At Cape Coffee Beans we take a pretty hands-on approach to coffee. We enjoy the time and intentionality involved in manual brewing and all its component steps, which is why automatic bean-to-cup machines still only take up a relatively small section of our store shelves. However, we do also value convenience (if it’s not at the cost of quality), and Gaggia’s Accademia bean-to-cup machine has both in spades.

Gaggia is one of the biggest names in the world of home brewing, famed historically for the entirely manual Gaggia Classic home espresso machine. In recent years the brand has released several quality bean-to-cup machines too. The Accademia is one of its most impressive offerings, capable of serving 14 different coffee drinks, from an espresso to a macchiatone and everything in between, plus hot water options for different kinds of tea, all easily selected using the 5” colour touchscreen display.

The Accademia’s versatility doesn’t end there. You can adjust almost all of your variables, like dose, temperature and aroma, and you can even top up your drink with an extra ristretto using the “Coffee Boost” option, all on the fly as your beverage is brewing and all from the display. You can also save your particular preferences to one of 4 user profiles so that you don’t have to dial them in each time you brew. Finally, away from the touchscreen display, you can adjust your grind setting with a knob above the bean hopper, and there’s another knob on the coffee spout with which you can calibrate the crema and body of your espresso.

Regarding dairy (or an alternative), the Accademia gives you two ways to heat and texture your milk: you can either channel your inner barista and use the professional stainless steel steam wand, or use the carafe and let the machine do all the work, though the former option will give you hotter milk. Additionally, the carafe sports a convenient automatic cleaning function, and there are cleaning cycles for the machine as a whole, though you’ll still want to deep clean the carafe and brewing unit regularly to keep things running smoothly.

It’s worth noting that all of this functionality comes at the cost of space – the Accademia is a hefty machine and will require a fair amount of counter space in your home or office kitchen. That said, thanks to its staggering versatility and quality build, plus a sleek design, the Gaggia Accademia is one of the finest automatic bean-to-cup machines on the market. It’s perfect for brewing dozens of cups a day in the office (or at home if you have a large, coffee-keen family), all effectively at the push of a button.

Recommended additions

The Gaggia Accademia comes with everything you need to make delicious coffee, but like all coffee equipment (particularly in the automatic bean-to-cup category) it will function better for longer if you stick to a regular and rigorous cleaning regime, not just the built-in cleaning cycles.

We can email you our own cleaning and maintenance guidelines when we send you your machine, but, generally speaking, to keep your machine running optimally and your coffee tasting great we recommend picking up the following:

• Gaggia auto-cleaning tablets or Caffenu 1.4g universal cleaning tablets (Recommended use: ~100 cups)
• Gaggia liquid descaler or Caffenu Eco liquid descaler (Recommended use: as required)
• Caffenu Milk System Cleaner (Recommended use: 3x per week)

Gaggia Accademia features

• 5” full-colour touchscreen display
• Backlight buttons and rotary knobs
• 19 beverage options + 4 user profiles
• Automatic milk frother with auto-clean
• Professional stainless steel steam wand
• Cup warmer with wake-up timer
• Adjustable ceramic burrs (8 settings)
• Adjustable coffee spout (75mm to 165mm)
• Pre-brewing function (pre-infusion for better extraction)
• Automatic cleaning and descaling cycles
• Adjustable temperature (3 settings)
• Adjustable milk foam level (4 settings)
• On-the-fly adjustable beverage volume options
• Adjustable aroma setting (5 settings + 50ml ‘Coffee Boost’ option)
• Quick heat boiler
• Option to use ground coffee (for a secondary coffee or decaf, if you must)
• Includes grease tube, cleaning brush, water hardness strip, measuring spoon and Intenza+ filter

Gaggia Accademia specifications

• Recommended for up to ~50 cups a day
• Unboxed weight: ~18kg
• Dimensions (L x H x D): 28.2 x 38.5 x 42.8 cm
• Body: Stainless steel
• Drip tray: Stainless steel
• Boiler: Stainless steel
• Power and voltage: 230V 50Hz 1900W; 120V 60Hz 1400 W
• Power draw on standby: <1W
• Water tank capacity: 1.6 L
• Milk carafe capacity: 0.6 L
• Hopper capacity: 350g beans
• Puck container capacity: 14