Gaggia Anima Prestige review

Chocolatey shots with even crema at stronger settings, thin ones at the defaults4.3/10

The espresso divides opinion more sharply than anything else on this machine. Home Coffee Expert, with the strength turned up, got "full-bodied, aromatic espresso with excellent crema"1, and Coffeeness reports an even crema and chocolate notes. Cicada Coffee Bar tasted the opposite and says flatly that it makes "bland, watery espresso"2.

The settings explain part of the gap. The factory defaults run weak and the lowest strength settings are of little use, so raise the dose before you judge it. Homegrounds liked the range of dose options for exactly that reason and found the shots sweet and balanced, though short of what a skilled barista would pull.

The caveat is water in the cup. TechGearLab found the machine tends to drip some into the shot at the end of the pour, and Best Star saw a little arrive at the start. TechGearLab's placing is a fair middle: stronger than any pod machine, short of the richest automatics it tested.

One-touch froth from a carafe that shares its outlet with the hot water tap5.0/10

The carafe froths at a button press, and how good the result is depends on the drink you wanted. Home Coffee Expert calls the foam "not far off the professional barista level"3. TechGearLab liked it on a cappuccino but found it "far from the rich microfoam we were hoping for"4, and could not get the creamy steamed milk a good latte needs.

Cicada Coffee Bar, hard on the machine elsewhere, had no complaint about the texture and found it thin and silky enough for a latte. Homegrounds found the latte macchiato noticeably creamier than the cappuccino, which was frothy but lacked a smooth steamed layer.

There is little to adjust, so the foam you get is the foam you keep. The carafe and the hot water tap use the same connection, which means only one can be fitted at a time. The frother also spurts a little water before the froth arrives, and the carafe takes a firm push to seat.

Tactile buttons and a clear display, with a stingy grind range and a fussy bypass chute4.2/10

Day-to-day operation is the easy part. A large display and clearly labeled buttons make the machine simple to run5, and TechGearLab gave it top marks for ease of use and clocked it among the fastest in its timed cappuccino test. Homegrounds liked having soft, physical buttons in place of the usual touchscreen.

Changing things is harder than ordering a drink. Coffeeness found adjustments less simple than on most automatics, and TechGearLab describes one procedure as "a full 30 minutes of tinkering and head-scratching"6. The grinder offers few steps, which Homegrounds found limiting.

The rest is small friction that adds up. Filling the bean hopper leaves one hand free and beans spill easily; the bypass chute for ground coffee has a small opening and, in Weight Loss Trust's kitchen, did not brew at all. The 1.8 L tank is shallow and wide, so it is awkward to carry when full. There is also a short pause between coffee and milk that grows tedious over a run of milky drinks.

A brew group that lifts out, and rubber milk tubes that turn sour5.0/10

The brew group comes out, and that is the best thing about looking after this machine. Homegrounds prefers it to sealed designs because it "saves time and money"7, and Home Coffee Expert calls deep cleaning a breeze. Put it back with care: seat it slightly wrong and the machine will jam. Coffeeness also found it less easy to pull out than it would have liked.

The milk side is where the work is. The frothing parts go in the dishwasher, though the milk tank is washed by hand8, and a jet of steam clears the system at a button press. That is not the whole job. Cicada Coffee Bar calls the rubber milk tubes "a nightmare to keep clean"9, and says they start to smell of sour milk and need replacing every few weeks.

Elsewhere upkeep is light. Spent grounds come out tightly packed and leave little mess, and the machine does not insist on a rinse after every drink. Set the water hardness correctly and descaling is rare, though TechGearLab would not call the descale itself easy.

Sturdy-feeling plastic, with a door-sensor failure and defect reports on record3.0/10

Build and reliability is the clear weakness. Cicada Coffee Bar lists a set of irritating design choices and then points to what other buyers have reported.

“The Gaggia Anima Prestige has some annoying design flaws and an alarming number of defective product reports online.”

Best Star's machine is one such case. It kept reporting an open door and then stopped working10, a fault he traces to a sensor and says other buyers have described too. Weight Loss Trust saw a stream of coffee run down the front of the machine during a shot, though that unit is still making a daily espresso.

In the hand it feels better than that record suggests. The body is mostly plastic, yet Home Coffee Expert found it sturdy, and Coffeeness noted more stainless steel than expected. Homegrounds would still trade the plastic back and sides for something built to last longer, and the bean hopper lid does not seal airtight.

A grinder and a milk carafe at $549, and a better deal elsewhere if you skip the milk6.4/10

Value depends on how much you want milk at a button. At $549 the Anima Prestige packs a grinder, a brewer and an automatic carafe into one narrow body, and Homegrounds, Home Coffee Expert and Coffeeness all call that a reasonable trade. TechGearLab draws the line clearly: good value if you prize the convenience, and a worse one if you are happy to steam milk yourself or drink espresso straight11.

Homegrounds makes the same point from inside the range, sending anyone who rarely makes milk drinks to the plainer Anima models. Beans also cost less over time than capsules, which helps the sums against a pod machine.

The case against is about flaws, not money. Cicada Coffee Bar does not see it as a good buy "no matter how cheap you manage to get it for"12, and Best Star would not buy it again. The box also leaves out degreasing tablets, descaler and a water filter, so add those to the bill.

Our verdict

Buy the Anima Prestige if you want milk drinks at one press, plain buttons and a brew group you can clean yourself, and you accept an uneven reliability record. Skip it if straight espresso is the point, or if you would sooner steam milk by hand and save the money on a simpler Anima. Turn the strength up from the factory setting on day one. Keep the receipt, and order the tablets, descaler and filter that are not in the box.