As you would expect, we’re looking at a quality stainless steel unit here, which just glistens and oozes with class. It’s a lovely thing to have in your kitchen, and wouldn’t look out of place in the trendiest of coffee shops. LOL Makes a change for someone to come along who can use any Sage machine from day one but have found a problem anyway.

Or, should I say, on any coffee machine. The Grindenstein has been specially designed to fit on an espresso machine’s drip tray, meaning that it won’t take up any extra room on your work surface. It measures just 10.2×10.2×10.2 centimetres, so won’t have any trouble fitting in – although obviously this does mean that you may end up emptying it quite often. If, like me, you consider your coffee drinking as not just a way to get caffeine into your body, but as a hobby, you’ll be well aware that you end up accumulating a lot of different pieces of equipment. Pod coffee machines with special nests to store your pods, filter coffee machines with airtight storage for your grounds, grinders (hand-held or electric), portable coffee makers, espresso machines, milk frothers – not to mention all the different cups and mugs. It goes on and on and on.Measuring 13.4×13.4x13cm it is a decent size – big enough so that you don’t spend a lot of time emptying, but without imposing itself on your kitchen counter. A happy medium. In short, this is a really useful item to have in your kitchen. It is also, as you have probably guessed, one of the cheapest items that we’re looking at, so if you’re just after something to do the job, this could be the one for you. On emptying though, a nice little touch from Dreamfarm is that you get a little booklet which details how to use coffee grinds as a natural fertiliser – it’s nothing that you couldn’t find on the internet, but it’s handy to have there. The next product on our list is this neat little box from German kitchen utensil manufacturers, Cucino.

It’s a nice size as well. Measuring 11.5×11.5×12 centimetres, it is big enough for domestic use, but without being so big as to prove a problem to fit on to your kitchen worktop. With its look and size, it won’t look out of place in almost any kitchen. Our next selection is the Grindenstein – the flagship product for Australian kitchen appliance inventors Dreamfarm, who have been innovating and creating handy gadgets since 2003. Some may see the plastic body as a disadvantage, when compared to the stainless steel that some of the others are made out of, but it does have the benefit of not being as noisy when you are emptying the portafilter. We have put this at the top of our list because it is a great base for you to begin your search – compare all the others to this one and you won’t go far wrong. As a lower-to-mid range in terms of price, this is an excellent option. What is clever about this, is that there is an inside section within the aluminium housing which you can take out to empty and clean. This means you don’t have to lug the entire box out with you every time you empty it, but also, the inner section is dishwasher safe, so when it comes to cleaning it, you can just pop it straight into the dishwasher and go about your business!

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I don't know of anything to lift a cup. The Sage machines are not good cup warmers. I drink americano 10oz and the milk based drinkers use the same so bought some tall 300ml borosilicate mugs by unihom. They have to be tilted a bit to get them in. Single wall as the duals are too fragile. Guess you will have to look around at "stands" and see what crops up.