Little Book of Seating Let us help make seating simple, all in a handy pocket sized guide. Request your copy & brochures here > Dynamic Tilt-in-Space Comfort Chairs Easily adjusted manually or electrically, comfort is our goal through optimum postural support and pressure relief. Shop Specialist Seating > CPD Training for Healthcare Professionals Specialist Seating Awareness Day Dates now released for 2017 The ultimate in relaxation and lasting comfort, our tailor made range riser recliners has just expanded to include the British styled Hallingbury range! Click here to see more > Click to download the 2017 Kirton PortfolioBean-to-cup coffee machines make the freshest coffee because they grind the beans as you use them – no time, in other words, for all those flavoursome oils to evaporate, which so often happens with ground coffee. You’ll find huge price variation in the machines we’ve recommended, with the most expensive generally being the most automated and making the cup of coffee a barista would be most proud of.
There are plenty of other features that come with the heftier price tags — for example, the ability to personalise your coffee preferences, attached milk frothers, wi-fi connectivity and more. But don’t ignore the cheaper end ones if you’re happy with a more manual machine and don’t necessarily need a milk frother or barista-quality crema. Regardless of price, the machines in our round-up are easy to use and produce rich, smooth, tasty coffee. A word of advice – if you’re using a bean-to-cup machine, do splash out on the freshest beans, rather than picking up the first ones you see on the shelf in your supermarket. Our vote goes to Pact, a service that sends top-quality beans roasted in the last week through the post. Sleek and intuitive, this machine has an inbuilt water filter, outstanding grinder and you can personalise your settings once you find your perfect preferences. This is one of the few truly portable machines out there. First, it grinds the beans (you get to choose the coarseness), then it uses a drip-filter to give you a cup of coffee in an insulated mug.
The flip-out handle means you can store your beans ready for when you need them. This boasts a consistent grind and never overheats the beans. It heats water quickly, self-cleans and enables you to personalise your brew’s strength and length. There’s a manual milk frother for those who prefer a cappuccino. 4. Cuisinart One Cup Grind & Brew: £100, cuisinart.co.uk This fully automatic filter-coffee maker let’s you personalise the strength and flavour of your coffee. It’s got an effective grinder that crushes the beans with the perfect level of coarseness and, critically, the hot water passes through without pressure to maximise flavour. Easy to clean, but no milk options. This is at the pricier end of the market, but it’s a durable machine with an impressive memorising function - it ‘remembers’ your coffee preferences (size, strength and temperature). digital display helps you understand the settings and there’s a removable milk carafe. Using either full or ready-ground beans, the quality of the coffee is exceptional.
6. VonShef Filter Coffee Machine with Grinder: £41.99, domu.co.uk This large-capacity machine enables you to make 12 cups of coffee at once. It’s a bargain price and you can remove the grinder if ever you want to use powder instead. There's no milk frother with this one, though. 7. Krups Espresseria Automatic: £499.99, homeandcook.co.uk This easy-to-set-up machine holds up to two litres of water – more generous than many. Simply switch it on and wait for the grind and tamp to happen while the water heats up. The milk frother is effective, the machine is easy to maintain and the coffee is full flavoured. 8. Sage The Oracle: £1,495, amazon.co.uk This is expensive, but the depth of flavour of the espresso and quality of the crema exceeded every other machine we tried. The grinding, dosing, tamping (packing the ground coffee into the filter) and milk-texturing is all automated. It looks great, is intuitive and the design has impressive attention to detail.
If you need a coffee the minute you get home, this Wi-Fi-enabled machine will prepare it for you. Controlled via a smartphone app, you can remotely adjust factors like temperature and strength too, and the taste is excellent. You’ll have to add your own milk, though. For great for coffee in a flash, this is ideal. Just fill the grinder with beans, add milk to the flask and choose from espresso, latte, cappuccino or latte macchiato. It makes two fabulous cups of coffee simultaneously. Sage’s The Oracle is the daddy of bean-to-cup machines, with the top baristas we spoke to agreeing it’s the best you can get for home use. If your pockets aren’t deep enough to afford it, we recommend Cuisinart One Cup Grind & Brew, which produces great tasting coffee at a fraction of the price. Neat ideas in all shapes & sizes Designed for kids, built to last Piece it together to suit your spaceA gamer’s best friend.I have always wanted a bean bag. I had a friend in school that had one and I loved going over to play NES and sit in his bean bag.
His house was the only place I could enjoy the comforts of a bean bag as my parents never would let me have one. If it rips, it would make too much of a mess they said. As I got older and moved away for college, I was finally on my own to do whatever the hell I wanted to.Most of the time, I choose to waste my parents money, and my own, on various activities of which most involved alcohol. Copious amounts of alcohol. This was also the time that I got my first bean bag and man was it comfortable. It was black (was there ever any other color) and really fit nicely in front of our stolen couch we ‘barrowed’ from our dorm floor lobby. As time went on though, the beanbag began to leak beads everywhere and finally it was given a glorious send off that included a field, a can of kerosene and some lighters.Enter Sumo and their Omni.A few months back, we at Techgage were contacted by Sumo and asked if we wanted to give the Omni a try. After finding out what the Omni was, I quickly called dibs.
It turns out, the Omni is an enormous beanbag made of space age rip-proof nylon and targeted at those of us who remember the convenience of the bean bag but might need something a bit sturdier this time around. To give it its shape, the Omni is filled with Sumo beads. When placed in any room, the Omni is without a doubt the most interesting piece of furniture. Coming in at 4.5′ x 5.5′ and weighing only 18 pounds, the Omni is large but in a slacker’s heaven sort of way.To ‘test’ the Omni out, I set it up against my couch and sat in it the same way one might sit in a recliner. I leaned back and enjoyed many of games of Madden 07 with my friends. As the evening went on, everyone wanted their time in the chair and through many games, and many beers, the stain proof Omni stood up to all that we could throw at it. The next weekend, I let my two girls have their go at it. They are 5 and 7… and over the course of the weekend, they were not able to destroy the Omni either.Anyone interested in the Omni can pick their very own up off of the Sumo website.
Coming in at $125 for black and platinum, or $149 for any of the other colors, the Omni is a bargain if you are in the market for a virtually indestructible bean bag that you can use almost anywhere. Sumo states that they have come up with 10 different positions that you can use the Omni for but I am sure that you all can think of a few more off the top of your head. This reviewer might just have to order one for himself and let the kids keep the one I have now since they like it so much. The Omni is a lot of fun and comfortable to boot.The more I have used the Omni, the more I have come to appreciate all that it delivers. This is something that feels at home in a gameroom, a dorm room, a kid’s room or even the bedroom. I am working with my wife to prove that it does in fact belong in the bedroom but that is neither here nor there.The Sumo Omni is a winner for everyone looking for something to lounge in around the house. In the time that I have had mine, it has withstood nights of Madden with friends, my children as well as the daily tasks of moving it around, setting it up, throwing it around and plopping down into it.
