Week after week, we receive offers. Manufacturers and retailers write to us: Test our machine, we will pay you 10,000 euros, you get the device, we will involve you in our campaign. There have been offers of all kinds – a car hasn't been one yet, but pretty much everything else has.
Our answer is always the same: No.
We buy every machine ourselves
This is not a marketing claim. We buy our test devices, often at full price, sometimes at the B2B price that a dealer pays. But we pay. We insist on an invoice – and sometimes we have to ask three times before we finally receive it. Some manufacturers seem to have good intentions, but that is exactly what we do not want.
Anyone who seriously questions this is welcome to commission an independent trustee to check our test machines and the corresponding invoices. We are completely open about this.
Why we order directly from manufacturers
In the past, we bought machines anonymously from retailers. In doing so, we repeatedly ended up with devices with outdated firmware, leftover stock that had been in the warehouse for a long time. Not the best starting point for a fair test.
Today, we order directly from the manufacturer whenever possible. This ensures that we are testing the current model with the latest software. At the same time, we have a direct line if we have questions or notice any irregularities.
Do we get particularly well-adjusted devices as a result? No. The machines still come with offsets. Sometimes we would even wish that someone had taken another look at them.
What happens if we find a defect
If we find a defect during a test, we contact the manufacturer. In these cases, we order a second machine – we don't buy this one, it is provided to us and returned afterwards. We then check whether the defect is confirmed or whether it was an isolated case.
With modern machines with OTA updates, it also happens that the manufacturer fixes the error via a software update within a few days. We take this into account in the evaluation because it shows a quality of the machine. It can be updated. A static machine cannot do that.
We then publish the test. But it doesn't end there. We encounter many of the machines again later in our home barista courses. This allows us to see over time whether our test results correspond to reality. We will also redo some tests – not because the previous tests were bad, but because our test protocol has become stricter and some manufacturers have changed in their quality implementation.
How we finance ourselves – without selling the tests
Our business model clearly separates what we test from what we sell. We test espresso machines and espresso grinders. We sell coffee and accessories. We deliberately drew this line. We do not sell machines and grinders because we test them.
That wasn't always the case. We had a shop in Basel where we also sold machines. We included the machines that we had tested well in our shop – not the other way around. Nevertheless, we realized that the role of a neutral arbiter is not compatible with sales. So we stopped doing it.
For the same reason, we no longer provide consulting for individual machines. We cannot help a manufacturer with development and then evaluate the same device. That conflicts.
There are no paid collaborations with coffee companies in our videos. No sponsorship format for machine brands. We looked into it, and it doesn't fit with what we want to do. We are open to sponsorships outside the coffee world – sportswear, care products, the barber from Basel. But nothing that touches our independence regarding coffee equipment.
Our test protocol has a version number
We adhere to a documented test protocol, which we have explained in detail in a separate video. Recently, this protocol has had a version number, which is linked in every test report. This allows you to understand the status under which a machine was evaluated.
Nevertheless, we too are influenced by previous experiences and preferences. We have known some manufacturers for years, we have visited factories, we have eaten together. That is reality. This is precisely why we measure more and more precisely and look for objectifiable data. Our voice alone should not be enough – the numbers must support the evaluation.
Do not buy blindly based on our recommendation
We provide a lot: temperature stability, energy measurement, volume, extraction data. We want you to be able to take this data to a specialist shop and make your own decision. But form your own opinion. Come to our courses, go to a trade fair, try out machines at a specialist dealer. Gather your own experience and use our data as one of several foundations.
And if you want a machine to be tested: write it in the comments. The more often we hear a request, the faster the device lands in our test calendar. The list is long, and a test takes time. But we are listening.
If you want to support our work: buy our coffee or our accessories. The cleaning powder, for example. We use that to finance the tests – and remain independent.
