Kyle, awesome video as always. Most people recommend 20-30.seconds for brew time, but Breville has added an additional 5 seconds of pre-infusion. When reading the owners manual, it should be noted that they have added that 5 second pre-infusuon time to the recommended brew time suggesting the average brew time be pulled in 25 to 35 seconds. I recently bought Espresso Pudding, a blend from our local Vancouver Milano Coffee Roasters, and they recommended a 28 to 32 second brew time. When adding the 5 seconds of pre-infusion, that translates to 33 to 37 seconds. Food for thought. I might also recommend that folks try programming the first shot of the day, by first holding the program button and then hitting the double shot button to start the extraction and again to stop it. The reason for this is that incase you do dial in an amazing shot, ie, the right yield in the right time with the right taste, it is now programmed. I usually experiment on myself for the first shot and then just hit the 2 coffee button for subsequent shots that morning for the family. It means you don't have to time and weigh every single shot that is pulled and takes advantage of the volumetric programming that makes this machine so great. Thanks for the video. Keep up the good work!
@@Popo-hr6gc Yes, however, some machines take longer to get to first drip so some people start timing at first drip, which means you would have less than a recommended 20-30 second brew. Typically dark roasts are more soluble, and require less time and water, they should also be brewed at a lower temperature to avoid over extraction and bitterness. Lighter roasts are less soluble and will require a finer grind resulting in a longer time, and could use a longer ratio, say 1:2.5 coffee to espresso in the cup. They will also benefit from a higher brew temperature. Really it comes down to taste. There should be a balance like music, bitterness is the bass, sweetness are the mids, and acidity and brightness is the treble. Over extracted coffee is way too bitter, underextracted sour and acidic. Once you get it dialed in, say 27 to 32 seconds with 20 grams in and 42 grams out you should taste all 3 flavour notes. It will also depend on the coffee, too fresh will be acidic, too stale watery and bitter. Try brewing between 1 week from the roast date up to 6 weeks. It will change over that time so you may have to tweak the grind size or ratio along the way. I like to always taste the shot before adding water or milk just to get an idea of how your adjustments to the machine influence these subtle and nuanced flavours.
As someone who chose a Gaggia over the Breville, let me tell you that sometimes I wish I started with a Breville. The Gaggia is great but the machine has some flaws mainly the leaky steam valve which even upon replacing can start leaking again within a year. Another thing is the OPV tube which doesn't point directly into the hole in tbe drip tray so sometimes water will get underneath the drip tray. I will find a lot of water accumulates underneath the machine sometimes. Probably just a defect for my particular machine. The simplicity of having your grinder and tamper built in to one unit saved a lot of space and it seems like a dream compared to my setup which easily takes up koure than twice that space but mainly because I bought a lot of accessories. The Breville is a great option espresso if you're a latte drinker and aren't as fussy with your espresso. Also as an alternative to the Infuser, if you don't wanna deal with steaming your own milk, the Bambino Plus is compact and has the best automatic milk frothers for consumers. Great review btw. I found your channel recently and loving your content. You're one of the best consumer reviewers of home coffee equipment.
Best investment I’ve ever made (after I learned how to actually use it;-)! I’ve always been a Starbucks guy, (None of their overpriced sugary drinks), just a tall Pike with some Half & Half every morning as my favorite beverage. Once in awhile I tried to make an espresso on my Breville, but the results always tasted like crude oil, with side notes of tar, and hints of burnt rubber. Then one day, I faced a “golfer’s” choice. Should I invest some time and effort to learn with the equipment I already have, or should I spend potentially thousands more on fancier clubs to improve my game;-). I’m glad I spent an afternoon actually learning and experimenting with grind settings and learning the basics of extraction. Didn’t realize I could make better tasting coffee at home than Starbucks, until I actually tried. This is all the machine I will ever need.
It includes a tamp and milk jug. Things that also add up super quickly. It's honestly the best machine to get into espresso period with all the tools and accessories it provides out the box. You only need to pickup a knock box.
Completely agree. Best value machine in its class. I recommend steaming milk first. Then follow with espresso. Why? Turning on the steamwand warms up the machine faster and builds heat and pressure in the flash container. If you pour your shot right away, you can get a high initial temperature pour. But it does subside after the hottest water pours out. There is little playroom when it comes to temperature control. The steam wand is the only way I know how jerry rig hotter water.
