Nivona Cube 4102 in the test: The fully automatic machine where you distribute yourself

The Nivona Cube is a fully automatic coffee machine that picked up a few tricks from the portafilter. The most important: you can see the ground coffee before brewing and distribute it yourself. In doing so, the Nivona Cube eliminates the exact weakness that classic fully automatic machines regularly struggle with. Nivona calls for 479 euros MSRP, though the machine costs around 430 euros in retail and about 500 francs in Switzerland. We tested it according to our KM protocol, including particle distribution, which we measured together with ZHAW in Zurich. The central question: Is a well-distributed puck enough to get truly good coffee from a fully automatic machine?

The Principle: Pull Out Basket, Distribute Coffee, Put Basket Back In

Instead of a permanently installed group head with a piston, the Cube has a removable brewing basket, which Nivona calls the Click Cup. Michel Indelicato, Vice Barista Master on our team, quickly settled on "basket," and we'll stick with that. You clamp this basket in the front of the grinder, and the machine recognizes it immediately, displaying only what you need at that moment: the grind amount. One press on the bean symbol, and the hardened steel conical burr gets going.

For 12 grams, the Cube grinds for eight seconds, which stays pleasant in daily use. The distribution in the basket is already pretty solid from the start, and that's exactly where you come in. A quick tap, a light shake, and the uneven landscape is gone. This move would be a quality leap in any other fully automatic machine, because there the piston presses on an uneven coffee bed, through which water then finds its way. That's exactly how channeling happens, and that's what leads to those hollow drinks that taste both bitter and sour at once. Here the Nivona Cube is more similar to a classic portafilter machine than any other fully automatic coffee machine.

Tamping happens automatically as soon as you press the basket into the brewing position. The stamp goes in deeper with less coffee than with more, the result is a cleanly compressed puck without holes. After brewing, you turn the basket once, the coffee cake comes out the top and can be knocked into a knock box. Then wipe it with a cloth, preferably a black one, because you won't see the coffee particles on it. The basket should not go in the dishwasher.

The Grinder Holds Back: Main Peak at 367 Micrometers

When we test a grinder for espresso, our target range is between 200 and 300 micrometers, and really good grinders can go below that. Above 300, the result gets so scattered that even distribution and even extraction barely succeed. The Cube has an X50 of 347.9 micrometers, the main peak is at 367 micrometers, the fine peak at 31.1. That's more of a coffee cream distribution than an espresso distribution.

We additionally tested the grinder on our reference espresso machine, using the same sieves and the same test procedure as with all other grinders. Even at the finest setting, we couldn't get into a range where a classic espresso with 25 seconds extraction time could be pulled. That's not just about the quality of the burr set, but simply because the grinder can't grind fine enough. Conversely: if you manually add finer ground coffee, you won't get anything out of the Cube. We tried this with various coffees.

The other grinder values are decent. At 76.5 decibels, the Cube stays below our 80-decibel threshold and is thus in the quiet range. The ground coffee comes out of the grinder at just under 28 degrees, which is also a good value. For dosing consistency, we measure a standard deviation of 0.47 grams over five portions, with outliers between 11.2 and 12.5 grams. That's middling, but carries little weight with this concept because you can see the amount in the basket anyway.

Retention: 13.6 Grams Is More Than an Entire Dose

The retention is the coffee that remains in the grinder after grinding. With the Cube, we measure 13.6 grams absolute, about 3 grams in the front area and the rest in the grinding tunnel. For context: one dose is 12 grams. So the residue is larger than what you actually brew, and that's a clear no-go.

In everyday use, this means: your first coffee in the morning is brewed with yesterday's ground coffee. Consequently, you have to throw this away if you want good coffee.

Cream Valve: Pressure Comes From the Valve, Not From the Grind Size

Like nearly all household fully automatic machines, the Cube works with a cream valve. The brewing chamber remains closed until a pressure of two to four bars is reached, depending on the machine, then the valve opens and the coffee shoots into the cup. The idea behind it: because the grind sizes in fully automatic grinders are usually too coarse, no pressure would build up otherwise. The valve creates it artificially and delivers the thick crema, which it owes its marketing name to.

Technically, this is nothing other than the principle of a double-walled filter basket, and that has consequences. You get crema even from old coffee, you can't see the flow and therefore can't calibrate the grind. The machine doesn't even ask you to. Without a cream valve, the espresso would simply rush into the cup at this grind size.

Temperature: Why We're Not Providing Absolute Values Here

For espresso machines, we clamp a Scace filter basket for temperature measurement, which simulates real brewing pressure. Such a measurement basket doesn't fit in the Cube. Michel instead attached a temperature probe directly under the shower, narrow enough that you could still brew. The only resistance in the system was the cream valve, which is simply not the same back-pressure we're used to.

Under these conditions, we measure around 85 degrees at the highest of three temperature settings. With real resistance, we'd probably have landed closer to 88 degrees. Since that remains an estimate, we deliberately forgo absolute values on this machine and a rating according to our temperature protocol. As guidance, it's sufficient anyway, because 85 to 88 degrees are on the lower end for a fully automatic machine.

This leads to a clear practical recommendation: use the hottest of the three brew temperatures for most coffees; only with very dark roasts can you step down one level. Sensorially we consistently had the best results with this. The thermoblock needs a brief moment to heat up before the first shot starts, by the way.

