Sage the Barista Pro Espresso Machine, Bean to Cup Coffee Machine with Milk Frother, SES878BSS - Brushed Stainless Steel

Product Information

Third wave specialty coffee sees coffee as an artisanal food, produced to achieve the ultimate taste experience. When it comes to replicating third wave specialty coffee at home, there’s no cutting corners. That’s why Sage created a range of automatic and manual espresso machines that honour tradition and techniques that define the very fundamentals required for third wave specialty coffee.

You can tweak the settings (grind size and ratio) to make something closer to true espresso, but the majority of home bean to cup machines don't quite produce “true” espresso that would cut the mustard for someone who's really into their espresso. If you're looking for the best value for money Sage espresso machine, this is probably it, in the short term at least. The Duo Temp Pro costs a bit more, so in the short term that isn't quite as good value for money, but that's such a basic machine internally that I think most people will end up getting more years out of the Duo Temp Pro, so that machine may produce more value or money in the long term. It's set to 9 bars, the PID might not quite be up to the level of the Sage Dual Boiler, but it's still a PID, so the temp stability is way better than with most cheaper options. It comes with standard baskets, as well as pressurized. It comes with the water filter holder & water filter, and a tamper albeit the lightweight plastic one which I don't really like but it's better than the plastic scoop tamper a lot of the cheaper machines are bundled with. But if you want to get closer and closer to your perfect flat white, latte or cappuccino, you can tweak these settings until you're happy with it, and then save that exact setting as a new drink. The two Breville machines come out about equal in terms of design, but the display and ease of use are where they differ. DesignIf you have wide cappuccino cups, and you like to make two lattes at a time for yourself and your better half, for example, by splitting a double shot, you'll probably have room for that on the drip tray of the oracle touch, but there isn't quite the same horizontal space on the drip tray of the Touch Impress, so you may have to split the shot into two shot glasses and then decant these into the cappuccino cups. If you mainly make one coffee at a time though, and you like a fairly standard 40ml 1:2 ratio shot (18g in to 40g out) then you may see the triple shot as a con, although it is relatively straight forward to amend the dose on the Oracle Touch, by taking the tamp fan out and just adjusting a screw with an Allen key.

Some additional features of the Barista Pro that you'll find useful are its 1.9L capacity water reservoir, 250g bean hopper, and 30 precision grind settings. Pros & Cons of Sage Barista ProIf you're comparing the Duo Temp Pro to the Bambino and Bambino Plus, it's old school vs new school. The Bambino and Bambino Plus have programmable shot buttons, 3 second warm up time, the Plus has auto steaming. So these machines are all about user friendliness and creature comforts, but generally speaking, I'd expect the Duo Temp pro to go on for much longer after the initial warranty period vs the Bambino and Bambino Plus. This is made even more confusing given that the UK Breville brand are selling some machines that look quite similar to some of the Sage machines, and have similar sounding names, so I do hear from people who made the assumption that they'd basically found great deal for a sage coffee machine.

Menu: Pre-sets for all the usual plus babyccino, hot chocolate, tea with 2 temp options & 8 customisable drinks The Express has an analog pressure gauge, which is stylish. It’s fun to watch as you make espresso, and you can guide your grind size based on whether the dial is at the high end (too fine) or below the “espresso range” (too coarse). However, you can derive this same information from the shot timer on the Pro, where >35 seconds means too fine and <20 seconds means too fine. I do hear from people quite regularly who appear to be having issues with the Barista Express, and it's usually because they've heard that the single walled traditional baskets are better, so they switch to them, without realising that this is only the case with freshly roasted beans. If you're using mainstream beans, and you try to dial in using standard baskets, you're likely to struggle.The Sage Barista Touch espresso machine is designed for those who are just getting into the home espresso-making game and those with some experience.