the Barista Express

This isn't a one push button instant coffee machine. If that's what you're looking for, click away now. This coffee machine does most of the hard work for you. It will allow you to pour a bag of freshly roasted beans into the grinder and have it dispensed into a cup within a few minutes. There is some manual attention to detail required for best results. This can make awful coffee. This can also make some fabulous coffee. I'm not here to tell you the exact answer, because it's something you will learn through using it. I'm here to tell you that it's entirely possible to learn how to make great coffee within just a few weeks of using it and what I personally discovered. So, what did I learn? 1. Buy fresh beans - no supermarket shelf stuff, not even M&S. It isn't fresh enough and your coffee will taste flat. Waitrose do a few types that have the roast date printed on the bag, if it's within a month, that'll do. 2. The included levelling tool isn't all that precise - I always find that slightly above that mark is actually better 3. The amount of pressure you tamp with has a huge impact on the pressure dial - you have to press quite hard, and ensure the level of coffee still sits high enough, yes you can add more and re-tamp. 4. The best shot comes from the double filter with single skin - the biggest one with the most holes. Learn on this one as the single skin ones cheat a bit. They have a single hole which artificially maintains a set pressure so you can't really mess up. The trick is to learn from the start. The single one is very fiddly and easy to get wrong. 5. Milk frothing is still quite hard for me, I think the best thing to do is get the wand deep in the milk to start with, then froth it when it's hot. Latte art is not as easy as the spotty weekend barista makes it look. Since using this, I don't buy coffee from shops anymore. I prefer my own. You can make whatever drink you want from it, single or double shot cappuccino, latte, frapawhatever. Be as pretentious as you want in the comfort of your own home. It also has a hot water dispenser for the green tea drinkers. Cleaning is a bit of a faff. Tray comes out in three pieces laced with coffee dust and water, but that's the price of fine art I guess. Keep it clean and it will keep making nice drinks. Also run the group head with nothing in it from time to time to clear it out. Changing the filter is absolutely vital if you live in a hard water area. Put it in your phone calendar or something. It's a nice product to have, changing beans keeps things fresh for me. I recommend an online subscription of some sort. I look forward to seeing your results on Instagram.

If you're serious about coffee, the Barista Express Impress is an incredible choice. This machine does take up a bit of space and comes with a higher price tag, but it absolutely delivers café-quality drinks right at home. Pros: + The design is stunning and feels very premium. + Built-in grinder, intelligent dosing system, and assisted tamping make the process smooth and consistent. + Tons of customisation options — you can adjust grind size, dose, and extraction with ease. + The drinks it makes (including hot chocolate!) are fantastic. Easily rivals your local coffee shop. + The intelligent dose system even remembers your settings, saving time on future uses. + It’s fun to use and a real conversation starter when guests are around. Cons: - It’s large — make sure you have enough counter space, especially for using the steam wand. - There’s a learning curve, but with some trial and error, you'll get amazing results. - It can be noisy, and the portafilter basket can be tricky to remove. - The steam wand gets very hot so keep it out of reach of children! - It's not cheap but the build quality and results almost justify the price in my opinion. Tip: If you’re new to this, start with grind size 16 and use freshly roasted beans. I’ve linked the ones I use, and they make a big difference. In Summary: The Barista Express Impress is a high quality, stylish coffee machine that delivers excellent, café style drinks at home. It maybe large and noisy but it's results make it a worthwhile investment for serious coffee lovers.

This is not the cheapest on the market. But you will not be disappointed. Looks good. Makes a beautiful coffee. Tidy machine. Well packaged. Speedy Amazon delivery, no hassle. Very pleased.

