The Philips Baristina is one of the best coffee makers I’ve ever used, and it’s half price at Amazon right now — who needs Prime Day? – Charm

The Philips Baristina is easily one of the best coffee makers I’ve used this year. It makes brewing coffee with fresh beans as easy as using pods, is a piece of cake to maintain, and right now it’s down to $225.99 at Amazon (was $449.99). It was already one of the cheapest bean-to-cup coffee makers at full price, and at half price it’s ridiculously good value. Why wait for Amazon Prime Day?

• Browse all early Amazon Prime Day deals

The Baristina combines the best features of automatic and manual coffee machines. It handles all the grinding, dosing, tamping and brewing for you, so you don’t need any barista skills to make perfect coffee, and because it doesn’t all happen inside an enclosed case, you don’t need to worry about tricky cleaning. It’s so effortless, I gave it a full five stars in my full Philips Baristina review.

If you’re not in the US, scroll down to the bottom of this article for today’s best deals on the Philips Baristina where you are.

Using the Baristina couldn’t be easier; just load your beans into the hopper on top, fill the water tank, then push the portafilter handle into its slot and slide it to the right. Hit the brew button and the Baristina will grind the perfect quantity of coffee into the filter basket, tamp it down, and then slide the handle to the right and dispense the coffee right into your cup.

When it’s done, the handle will release so you can pull it free and knock out the coffee grounds. Then just sit back and enjoy your espresso.

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Philips Baristina espresso machine — (Image credit: Future)

The Baristina looks fantastic too, with a sleek, minimalist design that doesn’t try to copy the look of a traditional coffee maker, but will look perfectly at home in a modern kitchen. Note that this deal applies to the black colorway; the white version is on offer as well, but the discount isn’t quite so generous.

The only downside is that you can’t adjust the grind size, so you’ll have to choose beans that work with the machine’s default settings. I got lucky first time, but if your coffee tastes under- or over-extracted then you’ll need to try a different bean.

Otherwise, this little espresso machine is hard to fault, and I’ve been raving about it ever since I tested it back in February. I just can’t get enough of the way the filter basket moves itself ready to begin brewing.