Bosch vs Miele coffee machines: German brands compared

Bosch vs Miele at a glance

Head to head

The better result in each row is marked, based on my testing and the manufacturer specs. Rows where the two machines are effectively equal have no winner.

Keep in mind that the tally is not my verdict. Some rows matter far more than others, and which ones matter depends on how your household uses coffee.

The two brands and their ranges

Both brands are German, and both sell built-in coffee centers as well as countertop machines. On the counter, their ranges are organized very differently.

Bosch builds a ladder from the slim 300 Series through the 500 Series, Series 4 and Series 6 up to the 800 Series flagship. Every model below the 800 runs a 15-bar pump; the 800 steps up to 19 bar.

Miele’s countertop range runs from the compact CM 5310 through the CM 6160 and CM 6360 to the three-hopper CM 7750. All share Miele’s expanding brew chamber and its excellent milk system.

I chose the Bosch 800 Series and the Miele CM 6360 because they are the models most families shortlist from each brand: the most capable Bosch, and the Miele that most households end up needing.

What each brand prioritizes

My impression after testing both full ranges.

Our tip: If you already own one brand’s oven or dishwasher, don’t buy the coffee machine on brand loyalty alone, because the two brands’ machines suit very different households.

Setup and the first week

The Bosch 800 Series’s setup is guided on its touchscreen and took about 15 minutes, plus a few minutes to pair the Home Connect app. You choose the language, test water hardness with the strip, fit the filter and run a first rinse.

The Miele CM 6360 took about ten minutes, plus an evening spelling out four profile names letter by letter. I learned to finish the machine’s own setup before connecting the Miele app, because doing it the other way round took me three attempts.

Both defaults were a little light. My first Bosch espresso tasted thin until I went two steps finer, and my first Miele espresso was too long until I shortened the portion.

My espresso score in week one

Rated out of 10 with the same medium-dark blend.

Our tip: Finish each machine’s own setup, including water hardness, before you pair the app, so the connection works first time.

Design, size and build

The Bosch 800 Series is the bigger machine by a long way: about 13.9 inches wide, 15 inches tall and 18.4 inches deep, at around 22 pounds. Much of that width is the tall, clear milk container clipped to its side.

My silver unit has a brushed metal front and a black top. The bean lid, tank handle, drip tray and much of the frame are plastic, so it doesn’t feel as heavy-duty as the big screen suggests.

The Miele CM 6360 measures about 9.9 inches wide, 14.1 inches tall and 16.8 inches deep and weighs about 22 pounds. Its low-profile bean hopper keeps it short, and its top is a heated cup warmer.

The Bosch 800 Series is the widest machine in its range, mostly because of the milk container.

Width on the counter

Add a few inches beside the Miele for its glass milk container.

Cabinet height mattered more than I expected with the Bosch. At 15 inches tall, there wasn’t room to pour beans in comfortably under my cabinets, so I pulled the machine forward every time. The Miele’s low hopper avoided that.

The Miele’s low-profile hopper keeps it short enough for most cabinets.

Our tip: Check you can open the bean lid without pulling the machine forward before choosing a spot, especially for the 15-inch-tall Bosch.

Screens, profiles and apps

The Bosch 800 Series’s 5-inch touchscreen is the best display I’ve used on a countertop machine. You swipe through large drink images like a phone, and sliders set strength, size in ounces, milk ratio and aroma.

It stores up to 30 favorites and has a Coffee Playlist✕Coffee PlaylistA Bosch feature that brews a list of different drinks one after another, so you can set up a round for guests and let the machine work through it. that brews a round of different drinks one after another. When four friends came over, I set up their drinks once and the machine worked through them while I talked.

The Miele CM 6360 uses seven direct buttons for its main drinks plus a menu. Its eight profiles are named, so each person sees their own name on screen and presses their own drink.

Both apps can start a drink remotely, with the same catch: the wake-up rinse runs through the spout, so if your mug is already there, rinse water ends up in your drink. I used both apps mainly for extra recipes and reminders.

The Bosch’s 5-inch touchscreen swipes like a small tablet.

