Take your hand-crafted coffee to the next level I tested Merakis prosumer espresso machine and its smart features helped me pour manual barista-quality coffees time and again

Date:
Sat, 30 May 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Description:
While testing Merakis latest espresso machine, I was genuinely blown away by how its clever features supported me to make better coffee manually.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2: two-minute review The Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2
is a manual coffee machine that sits more at the prosumer end of the market. Its whole raison d'tre is around helping you make barista-quality coffee by hand and, it achieves this thanks to the assistance of some smart features that help streamline the process, while leaving control fully in your hands.

As a complete package, the Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2 is an undeniably polished product. It has a silhouette just sleek enough to fulfil its
prosumer aspirations and its tiltable touchscreen is super easy to use. It also comes with almost every accessory you could want and each is engineered to such a high standard that theyre a real pleasure to use, especially the hefty tamper and coffee distributor. Beneath the hood, it has hardware as impressive as any of the best coffee makers weve tested. Its rotary pump maintains pressure better than the vibration pump many mass market machines rock, while its dual boilers ensure the steam wand wont start to sputter out part way through foaming your milk. Latest Videos From

Its the Merakis smart features that really set it apart from other machines though rather than automating every part of your coffee making routine, it augments them. For example, its built-in scale allows you to grind coffee to
a specific weight every time, while a second scale lets you brew your coffee by weight, making it far easier to dial in a very specific grind to
extraction ratio. Meanwhile, an integrated temperature sensor in the steam wand means you can set it to cut out when your milk hits your target heat, which is easier than relying on temperature alone.

So whats it like in use? Honestly, pretty slick. Dialing in your perfect
grind and dose feels far more granular than usual, thanks to the integrated scales. Those solidly built accessories make transferring, evening out and tamping your coffee far easier, then you can easily set to extract a
ristretto or long black depending on your preference. Frothing milk is rarely my favorite part of making a coffee, yet that temperature sensor allowed me
to concentrate more on honing my technique. (Image credit: Future) As a result, the whole manual process felt as rewarding as ever, while producing delicious and exceedingly consistent coffee. I was able to extract just the right flavor profile out of even cheaper beans over and over, while the one brew I produced with a more premium batch really let its exquisite mango tasting notes shine through. Despite the fact Im not a major fan of milk in coffee, even the macchiato I whipped up using its steaming wand tasted great, with just the right amount of foam to add texture without overpowering the flavor of the coffee.

Really my only substantial criticism of the Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2 is its cost. Coming in at $1,799 / 1,599 / AU$2,799, it resides firmly at the premium end of the market and I imagine there will be quite a few people who balk at the idea of dropping that much on a manual coffee maker. However,
cost is not the same as value: the experience of using this machine and the quality results youll get out of it totally warrant that price for those that can stretch to it. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox
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us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. (Image credit: Future) Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2 review: price & availability Available now List price of $1,799 / 1,599 / AU$2,799 Available in white and black colorways Having first been available for pre-order in March 2026, the Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2 is available now. It comes in two colorways: black or white. And barring a knock box, it comes with pretty much every accessory you could need, whether thats a tamper, coffee distributor, cleaning brush, or blind portafilter basket for backflushing.

Youll pay a premium for this premium device though. At a list price of $1,799 / 1,599 / AU$2,799, this is an undeniably prosumer device that comes in at
the top price range of the best bean-to-cup makers weve featured. While its not quite as spendy as something like the $2,799.95 / 1,915 (around AU$3,865) Breville Oracle Touch (known under the brand name Sage in the UK) or the
2,199 (around $2,970 / AU$4,100) Siemens EQ900 Plus , its an expensive
machine and doesnt come with as many automated features as some machines. Id argue its well worth the price youll pay but such a premium manual machine wont be for everyone. (Image credit: Future) Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2 review: specs Swipe to scroll horizontally

Category

Specification

Type

Manual espresso machine

Dimensions

14.57 x 14.57 x 16.34 inches / 370 x 370 x 415mm

Weight

32 lbs / 14.5kg

Water tank capacity

2.1 quarts / 2 liters

Steam wand

360-degree articulating with temperature sensor

Max pressure

9 bar extraction (Image credit: Future) Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2 review: design Attractive, suitably professional-looking design Well-made accessories CoffeeSense only useful for Meraki beans Ill be upfront here: I flat out love the way the Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2 looks. At 14.57 x 14.57 x 16.34 inches / 370 x 370 x 415mm, its hardly the sveltest machine Ive ever tested. But the fact its water tank, bean hopper and boilers are all separate towers prevents it from looking too hulking on my countertop, while the combo of its chrome fixtures and pivotable touch screen give it just enough flair to stand out from your average coffee machine.

