfamiliar model in a holiday rental will be aware of the potential faff. One step up from instant, its predictability and ease have won over its owners.

Aromaboy

Coffee aroma

Although a 1970s European invention, this electric filter machine is designed to keep the coffee warm after brewing, much as you’d find in American restaurants, where free refills are common. Whoever owns one is probably cosplaying as the owner of a diner on Route 66.

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