How to make your day from the start

Sick of instant coffee? Gregor Stuart Hunter takes the latest ground coffee machines for a test drive.

A Caffitaly Nautilus S01HS coffee maker

One of the most common complaints from frequent business travellers is: the instant coffee.

For those executives who savour the thought of a freshly ground cappuccino every morning - and don't mind paying top dollar - there is no shortage of expensive coffee makers on the market.

At the top end of the spectrum are the German WMF 800 at a price of Dh8,800 (US$2,395) from Tavola and the Swiss-made Jura Impressa Z5 at Dh11,550, both wide-ranging in functionality.

Both offer a range of coffees, including cappuccino, espresso, latte and macchiato. They can also be programmed to heat up at a preset time, meaning you can receive a caffeine infusion almost as soon as you crawl out of bed.

Alhough both machines were rather noisy, the Impressa is a little faster, and requires rinsing less often than its stablemate. It is also a little easier on the eyes than the WMF's Star Wars-style exterior.

But those looking for a more racy burst of caffeine in the morning might want to try the Nautilus S01HS from Caffitaly, priced at Dh1,149 from Jashanmal National in Mall of the Emirates.

This Ferrari-red coffee maker is full of knobs and levers to twiddle. Significantly cheaper than its rivals, the catch is that you are locked into buying Caffitaly refill packs, which retail for Dh20 for a packet of 10 capsules.

If you want to grind gourmet coffee beans smuggled out of the jungles of Borneo, you're out of luck. But on the other hand, this means the machine can be cleaned quicker.

It's also quicker off the mark in the morning, heating up faster than its rivals, but despite its sleek exterior an espresso took 48 seconds from start to finish - the slowest of any of our competitors.

That might sound like a small point, but when bleary-eyed and drowsy in the morning, it could make all the difference.