Update 13/1/2026 About a month after my latest update, I decided to go for the Sage Barista Pro, I had it for 6 months or so and the Grinder decided to stop working. So I think I will go back to the Barista Express again when my refund is sorted out. Update - 04/06/25 I knew I would Jinx it. It has just this week started to leak water from the back of the machine, So at the moment every two or three cups of coffee I have to lift the whole machine up and wipe away the water underneath it. Given I bought the machine for £429 6 years ago, I will still keep it at the 5 stars as its done me well and I would still recommend it. I have 2 chocies at the moment, Try to get it fixed "and it could cost more than its worth" or just buy another one. Update - 14/04/25 I dont want to jinx this machine but its still going strong. I update reviews when things are going good or bad. Just thought I would let you know as a buyer. Update "26/2/2023 I have now had this machine for 3 years and Im glad to say its still going stronge to my amazment. Reading through the bad reviews, I must have been lucky but I will say to you all, the key is cleaning it on a regular bases. I know its not always easy but the true key to having great coffee is fresh beans, not the store bought beans as you just dont know how long there were stitting on the shelf. Initial Review. I say to record the batch code before you set the machine up as its on the bottom of the machine and its very very hard to read. This is for Registration Purposes. I have to admit, this machine is great. The stainless steel version looks so classic in my opinion and ties in well with our kitchen. Now if your new to making espresso`s, lattes, cappuccino`s etc on this machine, you will think that its lukewarm and that might be because your obsessed with keeping it clean or trying too hard to get it right first time and so on “i.e. latte art” as you might have seen a few videos online prior to getting the machine. This happened to me when I got my first Bean to cup machine years ago. The Sage model also heats the milk faster as well. I think the drip tray maybe could have been deeper though as it seems to fill up faster. The Sage also fits on the counter perfectly as I was worried it might be slightly high to reach under the cupboards but it was lower and wider than my old machine. Another small niggle thought, if you have it at the corner of your countertop, it’s hard to get at the water tank to pull it out but I open it from the back and just keep topping up the water. I love my coffee and the only way is fresh beans for me. Prior to getting machine I ordered 4 different type beans in a sample packs and ran a test from pack 1 to 4. I wrote down each bar pressure “when I got them correct”, grind, pour time, mild roast, dark roast etc. Each time when I ran them again and checked my finding from the first run and it went back to what the bean said “or very close” from 1 – 4 if you know what I mean. So it really does depend on the bean folks. There are higher models and more expensive than the Barista Express and yes they look good but I simply like doing it all myself and that’s part of the fun in my opinion. This machine is now in the price range for anyone who really loves the smell, freshness and fun of making your own coffee`s. I mean let’s face it; it will pay for itself eventually. Also my advice is don’t buy your pre-packed beans your local big supermarket as you don’t know how long they have been there. Order them from a good online store where you know there fresh and try different blends.

I am a coffee addict! If Coffee Anonymous existed, I'd be a member! :) I had a filter machine with a little espresso one-cup part, and could never be bothered filling up the system for one cup. This bad boy! Oh wow! Fill it up in the morning with 2l of clean fresh water, and 1.75l later, which is a LOT of cups of coffee, fill up again. There's a water filter built in, but I live in Birmingham, UK and we get lovely Welsh water (thank Wales!) which is very soft and doesn't really need filtering (IMO). It comes with 2 sets of filter baskets. 1 set for ground coffee and newbies. If you use these baskets with the Dual Wall, you'll almost always get a nice espresso with a good crema, but it can seem a little aerated. So the other filter baskets are better to use, but you have to get the right tamp and coarseness of the bean to get a nice crema, so those baskets take a bit of time to master. But when you do! And it's only 3 settings! 1. Grind amount, 2. Grid coarseness and 3. good tamp, but not too hard! It makes great coffee! I take a note of the 2 settings, the one on the site (coarseness) and the amount on the front, for each different type of beans I buy, so I can remember which are the best settings for each beans! All beans are different! So then it comes to the Milk Steamer. It's good, a bit slow, and I've tried to adjust the temperature, but it does the job, and to know the temperate on the jug and start to feel the temp without seeing it, you start to get better and better. But it's a skill and this I'm no where near mastering yet! Would be nice if the jug was just a little bit bigger, but it makes a good size mug! The hot water that comes out the pipe not as steam, is reasonably hot. Again I've tried increasing it, but I suppose it's good for Coffee, but not brilliant for a cuppa Tea! Cleaning the product is a doddle, by running a cleaning programme and buying tablets to use. Clean the steamer after every use and I clean the product every few days! Emptying the tray is nice and clear with a little Empty Me sign that pops up when its full up. I use this in combination with a good old fashioned Kettle! :D Boil the Kettle to get Half a cup of Hot water, a double espresso from this machine, bit of milk, and that's what I live on! Cost wise. I buy 1Kg bags of coffee beans and drink like a fish. compared to the cost of buying Instant this will eventually be cheaper with the savings per week on not buying Instant and buying bulk coffee beans. If you start charging your guests as the coffee is that good ;) $tarbucks eat your heart out, You'd be quids in before you knew it! :D