Our tip: Leave an empty cup under the spout before using remote start on either app, so the wake-up rinse doesn’t end up in your coffee.

Grinder and dose

The Bosch 800 Series grinds with ceramic discs in an insulated chamber. That insulation is what you notice: a soft, low hum at about 60 dB instead of a high whine.

The Miele CM 6360 grinds with steel conical burrs✕Conical burrsTwo cone-shaped grinding parts, one inside the other. Beans are crushed between them, and the gap between the burrs sets how fine the coffee is. into Miele’s AromaticSystem✕AromaticSystemMiele’s expanding brew chamber. It gives the coffee room to swell as water flows in, so the water reaches all of the grounds more evenly. brew chamber, which expands as water flows in.

Both shipped with defaults that were a little light. On the Bosch, I went two steps finer; on the Miele, I raised the coffee amount and shortened the espresso.

How grind changed the Bosch espresso

Resistance and body with a medium-dark blend at strong strength.

Our tip: Turn either grinder only while it is running, because turning it with the burrs or discs stopped can trap beans and strain the drive.

Espresso quality

Once dialed in, the Bosch 800 Series made the best espresso of the Bosch range. With a medium-dark blend at strong strength, it was thick and syrupy, with dark chocolate, roasted almond and a little caramel, and a dense crema✕CremaThe golden, foamy layer on top of a fresh espresso. It forms when pressure pushes oils and gases out of the coffee. that lasted several minutes.

The Miele CM 6360’s espresso was smooth, balanced and consistent: hazelnut crema, cocoa, toasted nuts and very little bitterness. Its ristretto with more coffee and long pre-brewing was the best straight shot it made.

Six back-to-back espressos on the Bosch for a family lunch tasted the same from first to last. The Miele was just as consistent.

My espresso ratings

My scores out of 10 for body, crema and flavor.

Once shortened, the Miele’s espresso was smooth, balanced and very consistent.

Long coffee and big mugs

Both brands found a clever way to make a big mug taste strong, and they are different tricks.

The Bosch 800 Series’s Americano adds hot water through a separate path rather than pushing it all through the coffee, so it stays clean and never turns bitter. It became my afternoon drink.

The Miele CM 6360 uses DoubleShot. It grinds and brews once, pauses, grinds again and brews a second stage into the same cup, so a long coffee keeps its body.

My ratings out of 10 for body and flavor in a mug.

Both can also brew for a group. The Bosch fills a coffee pot of about 25 ounces in several cycles, and the Miele makes about 30 ounces. OneTouch for Two on the Miele makes two complete milk drinks at once.

The Bosch coffee pot option fills a jug for a group in several cycles.

Our tip: Use the Bosch Americano or the Miele DoubleShot for any mug over 6 ounces, because a single long pour through one puck starts to taste thin.

Milk drinks

Both brands keep milk in a container that goes straight back into the fridge, which is the tidiest way I know to run an automatic milk system.

The Bosch 800 Series’s clear, roughly 24-ounce container clips onto the side, and a short tube carries milk to the spout. Its foam was creamy and consistent with small, even bubbles, excellent for cappuccinos and lattes.

The Miele CM 6360 comes with a glass container and a two-tube milk line that works the milk twice. Cappuccinos had a thick, glossy cap with bubbles too small to see, and flat whites had silky, pourable microfoam✕MicrofoamMilk foam with bubbles so small you can barely see them. It feels silky and glossy, which is what a good flat white needs..

How each milk foamed

My ratings out of 10 for texture, stability and temperature.

Neither has an air knob, so foam style is set by the recipe. The Bosch includes a milk adapter for drawing straight from a carton, handy for a plant milk you only use now and then.

My one Miele niggle: the new two-tube milk line doesn’t fit its storage spot inside the machine, so I left it coiled beside it.

Miele’s foam was the finer and glossier of the two.

Temperature, tea and the cup warmer

Temperature is the Bosch 800 Series’s most talked-about weakness. Drinks come out warm and ready to sip rather than piping hot: about 150°F for espresso in a cold cup and about 161°F with a warm cup and a hot water flush.

