My Dad wants it quick, black and easy: The Delonghi Fully Automatic Option.

My dad doesn't want to mess around with something like Miss Silvia. Instead, he wants to be able to wake up in the morning an press a button on a fully automatic espresso machine.

He takes his coffee without milk, so the quality of the milk frothing isn't really an issue here. Want we want, then, is freshly ground, well brewed coffee, and we've found the machine to deliver.

We had a look at Saeco and Jura coffee machines- they all have their strengths (I hope to review them soon), but for Dad's price range, we couldn't go past the ESAM3400 fully automatic espresso machine.

Because Dad is a bare-bones coffee drinker, the bells and whistles of the top of the range products, like the ECAM23210B just aren't necessary. The base-model version we got Dad just grinds, brews and pours. It can make a cappuccino too, but Dad doesn't want it, and really, who wants automatically frothed milk?

By the way, if the folk at Delonghi are reading, notice that Rancilio gives their machines cute names, like "Miss Silvia". Just a thought...