When an espresso machine costs over $1,500, it can be trickier to test than cheaper models. It’s sort of like testing a high-end camera. At the very least, it should shoot good photos, maybe even great photos. The rest of the evaluation is less on its performance of basic functions than how well it performs those functions over time, how well it responds to you as a photographer, and how good it looks. I spent about 90 days with the Diletta Bello, and during that time I’d have to say it nailed three out of three.
Any espresso machine in this price range should pull near-perfect shots right out of the box, and the Bello did not disappoint on that front. Within an hour of unboxing it, running water through it, and finding a good place on my counter for it, I was watching golden-brown espresso pour into a demitasse cup. The crema built up in a smooth, swirly layer and before I even brought it to my lips, I knew the Bello and I would get along during our time together.
Crème de la Crema
I’m a sucker for a bottomless portafilter, and machines like the Bello are the reason why. As soon as you flip the hefty, mechanical-feeling lever to begin pulling the shot, the machine begins to produce a rich, aerated, amber and earth-colored shot that builds up beneath a layer of crema. With a shot glass, you can really see it build up; it looks like someone pouring a Guinness. Tiny bubbles roiling beneath the surface, only to rise and become a part of the foamy cloud bank resting on top of a dense, bittersweet elixir.
I actually got lucky with those first shots, because if your grind is off by even a bit the Bello will misfire. If your grind is too fine, it’ll whirr and struggle to push out a trickle of too-bitter coffee into your cup. If your grind is too coarse, water will shoot through the portafilter like it didn’t touch the coffee at all, filling your cup with an undrinkably weak coffee-adjacent water product that tastes like someone poured the drip tray into your cup.
To be fair, this isn’t an entirely uncommon result when you’re using a high-end espresso machine. They can be finicky. The Bello even has an analog pressure gauge, which is super helpful for diagnosing issues with your shots: Low pressure and a fast pour means your coffee is too coarse; high pressure but a slow pour means your coffee is too fine or packed too tight.
But the Bello’s favorite grind size was easy enough to find because it is so persnickety. If your grind is wrong, it will tell you. I like to err on the side of too fine, with a firm tamp, and then step up the coarseness over the course of a couple rounds of shots to get it dialed in just right. For me, I found that the machine does well with a grind that’s a little finer than the consistency of granulated white sugar, and a firm (but not heavy) tamp. We’re not trying to crush this thing under a hydraulic press, just press it down slow till it feels like there’s not any give left.
Knobs and Levers
Photograph: Diletta Espresso
This is an espresso machine for tinkerers, and it looks the part. The front panel features a solid metal off-on switch that clicks with a satisfying chunk sound. There are also two articulated metal wands, one for steam and one for hot water. Their range of motion never felt restrictive, and they’re easy to move into place or out of the way, depending on what you’re doing. The steam wand’s maneuverability makes it easy to get it into just the right position to swirl your milk into a creamy microfoam.
Slow, low-heat cooking is perfect for delicious one-pot dishes and getting the best flavor from cheaper cuts of meat such as lamb shoulder or chicken thighs. With intuitive control panels, the best appliances allow you to throw all the ingredients into the pot, turn it on, and get on with your day while your food simmers along nicely. Prep your recipe in the morning and the keep-warm setting will ensure you have a home-cooked evening meal that’s piping hot and ready to serve come nightfall. Then all you need to do is dish up praise for your efforts from everyone at the dinner table.
In our edit of the latest and greatest slow cookers, we’ve picked out designs that not only look attractive but have convenient and clever functionality. We’ve included appliances to suit both classic and modern kitchen countertops. We’ve opted for slow cookers that have easy-to-navigate control panels and a model that can be controlled via an app on your smartphone. While not all the designs we’ve featured are dedicated to slow cooking, they do have prominent slow-cook settings as part of the overall offering.
To see how well each slow-cook mode performs, we used the cookers to prepare both a slow-cooked spaghetti bolognese sauce and a one-pot dish with braising steak and potatoes. Read on to discover our top picks for 2024.
For more of WIRED’s kitchen guides, check out our Best Stand Mixers, Best Blenders, Best Air Fryers, Best Electric Kettles, and the Best Gear for Small Kitchens.