Pre-Brew: One Third Wet Doesn't Help

The Cube does a pre-brew before every shot, and you can't turn it off. We checked what it actually does by stopping the brew after pre-wetting and removing the basket. The result: not even a third of the coffee was wet.

The point of pre-wetting is to dampen all the coffee so it no longer repels water when the main flow comes, so everything extracts evenly. If only a third gets wet, that doesn't work. Almost all manufacturers do this anyway, but it's still wrong.

Espresso: 12 Grams In, Around 30 Grams Out, About 6% TDS

If you want to drink espresso with the Cube, you can, using this recipe: finest grind, highest grind amount, and smallest shot amount.

The TDS, the amount of dissolved solids relative to water, is around 6 percent. For comparison: filter coffee is 1.2 to 1.4 percent, a properly brewed coffee cream is between 1.5 and 2.5, and espresso starts at around 6 percent. By definition, that's an espresso.

Sensorially, it's basically solid and ranks among the better espressos we've had from a fully automatic machine. However, it reminds us a lot of an espresso from a DeLonghi Dedica with a double-walled basket and a weak grinder. The drink has ended up where an espresso is, but the limitations remain visible. They're called cream valve, temperature, and especially the grinder.

The Machine's Specialty Is the Strong Lungo

The Cube becomes interesting with anything longer than an espresso. The shot amounts are divided into four levels and range around 30, 50, 70, and 110 milliliters. We recommend the third level.

For this, the machine needs at least 30 seconds of brew time, which is considerable, but leads to a very good result. The fourth level at 110 milliliters is way too much and tastes over-extracted.

With the grind size at the third of five levels, the Constant profile, and the highest temperature, a drink comes into the cup that's more of a long espresso than a classic coffee cream: chocolate, sweetness, a strong body, and a nice bitterness that doesn't turn harsh. Above all, the coffee tastes clean, and that's because you have control of the brewing chamber and can keep it clean. For us, that's the best long coffee we've had from a fully automatic machine in a long time.

If you drink a large mug in the morning, make two brews back-to-back instead. So grind and brew twice, a total of 24 grams of coffee and around 140 milliliters in the cup. Then the pot tastes like something.

Brew Profiles: Constant Wins

Nivona calls the three brewing profiles the Aroma Balance System and provides pressure or flow curves on their website. We can't confirm those because we can't measure pressure without a measurement filter basket. We can judge brew time and sensorics.

Dynamics briefly reduces the flow after pre-brewing and then ramps up quickly again. At the espresso level, it became metallic and unpleasantly bitter, at least in combination with our Compadre.

Constant draws the pressure build-up more slowly and longer. Sensorially, that reminds you of a portafilter machine with a vibration pump and delivered the most balanced results across various coffees. That's our recommendation.

Intense stretches the extraction time easily by five to eight seconds. With a lungo, that makes little sense because we'd rather get longer extraction through a finer grind than through a heavily throttled pump. As a playground for lighter roasts, you can still experiment with it.

If you compare the profiles yourself, do two brews with the same grind size back-to-back, make sure everything is preheated and the retention is emptied. Otherwise, you're comparing different factors.

What Bothers You in Daily Use

There's no milk frothing system—you need to know that. The drip tray is the smallest we've ever seen, and the distance to the spout height is a good ten centimeters, which works for classic cups but not for large mugs. Beans keep getting stuck in the plastic mesh of the bean hopper.

With our test units, we also noticed that the group head is open at the bottom and the first brew wasn't cleanly sealed, with weird residual drops after the shot. Occasionally we had explosive brews. And after several shots in a row, the water in the tank was around 40 degrees. Finally, a small thing that helps in everyday use: wait a moment after the shot until the machine has released the pressure before you lift the lever and pull out the basket.

Who Should Buy the Cube?

If you drink exclusively espresso at home, we'd recommend something else in this price range. A DeLonghi Dedica for 150 to 200 euros, a single-walled basket, and a grinder like the DF54 for around 250 euros land at about 450 euros and deliver better espresso. Also a Gaggia Classic, at least used, or a Lelit Anita move in this range. By the way, such a separate setup barely takes more space than the Cube. Which design works for you, we've written about in our espresso machine buying guide.

Why we usually advise against portafilter machines with built-in grinders in this price range, we've written about separately, and the Cube shows the reason pretty clearly: the built-in grinder is the point where it gets stuck. If you buy a separate grinder, you can later replace and upgrade it individually without swapping the entire machine.

The Cube becomes interesting, however, in the mixed household where sometimes a short drink and sometimes a longer one is desired and nobody wants to deal with the innards of a classic fully automatic machine. If you want to drink an 80-milliliter cup that's really strong and tastes almost like an espresso, you're in the right place. Plus, there's a point you can't say loud enough: you have cleaning without any effort because the mess doesn't sit deep in the machine but in a basket that's clean with a cloth after brewing.

We see potential in this design and wish other manufacturers would adopt it. There are already alternative designs beyond the classic fully automatic, for instance with the Jura Ono. At the World of Coffee in Brussels, we saw Datum Coffee, an Austrian startup, implementing a similar idea with a 58-millimeter portafilter, different materials, and presumably a good grinder. We're curious.

Technical Data at a Glance

As always, we purchased this machine ourselves.