Phillips new bean-to-cup coffee machine is like having a mini cafe in your kitchen – it can make over 50 drinks, hot and iced

Philips is making its mark on the coffee world with the release of a new bean-to-cup machine, this time an automatic offering, to add to its collection of barista-style products.

The Philips Cafe Aromis looks to be a very capable addition to that line-up, with over 50 possible drinks on offer, including the capability for iced versions.

Available now from a selection of retailers, including John Lewis for £849.99, it's sure to be a hit if the brand's previous iterations have been anything to go by. The Philips 5500 Series LatteGo, which we've reviewed and ranked as one of our favourite bean-to-cup coffee machines of all time, is always a big winner with readers when it goes on sale.

Here's a first look at the Cafe Aromis, which is a super capable machine just in time for iced coffee season.

There are a lot of brand-specific terms to get your head around with this machine, so let's dive into the systems at work here.

The BrewExtract technology is the first quirk to know about – designed to pack more coffee than competitors into every cup, according to Philips, and 'resulting in a consistent, cafe-quality experience'.

Next up, you have a Virtual Barista Assistant at your fingertips, a feature designed to help you, with an app, work out the optimal machine settings for your coffee beans of choice. That includes tweaks to strength, volume and texture.

Those features are all well and good for making black coffees but if it's iced macchiatos and creatively flavoured lattes that you're here for, then the feature that'll matter the most is the LatteGo Pro tech.

This 'pro milk system' will froth you whatever milky drink you choose (and there are plenty of options) at the touch of a button, with two carafes that attach to the front of the machine.

As with very popular recent machines from De'Longhi, such as the Eletta Explore, there's a huge draw in the two carafe system for iced coffee fans as one is dedicated wholly to cold milk frothing. That will really take your at-home iced drinks to the next level. This machine also has a dedicated cold brew setting too, which mimics the process of steeping coffee in cold water in a matter of minutes.

Another crowning feature for this machine is the 4.3” touch display, which is where you can pick out drinks to be made at just the touch of a button. It certainly means this machine makes a visually impressive addition to a worktop.

A few taster drinks that this machine can create include espresso macchiato, café au lait, mélange, piccolo Latte and even babyccinos so that the whole family can be invovled.

Priced at £849.99 it's certainly a pricey choice (unlike Nespresso's new machine which launched this week) but with its extensive features this machine really does seem like having a fully fledged barista waiting for you in your kitchen every morning. Here at Ideal Home we're looking forward to testing it out for ourselves to seeing if it lives up to these promises.