The Miele CM 6360 has a heated cup warmer as standard, which made a real difference with small drinks. Espresso measured about 162°F from a warmed cup and about 151°F from a cold one.

Espresso temperature in the cup

Probe readings straight after brewing.

Tea

The Miele has six tea programs, black, fruit, herbal, green, white and Japanese, each at a suitable temperature, with a timer that beeps when the tea has steeped.

The Bosch makes hot water, which is fine for most tea, but it doesn’t tune the temperature to the leaf.

Our tip: Run a 2-ounce hot water flush into your cup before the first Bosch espresso of the day, then tip it out, because it heats the pipes, spout and cup at once.

Cleaning and upkeep

Both rinse their coffee path automatically and both have a removable brew unit✕Brew unitThe part that compresses the ground coffee, holds it while water passes through and then ejects the used puck. behind a side panel that you rinse under warm water, without soap.

The Bosch 800 Series’s AutoMilk Clean purges the milk path with steam after every milk drink. All those rinses go into the drip tray, which needed emptying about once a day, sometimes twice.

The Miele CM 6360 flushes both milk tubes when you start the rinse, and its magnetic milk connection comes apart for a proper wash. Its grounds container holds about 10 pucks, so I emptied it daily for four people.

My daily hands-on cleaning time

My estimate of hands-on time per day.

The Bosch drip tray fills fast from its automatic rinses.

Our tip: Empty the Bosch drip tray every evening, even if it hasn’t asked, so the morning rinses never stop your first drink.

Noise and speed

These are two of the quietest automatic machines I have tested. The Bosch grinder measured about 60 dB at a meter, a soft hum close to normal conversation, and the Miele measured about 60 to 63 dB while grinding and about 55 dB while brewing.

Speed was close. A Bosch cappuccino took under 90 seconds; two Miele cappuccinos with OneTouch for Two took a little over two minutes.

Phone sound meter readings. About 60 dB is a normal conversation.

How far one tank goes

Rough maths allowing for rinse water.

Real-life scenarios

Specs only go so far. These are the situations where one machine clearly pulled ahead during my testing.

For milk drinks and smaller kitchens, the Miele was the better fit.

My scorecard

These are my own scores out of 10. The first four come from my single reviews of each machine, and I added counter fit and hosting because they decide this matchup.

Bosch 800 Series

Miele CM 6360

Overall, I rate the Bosch 800 Series 8.5 and the Miele CM 6360 8.7. The Miele is the more refined, compact machine; the Bosch is the generous host with the biggest screen and tank.

Which one should you buy?

It comes down to one question: are you buying for a busy, sociable house or for refined everyday milk drinks?

For hosting and capacity, the Bosch is hard to beat. For milk, tea, compactness and polish, the Miele is the better machine for most homes. Still weighing other options? I rank every model I’ve tested in my guide to the best Bosch espresso machines.

To see each brand in more depth, my Bosch 800 Series review goes deeper into the flagship, Jura vs Miele covers Miele’s other big rival, and Miele CM 6360 vs CM 7750 shows when the Miele flagship is worth it.

For households that entertain, the Bosch 800 Series earns its space.

Bosch 800 Series vs Miele CM 6360 specifications

From manufacturer specifications and my own testing.

How I tested and compared them

I used each machine as my everyday coffee maker for four weeks, making espresso, ristretto, Americanos, long coffee, cappuccinos, flat whites, latte macchiatos, coffee pots for guests and tea on the Miele.

I dialed in both grinders from their defaults, compared the Bosch Americano with the Miele DoubleShot side by side, set up favorites, profiles and a Coffee Playlist, measured temperatures with a probe and noise with a phone meter, and ran the full cleaning routines.

Michael Reynolds and a second HouseholdMe tester shared both machines and wrote the notes together, then compared them with Bosch’s and Miele’s specifications, owner documentation and published data.

• Coffee: dose, crema, body and big-mug strength.
• Milk: foam texture, temperature and the containers.
• Workflow: screens, favorites, profiles and guests.
• Ownership: noise, cleaning, tank size and footprint.