But its not just the Merakis aesthetics that are finished to a high standard. All the accessories packaged with it feel seriously premium, and there werent any glaring omissions. Everything has a reassuring solidity to it: the portafilter has a wonderfully tactile wooden handle, while the solid metal of both the coffee distributor and tamp has sufficient heft to give you real confidence when producing the perfect puck of grounds. Extra little touches like the wooden box for storing the accessories on just add that final polish to the experience.

Dont be fooled by this focus on looks though. Underneath the Merakis sleek exterior beats the ferocious industrial heart of a prosumer espresso machine. Discrete boilers for the brew system and steam wand should mean that you dont have to worry about the wands pressure giving out part way through steaming, while its rotary pump maintains nine bars of pressure more consistently than the vibration pump used by many home machines. (Image credit: Future) The Meraki also has a decent amount of capacity. The water tank itself has a volume of 2.1qt / 2,000ml, which Id say is pretty average for a coffee maker youll get plenty of brews out of that, even if its not as colossal as something like the huge 2.6qt / 2.5L Breville Oracle Touch. Meanwhile, the Merakis bean hopper measures 2.36 inches high by 4.06 inches diameter / 60 x 103mm. Generally I found that was sufficient to fuel around four double espressos but, naturally, your mileage will vary depending on how you like to dose your grounds.

One of the things I love about the Meraki is that it sits firmly in the camp of a manual espresso machine theres no bean-to-cup function here but it comes crammed with features to make you better at pulling shots and foaming milks.

Perhaps the most explicitly smart function is its CoffeeSense feature. This allows you to scan a tag on compatible Meraki coffee bags and it will suggest the recommended grind size, dosing weight and extraction temperature for
those beans to help you get the best result out of those beans. I can definitely see how that would be a neat feature for someone whos happy to stick with one brand of beans but part of the joy of coffee for me is trying different varieties and growers, so Im not sure Id get as much use out of
this as some. (Image credit: Future) But it also offers other ways to make dialing in your perfect brew easier. Built-in scales beneath both the grinder and grouphead allow you to grind your beans and express your coffee by
weight, giving you really precise control over each. Meanwhile, Auto mode calculates the right brew weight based on how much coffee youve ground,
making it easy to manually fix yourself a coffee without needing too much trial and error balancing brew time and grind. These are fantastic as a
guide, allowing you to really build confidence before you start improvising like a true manual maestro.

Another impressive element of the Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2s design is
its steam wand. It has a cool-touch design although the head still gets hot so careful not to brush against it and its super flexible, making it easy to get it at a perfect angle for frothing your milk. More innovatively, it has a built-in temperature sensor that allows you to stop steaming milk at the perfect temperature, rather than having to rely on touch alone.

None of these features are forced on you and theyre suitably light touch that its really easy to start trusting your own instincts once youre ready. But
Ive never used an espresso machine thats helped guide me so well between amateur and prosumer coffee making before its just the right amount of support without making you dependent on its help. Design score: 4.5 / 5
(Image credit: Future) Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2 review: performance
Great automated features that dont take away your control Steams milk with constant pressure and to your chosen temperature Produces wonderfully well-extracted, consistent coffee So how easy is it to make coffee using the Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2? Well, honestly, at first I found it a little unpredictable. Tiny variations in tamping pressure seemed to produce wildly different results the first brew ran through the puck incontinently despite the fine grind Id used, while the second over-extracted to such an extreme it made my mouth pucker like Id licked an ibuprofen. Then I realized my mistake.

Turns out Id slightly underestimated the Merakis grinder as its calibrated for espresso, my default instinct to whack the grinder on one of the lowest settings was producing a silt that easily channeled or clogged the
portafilter basket depending on how firmly it was tamped. After a bit of experimentation, I was able to dial in on my perfect results though, settling on a grind of 10.