I roast my own beans and having the pressure gauge saves sooo much time and waste dialing in fresh roasts and different beans. It's far more useful than people realize (assuming they're using the non-pressurized baskets). Pretty sure Breville went with the 54mm basket to A) Save room for the grinder, and B) give people a reason to "upgrade" to a more expensive model. Fortunately the machine's popularity has led to all the after-market upgrades like levelers, tampers, bottomless portafilters etc. in the 54mm size, so that's a good thing!
I have the Infuser and paired it with a Smart Grinder Pro. It was alright until I got a 1zpresso JX-Pro hand grinder. Was struggling with sour shots but the grind consistency and quality of the 1zpresso JX-Pro made a huge difference. A better grinder is an absolute must.
I got one used for a steal and was originally planning on modding the OPV valve to reduce the pressure. BUT i found out that there's effectively a manual mode if you hold down the brew button that lets you manually preinfuse and then brew at full pressure. But when i used the blind puck to test the pressure of the preinfusion, i found that the preinfusion itself was at the sweet spot of around 9 bars. So now i just hold down a brew button and do the whole brew at the 9 bar preinfusion! The preinfusion will stop automatically around 45-50 seconds or so which means it can't handle like a sprover or something but for just standard ristrettos to lungos it works perfectly!
My other tip is also to time shots from drip for this machine rather than button on, or to simply recognize that it takes longer to see a drip from this machine than others. First drip is very consistently around the 10-11 second mark for me.
I used to be fixated on how long it took to pour a shot. Point is a bad shot tastes bad even if you are within the “magical” parameters of time and ratio. Or you might end up going too fine at which point very weird things start to happen. After watching a lot of videos I came across Lance Hedrick and the dude was right when he said “forget about time, just go by taste”. If you re doing shots that are too acidic go from a 1:2 to 1:3 ratio instead of going finer. Am now doing turbo-shots and am pretty satisfied taste wise. Plus it’s much easier to be consistent.
Pleased to see someone is giving it the thumbs up as I have just purchased my machine yesterday, took it out of the box today and washed/cleaned all the parts that needed to be washed and I have also flushed the machine. Hopefully will make our first coffee tomorrow morning.
I've had one of these for a couple of years now, and I know it can pull better shots than the ones I'm getting. I'll be trying these tips for sure. However, there are a few thoughts I've had regarding some of the recommendations here. Not that I think they're wrong, but just not practical. 1) The machine auto-switches off at about 10 minutes, so leaving it to warm up for longer than that isn't possible, unless you keep returning to it to turn it back on again (which I often forget to do). 2) Dialling in every time I change coffees takes me a good portion of the entire bag, so just isn't economical unless I'm sticking with the same coffee for a while. I tend to go with what I have set already, and adjust slightly every time I brew another shot if it's not right. Yes, the first few might not be perfect, but it's better than throwing away £5 of coffee from every new bag! 3) RE the quality of the water - isn't that the job of the filter you have in the water tank?
I totally agree with you on 1). My current approach is to just run 3-4 double shots of water through the machine having the filter in place. Works great to heat up all the components, including the cups
Great video! Another tip that might be useful: if you need to go grind coarser or finer than the grind size settings allow, you can adjust the internal burrs. Just remove the hopper and you can get to the outer burr where you can adjust the settings.
After four years I bought some scales and adjusted the top burrs from 5 to 3 with 4 on the side dial. It doesn't produce the best coffee I've had but it's better than high Street chains and most places out. I have been toying with the idea of a niche zero and something with an E61 head but the BE seems happy on tap water with a scale and backflush when the lights come on and is ready in seconds, an E61 I need to decide 30 minutes ahead I want a coffee, you have to be very picky with water and you have to maintain the group head. The BE takes up so little space too.
Great video! Another aspect often left out of BBE reviews is the resell value is very high. After a year or two of owning the machine you can still sell it for around $500 which will help in secure a higher quality machine.
54mm portafilter is MOST FORTUNATE part of this machine. As it is simpler to make espresso using it, yep, 58mm is harder to make due to much more probable channeling. And also you can buy quite unique 54mm portafilter for it that you do not need to heat up. It is also lot of 54mm portafilters, baskets, tempers and such. You just need to spend 5 minutes more finding them.
