The dad who wants cafe coffee at home without learning barista technique and has someone with a milestone budget buying it, and not the hands-on tinkerer, who will find the automation patronising.
What it is
An automatic espresso machine with a built-in grinder using Baratza European Precision burrs across 30 grind settings, a 54mm stainless steel portafilter, and a touchscreen carrying 13 cafe presets plus custom drinks. Auto MilQ hands-free milk texturing covers dairy, soy, almond and oat from 40C to 75C across 8 texture levels, and the machine extracts cold brew in under 3 minutes. It measures 41.5 x 35 x 33.7cm and ships with the portafilter, a 480ml milk jug, 1-cup and 2-cup filter baskets, water filter holder, hardness strip, the Razor dosing tool, cleaning tablets, steam wand cleaner, cleaning disc, brush and descale powder.
Why we picked it
This is the top of the assisted-espresso category, and what the money buys is the removal of the two steps that defeat beginners: dosing and tamping. The machine grinds, doses and tamps itself, then the touchscreen walks him through 13 cafe presets, so a dad who has never pulled a shot in his life gets a drinkable coffee on day one instead of a fortnight of bitter failures. The Auto MilQ texturing with dedicated oat, almond and soy settings matters more than it sounds in a household where not everyone drinks dairy. At $1,999 this is a milestone gift though, a fiftieth or a retirement or a family group buy, not something you drop on a normal Father’s Day.