The wife convinced me to buy this machine because it would be beneficial for all of us :) I never was a big coffee person, but this machine quickly turned me into a coffee enthusiast and I can finally see and taste the difference. I'd like to say first that we bought the black one the first time but upon opening the box we realized the paint was already chipped in a few places so we sent it back. Not what you'd expect from a £600 machine. It might have been a one off, I can't tell because the next time we ordered the silver one. This one has brushed metal part all around unlike the black one with polished metal parts. They both look great and it's hard to say which I like better, but the silver does look a bit more durable when it comes to the paint. As I mentioned the machine is beautiful even to me and luckily it doesn't actually take that much countertop space. Putting it together was easy enough. This machine is pretty much complete and you should feel like you need to spend extra on gadgets. There is the coffee grinder, the steam wand, and of course the handle with 4 different portafilters. There are 2 single and 2 double sizes one for freshly ground coffee and one for ground coffee. I didn't think there was a difference but there is. There is the tamper which magnetically attaches to the machine. That's super handy. And there is the razor, which is a leveller, once you tamped your coffee you can use this to get any excess coffee out of the portafilter before brewing. But after we got the hang of it we rarely use it but it was helpful the first few times to help as learn just how much force to use when tamping. Oh and also the milk jug! It's got a thermometer on it's outside. It's quite accurate too. Of course you can always buy a nice analogue one that will be better, but it's more than enough to start you off! I really like the controls, everything is well placed and straightforward to use. The buttons are all lit with a nice white light which gives it a very upmarket look. The dial in the middle is a proper pressure gauge no digital screen anywhere to be seen, it actually looks so much better than the more expensive digital ones. Using it is easy. As I said before I never was much into coffees but my mrs used to work in a few coffee shops and learned the trade so she is quite picky when it comes to coffee. Of course it's not going to be as good as the ones used in coffee shops but if you want a mean espresso and don't want to leave the house this does a great job. Even though it's a single boiler one (meaning you can't steam and pull a shot at the same time) it's quite fast anyway and it takes me about 8 minutes to make two coffees in the morning. Things we didn't like that much are the steam wand...it first seemed a bit on the short side, but that seems to be the case with all the machines available to the public and only the real professional ones have longer ones. However we got used to this pretty quickly. Another issue we have and this is a bit concerning is the knob on the right side, this is to control the steamer. It can be turned left or right or kept in the middle. The middle option is off. Turn it right and you can draw hot water. Turn it left and it starts the steamer. Turning this knob is quite the job though. It feels very hard and sometimes it's a real struggle to turn the thing off and it's only 2 months old. It was fine only for a few days after it's like that. However it doesn't seem to get any worse so fingers crossed. We were so impressed with the machine we decided to buy another one for the office, this time went for the black one again as it was on sale. No problem with the chipped paint this time around. The steamer knob however seems to be a lot better though so again...a bit concerned for the silver one in this regard as it's quite hard to turn. All in all great machine which is quite easy to learn even for a complete starter like myself. QC is a bit so so with the chipped paint and dodgy knob though.