Fortunately, the Merakis grinder perfectly suits this kind of tinkering. Not only do you have very granular control over the fineness of your grind, but the fact that you can dose using the built-in scale beneath the grinder makes tweaking the exact quantity of coffee you want super-repeatable. In automatic mode, I could simply dial in 18g for a double shot and it would stop grinding once it hit my desired dose, or I could go off-piste and simply grind it up manually using my best judgement. (Image credit: Future) Preparing the puck always felt like a breeze all I had to do was place the portafilter on top
of the dosing cup, flip it and then give it a few taps to transfer my
grounds. A few twists of the coffee distributor and the grounds would be nicely distributed, meaning all I had to do was tamp it down with that wonderfully sturdy tamper. Each tool is so well put together that its a
really satisfying process and it feels easy to get professional results.

And with that, I was ready to go or at least once the water was heated up. While the two minutes and 10 seconds it took the dual boiler to heat up the first time is slower than some consumer coffee machines, its actually pretty fast compared to many prosumer units, which can sometimes take upwards of 15 minutes. Additionally, another neat feature of the Meraki is your ability to set the boiler to come on at a specific time of day, meaning it can be all warmed up and ready to go for your first coffee of the day.

Once Id actually properly calibrated my grind and dosing, extracting properly was a breeze. In Automatic mode, I simply had to set the weight of my drink for example, 36g for an espresso and set it to run, whereas in Manual mode I could simply run it until I was happy with the quantity. Thanks to that
rotary pump, it produced a steady stream of espresso, neither hemorrhaging coffee too fast nor letting it dribble out in fits and starts. Its also
pretty quiet, hitting just 65dB and making more of a whir than the juddering noise Im used to from vibration-pumped machines. (Image credit: Future) Steaming milk has never really been my forte. As a black coffee drinker, Ive never had much need to develop the knack. But the Meraki also makes this a
lot easier. Not only does its dual boiler mean that it maintained constant pressure throughout steaming but, thanks to its built-in thermostat, the
steam wand clicked off when my milk had reached my target temperature,
meaning I could just focus on creating the right level of foam and getting it swirling. Not only did this help me whip up a passable macchiato but, when Id gained a bit more confidence, I was able to make a decent manual latte using touch alone.

So what were the results like? Pretty sensational. Even trying with some relatively affordable decaf beans, the coffee the Meraki produced had a stable, beautifully caramel crema, just the right velvety texture and not straying too far into bitterness or acidity. Each shot I poured remained consistent, showing how easy it is to keep getting these great results. And when I tested it out with a premium bag of Dahwe beans from Ritual Coffee Roasters, the results genuinely blew me away: the flavor was flat out gorgeous, maintaining a pitch perfect balance of not being aggressively
floral but confidently communicating its mango overtones. (Image credit: Future) Ill admit that I much prefer making coffee than scrubbing up the mess Ive made but cleaning up here is pretty straightforward. Everyday use really only requires you to purge the steam wand, then give it, the portafilter and the grouphead a wipedown with a damp cloth. Even doing the deep clean at the end of my review wasnt particularly arduous. Cleaning the steam wand involves running it for bursts of 10 seconds multiple times while submerged in cold water. Making sure the machines innards stay squeaky clean is even easier just pop in the blind portafilter basket, pop it in the machine and then select the cleaning option and a tutorial will walk you through the rest.

Theres always something deeply satisfying about making coffee yourself and thats why Ive always been a big fan of manual machines. But what I like most about the Meraki Espresso Machine is that it makes it much easier to take
your hand-crafted coffee to the next level. Automated features dont remove your agency they instead support it, allowing you to freestyle more and more as your skills grow. And the end result is wonderfully extracted and thoroughly consistent coffee. So ultimately, if you like getting hands on
with your coffee and moneys not an object, youre going to get great results out of the Meraki. Performance score: 5 / 5 (Image credit: Future) Should I buy the Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2? Swipe to scroll horizontally Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2 score card

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

This is undeniably a premium espresso machine. But given its quality and the consistent results it achieves, Id argue its worth every cent.

4.5/5

Design

Sleekly designed with really well engineered accessories. Dual boiler and rotary pump help maintain consistent temperature and pressure. Smart features really streamline your coffee-making without taking you out of the driving seat. However, the CoffeeSense feature only works with Meraki beans.

