Breville Barista Express: QUICK OVERVIEW
Review of:Â Breville BES860XL Barista Express Espresso Machine with Grinder
Category:Â Coffee Maker
Capacity
Durability
Aesthetics
Affordability
What We Like
What We Don’t Like
What’s the worst thing in the world? An upset stomach? Having the new episode of your favorite television show spoiled for you? Unrequited love?
All of those things are pretty terrible, but nothing compares in terms of awfulness to a bad cup of coffee. If you are a coffee lover and wretch at the thought of a cup of instant coffee, you’ll love the Breville Barista Express.
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Who is this product for?
What’s Included?
Overview of Features
Tutorial
Alternatives
Conclusion
Breville Barista Express Review
With the Breville Barista Express, you’ll be able to brew cups of coffee with a flavor just not possible when using a Nespresso machine or a K-Cup. It was released by Breville in 2013 and enjoyed a period as the jewel in the brand’s caffeinated crown, before being knocked off its perch by Breville’s Oracle coffee maker.
Still, the Barista Express remains one of the most popular coffee makers among dedicated coffee drinkers and it isn’t hard to see why.
Who is this product for?
The Breville Barista Express sells for in or around $550, so you should cross it off your list if you have a budget to stick to. For the coffee aficionado who has a lot of money to play around with, however, this is the ideal personal coffee maker. With pressurized filters for beginners and non-pressurized filters for more experienced espresso makers, the Breville Barista Express is suitable for home baristas of all levels.
Although the Barista Express seeks to streamline the espresso making process, it still requires a little more time and patience than something like a Nespresso machine, so those who don’t have a lot of time in the mornings should take their search for a coffee maker elsewhere.
What’s Included?
For the near $600 that the Breville Barista Express goes for, you’ll get some pretty cool features and accessories to make the brewing experience as pleasant as possible. For starters, the machine boasts a built-in conical burr grinder, so you can grind your beans fresh with every cup.
You’ll also receive a precision razor dose trimming tool as well as two filter baskets, a single and a dual-wall model. Breville packages each Barista Express with a comprehensive cleaning kit to make cleaning and maintaining your coffee machine easier than ever before.
Overview of Features
The Breville Barista Express is loaded with features, many of which you simply won’t see on a cheaper model. For example, this coffee maker boasts a unique purge function, which automatically adjusts the heat of your water after steaming to arrive at the ideal espresso extraction temperature.
The dual-wall filters provide the perfect training ground for aspiring baristas, while the single-wall filters allow espresso masters to customize their drinks to fit their personal preferences. The aforementioned built-in grinder is accompanied by a collection of dials which can be twisted and turned to alter the grind size and the grind amount, so you never have to use more beans than you need.
Tutorial
Because of its intricate design and multitude of features, the Breville Barista Express is a little bit trickier to get the hang of than other coffee makers on the market. That being said, even the most inexperienced home barista can master this machine with the right combination of dedication and determination. The video below will provide you with an easy-to-follow step-by-step guide to brewing the perfect cup of coffee using the Breville Barista Express.
Alternatives
If you don’t have the room in your budget for the Breville Barista Express – and you’re not alone – there are a couple of similar options that will cost you less. Although you’ll have to sacrifice something in the way of flavor, the Mr. Coffee Cafe Barista Espresso and Cappuccino Maker will give you many of the features of the Breville Barista Express for a fraction of the cost.
As its name suggests, it will also give you the ability to make cappuccinos as well as espressos and comes fitted with a built-in milk frother. You should still be willing to drop upwards of $150, but that is a bargain compared to the price of the Breville Barista Express.
Conclusion
The Breville Barista Express is not for the casual coffee drinker, that’s for sure. If you want a coffee maker that will brew you a cup of coffee in the morning and a cup of coffee after dinner in the evening, there are hundreds of less expensive coffee machines that require far less effort.
If you are a coffee aficionado, however, and recognize brewing coffee as an art form and not just something that has to be done to avoid falling asleep, you are going to love the Breville Barista Express. It will give you all the tools needed to become a bonafide espresso master and will push you to create and perfect a unique taste that Starbucks couldn’t even dream of matching.
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Amazon Disclaimer: prices updated on 2023-12-01 / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
