KitchenAid KF8

What is it, and is it for you?

Type a brand, a model number, a bag of coffee or a drink. We tell you what it is, who it suits — and, honestly, whether we have evaluated it, only verified its specification, or can merely identify it.

CoffeeLabAdvisor evaluation · Independently evaluated

Espresso machine · KitchenAid

A 5-inch touchscreen, six profiles, a plant-milk setting and the longest menu, on the same grinder and brew unit as the KF6.

Best suited for

Multi-person and plant-milk households that want every convenience from our review
milk drinks without learning to texture by hand — the steam wand is automatic from the specification
a one-box counter — the grinder is built in from the specification
press-button consistency over pulling shots — a bean-to-cup machine grinds, doses and brews itself from the specification

Consider another option if

you want to learn to steam and pour by hand from the specification
you want to pull shots by hand and control each variable yourself from the specification

Why: KitchenAid's flagship, with the range's best plant-milk results, six profiles, a 5-inch touchscreen and the only six-month test, which found no drop in extraction. It brews the same shot as the KF6 and KF7 for considerably more.

Read our evaluation →Best grinder for the KitchenAid KF8 →

How CoffeeLabAdvisor knows what it knows

Every answer says what we actually know

Most sites make every product sound intimately known. We would rather tell you which of these four things is true — the same rule the CoffeeLab Awards are decided under.

Independently evaluated

We evaluated it under our published methodology: a review, a profile, a brand hub, a pairing page or an award. The Advisor sends you to that page and adds what it is best suited for.

Specification verified

We read and dated the maker's (or the listing's) specification. We say what it is and who it may suit — each line derived by a written rule from a field on that specification — and we say plainly that we have not evaluated it.

Identified

We can identify it and say where it appears on our site — a listing on a guide, a roaster's bag on our roster, a machine named on an award page. Nothing more.

Not yet evaluated

We have not evaluated it and it is not something we can identify. We say so, show the nearest things we do cover, and put it on the list of what we write next.