4.5/5

Performance

Warms up quickly, easy to dial in your perfect quantity of grounds and coffee size, temperature sensor in steam wand makes steaming milk easier, produces excellently well-extracted coffee that tastes consistent time after time,
easy enough to clean.

5/5 Buy it if You love consistent espresso and well-foamed milk Thanks to its rotary pump and dual-boiler, the Meraki maintains both temperature and pressure incredibly well, allowing you to pull consistently great shots every time. You want clever features for streamlining your manual coffee making
With smart functionality like grinding and brewing by weight, and its steam wands built-in temperature sensor, the Meraki makes your coffee making workflow easier without taking away your control. Dont buy it if You dont have a big budget The Meraki Espresso Machine is unabashedly premium in its price. If the idea of dropping $1,799 / 1,599 / AU$2,799 on a coffee machine makes you break out in a cold sweat, its probably not for you. You want
coffee at the press of a button Despite its automated features, this is still firmly a manual machine. If you just want fantastic coffee for minimal
effort, youll likely prefer a fully automatic bean-to-cup machine. Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2 review: also consider Swipe to scroll horizontally

Category

Meraki Espresso Gen 2

Breville Barista Touch Impress (Cold Extraction)

La Pavoni Europiccola (Millennium)

Type

Dual Boiler / Integrated Grinder

Single Boiler (ThermoJet) / Integrated Grinder

Manual Lever / Single Boiler

Dimensions

14.57 x 14.57 x 16.34 inches / 370 x 370 x 415 mm

16.42 x 13.11 x 13.50 inches / 417 x 333 x 343 mm

12.6 x 7.87 x 11.42 inches / 320 x 200 x 290 mm

Weight

32 lbs / 14.5kg

24.2 lbs / 11kg

12.1 lbs / 5.5kg

Water tank capacity

2.1 quarts / 2 litres

2.1 quarts / 2 litres

0.8 quarts / 0.8 litres

Steam wand

Professional 360 articulating cool-touch

Auto MilQ

Manual

Max pressure

9 bar

9 bar

Manual Breville Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction If youre looking for a slightly more automated coffee, the Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction is a great fit. It still helps you dial in your perfect dose with the grinder but also allows you to tamp it in place without removing it. Once youve slotted the portafilter beneath the grouphead, you can then select from a range of 14 hot and cold drinks, including cold brew, and the AutoMilq
steam wand will then froth your milk to order. Read our full Breville Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction review . La Pavoni Europiccola Alternatively, if youre one of those people that despises any automation and thinks that even using a pump to extract your coffee is cheating, the La Pavoni Europiccola is definitely for you. Using a lever to generate the required pressure, it allows you to get literally hands on with your coffee and produces absolutely fantastic results. Its not for the faint of heart though: it has a steep learning curve to master, heats slowly and its not cheap given youre doing all the hard work yourself. Read our full La Pavoni Europiccola review . (Image credit: Future) How I tested the Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2 Tested it over two weeks Tried a variety of drinks, beans and milks Measured how long it took to warm up and how loud the pump is When testing the Meraki Espresso Machine Gen 2, I used it over the course of several weeks. I experimented with different grind levels, used different varieties of beans and tamped at a range of pressures to see how consistent its results were. I also tried to make a variety of drinks and steamed
several different varieties of milk to see how the steam wand performed.

To understand how well the Meraki worked as a manual machine, I made sure to extract several coffees without using the automatic dosing and steamed milk using touch alone, rather than relying purely on the steam wands temperature sensor. When assessing the performance of the boiler and pump, I not only timed how long it took to heat up in the morning but I also used a sound
level meter to record how much noise it made during extraction.

When it comes to my own experience, Ive been making and drinking coffee on a daily basis for well over two decades. Ive also gotten hands on with a wide range of machines, whether theyre Delonghi, Breville or Gaggia. My preferred tipple to make with a machine is a double espresso or long black, although
any time the weather is not positively arctic, cold brew is my go-to. For
more details, see how we test, review, and rate products at TechRadar . First reviewed: May 2026 Meraki Dual Boiler Espresso Machine with Grinder: Price Comparison No price information Check Amazon We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices powered by



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