If you want to experience the awakening smell of freshly ground beans and amazing coffee at home, this is one of the greatest options at this price point. I’ve owned quite a few espresso machines in my life, this is the more expansive I even had but it gives by far the best results. The difference in quality and taste is huge. Some advice: what the machine requires is some patience at the beginning or when you get a new coffee blend. You will need to adjust a bit the grind level, the amount of coffee, tamping and the time it needs for extraction. It might take a couple of not so good shots until you dial it in, but once you do you are good to go. I’ve been using it for 6 months now, and I have settled in a coffee blend I like, so I don’t need to dial the settings very often. The pro-tip here, is to get freshly roasted coffee (about a month, month and half should be fine). I also tried generic coffee beans from known brands, the ones without roasting date, but the results are not as good. When using the machine, the analog pressure gauge (I love this, feels so professional) gives you a good overview, so you can see and adjust for the next shot: Low pressure and coffee running too fast? Maybe dial the grind level to be more refined, or add a bit coffee if the portafilter can take it. Too much pressure and very slow extraction? Move the grind level dial to be more coarse. Once you play around a bit, you will be able to see what the espresso needs and you will adjust. There are many helpful online tutorials if you want to dive into the whole process, but in general one should be ok with minor adjustments and able to enjoy tasty, velvety coffee – given you use good quality coffee. If you don’t want to buy freshly roasted coffee, you can use the dualwall filters provided in the machine; they allow for some extra pressure control of the extracted coffee, but in my opinion, if you buy this machine, you probably want good espresso, so buy the good coffee as well :) In general the machine is very easy to clean, I pop the tray in the washing machine every now and then and has been looking like new, even though I’m working from home and I’ve been using it quite a few times per day. The provided milk jug, with temperature indicator is great for great cappuccino / latte foam. Overall, this has been an amazing purchase, if you enjoy a good coffee and you are willing to learn how to extract it, this machine will not let you down.

I had a couple of DeLonghi Dedica machines before this, both of which just about made it past the warranty expiry before giving up the ghost. Not great when you consider that, whilst I use it daily, I'm the only person in the house that drinks coffee. I decided when the second one failed that I would go big(ger) rather than go home, and decided to go for the Sage Barista Express. It was a great choice. Firstly, the grind size settings should satisfy any taste - a very small amount of experimentation got me to just the right size grind. The auto-grind feature is very handy, and allows you to get anything else ready whilst it does its thing - I'm a latte kind of guy, so I have enough time to sort the milk out. A few people have reported that it can end up with coffee going everywhere - I can only assume that they are grinding far too much and it is spilling out of the sides (yet another thing that is adjustable). If you want more, you can always tamp it down and top it up manually, which takes about five seconds, so no hardship at all. The tamper is held in place magnetically - another nice touch. You can also adjust the amount of espresso that the machine makes, which is handy. You basically press a button to put it in program mode, set the machine away, and press another button when your espresso glass is full - it's very, very easy to set up. The water tank has a built in filter - a nice touch, though I live in a very soft water area, so not really necessary for me. The built in thermometer on the milk jug is a nice touch (and it survives the dishwasher, though I wouldn't recommend that)! I thought the jug looked a bit small, but I use a Starbucks Grande mug for my latte, and there is plenty of room for enough milk to fill that. Unless you go for vente all the time, you'll probably have no issues. The bean holder takes enough beans for around ten double espressos or so - you can also use pre-ground coffee, and the machine comes with various attachments depending on single / double / fresh or pre-ground tastes. It's also really easy to clean - the machine mostly looks after itself and vents after every drink, so you just need to empty the drip tray every few days (it tells you when it needs attention). This is a great machine. I wish I bought one four and a half years ago before I wasted my money on the others. The coffee tastes better (I didn't believe it would make any difference to the taste, but somehow it does - I think it is the fact that it goes through a pre-extraction cycle on a lower pressure before going full whack - and yes, you can even see how much pressure is being applied, so you can increase / decrease the coffee ground level accordingly), and it looks great on the side.

اخذتها بسعر ممتاز عملية ويكيفك انها ساج

Excelente producto, la maquina nueva sellada.

I go to bed excited bout that cup of coffee I’m going to have in the morning

آلة القهوة من هذه فيها ميزات منتظرة من نسخ سابقة وهي فعلاً تصنع قهوة سوداء أو بالحليب مثل الموجودة في محلات القهوة المختصة. العيب الصغير هو بطئ تسخين الحليب (النظام القديم) في حين أن بعض الآلات من نفس الشركة بدأت تتحول إلى النظام الجديد والسريع. تبقى نقطة صغيرة وماتسبب عدم الشراء أبد لكن جيد تكون في بالك.

It has everything you need for a perfect cut of Cappuccino