Made in partnership with single-serve coffee machine pioneer Philips, the new L’OR Barista Sublime boasts some useful features not commonly associated with pod coffee machines. We also tested the temperature of the coffee as soon as it was dispensed to see how hot a coffee it produces and monitored noise levels as it was being dispensed too. With the Vertuo Pop, you can enjoy a variety of drink sizes including espresso (40ml), double espresso (80ml), lungo (120ml) and mug (230ml). To be honest, this is not something we found beneficial or attempted more than once – as there is such a variety of single and double volume sizes to choose from we didn’t feel the need. It pours big mugs of quality pod coffee exceptionally well, producing tasty drinks that you can enjoy with or without milk.

Our experts choose, test and review the products you care about completely independently from any brand involvement. One thing to know from the offset is that this coffee machine doesn’t come with a built-in milk frother, so if milky coffees are your preference you may want to opt for the similar, but more expensive, Philips L’Or Barista Original Latte Coffee Capsule Machine instead. This is because it ejects the previous pod when you lift the lever and, if there’s a used capsule in the way of the mechanism, it could feasibly jam.Much like the Dolce Gusto Infinissima also featured on this roundup, pouring is controlled manually. There’s also a plastic drip tray stand, which can be removed to accommodate larger cups up to 12cm tall, though it doesn’t have any adjustability beyond that.

Rather than popping your pods into the top of the machine, you instead place the pods in a professional-looking portafilter which twists and locks into place.As is sometimes the case with capsule machines, quite a lot of water gathers in the tray beneath the used-pod drawer. There are three buttons at the back of the machine, however, that allow you to choose your coffee size and these light up when you press them. The Philips L’OR Barista Sublime is a small pod coffee machine that’s easy to use and delivers delicious results. This feature ensures the first and last cup of coffee made in the filter coffee maker will have the same strength – and a great taste till the last drop. All we needed to do was ensure we had placed a coffee cup under the spout and then inserted the pod in the top of the machine before pressing one of the three control buttons.

While this machine will happily accept any standard sized Nespresso pod – from both Nespresso and all third-party pod manufacturers like those I recently reviewed in my guide to the Best Artisanal Nespresso capsules– only L'OR produces the larger capsule size(Nespresso, I think you may have been beaten to the punch here and maybe it’s time you developed a similar two-tier system, too). While it’s mostly made from plastic, it doesn’t feel cheap, and the pod holder is reassuringly robust. Key specs – Pod type: Dolce Gusto, Starbucks for Dolce Gusto; Drink sizes: Seven; Bar pressure: Up to 15; Water tank capacity: 0. L’OR recommends using the L'OR Barista CA6530/00 Coffee Machine Descaler for the job, with full descaling taking around 40 minutes.

The L’OR Sublime is a classic-style 19-bar pressure espresso pod machine, suitable for use with all L’OR pods, Nespresso original capsules and third-party Nespresso-compatible pods. Considering this is the stand-out feature of the machine, it would be nice to see this range extended to get the most out of it. The instructions state that you can also adjust your drink volume by pressing down the ristretto button for four seconds.