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Nothing draws the attention of a party like a bartender, swinging open the doors of a bar cabinet and taking their place among the glistening bottles of brown and clear liquors, colorful spirits with foreign names, and sparkling cut glassware. Beer is a fine drink, as is wine, but they don’t match the spectacle of mixing a cocktail.
I’ve had more bad cocktails in my life than I care to remember, and it often comes down to the maker splashing in too much liquor or not straining their solid ingredients. You need a measure of knowledge, a splash of experience, and the right tools, which we’ve collected below. As we head into the holiday gathering season, the right cocktail tools and some basic bartending skills can make you popular with friends and family.
Be sure to check out our other buying guides and gift guides, like our Boozy Gift Ideas and Gifts for Coffee Lovers roundups.
Updated October 2023: We’ve added new books, glassware, a knife, ice crushers, and mixers.
If you don’t have an electric kettle in your kitchen, you’re missing out. Not only are these appliances slightly more energy-efficient than using a stovetop, but they’re portable and boil water more quickly. These days, electric kettles come in various sizes with different kinds of spouts, and you’ll often find models with customizable temperature settings too—allowing you to set the perfect brew temp for your pour-over coffee or loose-leaf tea.
But there are a lot of electric kettles out there. If you’re looking for the best bang for your buck or one that’s particularly great for coffee, we’ve done the hard work for you. We’ve been using over a dozen models in our lives over the past year to find out what’s the best and what’s junk. These are our favorite electric kettles worthy of your countertop.
For more kitchen guides, check out the Best Espresso Machines, the Best Latte & Cappucino Makers, the Best Air Fryers and the Best Chef’s Knives.
Updated May 2023: We’ve added the Breville IQ, KitchenAid Pro Line, Wolf Gourmet True Temperature and Hay Sowden kettles.
Special offer for Gear readers: Get a1-Year Subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com and our print magazine (if you’d like). Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.
A precision scale is a critical tool to have in the kitchen, so why not the bar, too?
Turns out, lots of reasons. On paper, the Barsys Smart Coaster system isn’t a bad idea. Imagine a digital scale (like the Drop) that’s connected via Bluetooth to an app on your phone that tells you what ingredients to pour into a glass sitting atop it. And that’s exactly how Barsys works. Want to make a margarita? Pour in tequila until the base of the lighted coaster turns green. Then triple sec until you get another green light. Then lime juice. Then simple syrup. For the novice mixologist, all they need to do is wait until the coaster says “when” each time, and the drink is done.
Well, sort of. There are plenty of problems with Barsys in both concept and execution to the point where it doesn’t really work well, even as a novelty item.
First, the Barsys may be a scale, but it doesn’t carry any kind of readout aside from colored lights. The scale starts off white, then gradually becomes more and more blue as you add an ingredient specified by your selected recipe. Finally it flashes and turns green, moving you on to the next ingredient and starting the process over. The problem is that if you don’t know how much of an ingredient you need to pour in (and the app doesn’t tell you during mixing), you can either find yourself adding ingredients by the drop—which takes forever—or sloshing in booze and blowing right past the “stop” notification. If you’re the kind of freewheeling home bartender that isn’t hyper-concerned with getting things just so, this may not be a big deal. But in that case, it’s far easier to just estimate everything as you splash the ingredients into a shaker willy-nilly and call it close enough.
Photograph: Barsys
Another big issue is mixing. While Barsys is available with an optional mixer unit—a plastic glass with an electromagnetic stirring unit in the base—it’s not the most powerful way to blend a drink. It’s fine for stirring a martini, but if you really want to shake the hell out of that margarita, you’ll need to put some of your own muscle into it (via a separate shaker). Barsys is vague about when and whether to put ice into the mixer during recipe-building. The motor is able to handle a bit of ice, but you can’t fill the mixer to the brim and get any traction. Any ice you do use will need to be added at the beginning (when the empty mixer is initially weighed) or the end, never the middle, as that will throw off the liquid weight measurements. For recipes that require dry shaking—such as sours made with egg white—and then a second shake with ice, the Barsys is particularly ill-suited. It’s also worth noting that the system is really designed to produce only one drink at a time.