This machine often brews at pressures around 14 bars, which is really high. Each large notch on the gauge is meant to be 2 bar. I wanted a pressure closer to 9 bar for espresso, so I opened up my machine and adjusted the over-pressure valve so that it only gets up to about 10 bar now. Shots are much easier to get right, and less channeling is happening now.
@@KyleRowsell I have to say this man ，I own 878 also 870，870 It's too hard to get a Consistent beautiful, peaceful shot Out of the bottomless portafilter. But the 878is very easy to dial in And pull a beautiful shot with the bottomless Portafilter
I started with the Breville Cafe Roma, then now with the Barista Express! Can make 4 double short lattes in about 15 minutes for guests :) Love the video! 🥰
Hey Kyle, I presume that as I am watching this video 2 years after you made it, you wont respond, but some questions for you: 1. You mention about getting the machine hot by putting it on for 20 minutes, but then talk about the portafilter temp as the key part. As the machine is a coil for instant hot water and does not benefit from waiting 20 minutes, surely just by running portafilter and basket under hot water creates the same desired effect? 2. You mention about "keeping the dose the same" when dialling in, but when keeping the dose amount setting (knob) on the machine when changing the grind size, it changes the weight of the dose of the coffee (for me, grind setting 4 produces 17g, but setting 8 is nearer 20g). I presume when you mean keeping the same dose, you actually mean keeping the same weight? (was not clear in your video and wold confuse a beginner) 3. You mentioned about taking it to the maximum corse setting, but does that mean you changed the internal grind setting? Many machines out of the box in my experience and from hearing from others, when dialling in mean that even a grind setting of 1 still produces under-extracted coffee and the internal setting in the burr needs adjusting. Did you do anything like that here? Great video btw 🙂
Got my Batista Express a few years ago to start making espresso at home. Can you do a video for steaming milk and latte art? Love the video and just subscribed 👍🏼
Looks like you were pulling all your shots in preinfusion mode the entire time. On the Barista Express holding the button starts preinfusion, and letting go of the button end preinfusion and ramps the pressure up to full. Then you press the button when you have enough output to stop.
you have to use different grind sizes, if you flip the machine on it will be coarser, than after its sits for a while on. It took me a while to figure that out.
Love the videos! Espresso is a super niche topic on RU-vid and I’m so glad to see more people like yourself making good content. Like you, I owned a Barista Express for many years before upgrading although I came to a very different conclusion. Full disclosure, I had the old model with the square bean hopper. I don’t know what upgrades, if any, they have made since but my experience with that grinder was not good. For most of its life I just used the pressurized basket and had no issues with the machine. When I did start learning to use the regular basket I found it nearly impossible to dial in. It often couldn’t go fine enough even on the finest setting. Eventually the grinder actually broke after 8 years. This doubly sucks because it meant that now I had a perfectly good machine with a broken grinder attached to it(a huge potential draw back to this machine that no one ever talks about). I ended up buying a Niche grinder and immediately pulled the best shot I had ever made on that machine! The idea of this machine is brilliant but the crappy grinder, I think, ruins it in practice. I would agree with you that it’s a great beginner machine, but the grinder being attached to the machine means you can’t upgrade one without the other. It served me well for many years but ultimately I think it’s not worth it for a machine that is incapable of growing beyond entry level.
I love my breville barista touch but with all these machines you can waste a lot of Coffee beans to dialing in the right shot. But when you get it, the coffee is a dream.
I'm having issues on timing. I want to set up program on a double basket 16g 1:2 ratio on default pulls 48g in 29sec. Is my grind to fine how should I take the correct steps
Yo dude, this was one of the best explanations I've seen for this machine. The tips I will definitely be trying and looking forward to seeing the results. The only thing that confuses me is how you're pulling the shot. By holding the button down I believe (someone correct me if i'm wrong) this will go into pre-fusion mode, until you let go which then applies full pressure. This is not wrong but another way of making espresso. Were you always going for a pre-infusion shot? Do you prefer this to the other mode which is about 8 seconds pre-infusion and then it does full power? Please explain this.
Re: letting it heat up. The thermocoil isn’t like a boiler, it only heads when in use and as such doesn’t necessarily heat up the machine by leaving it. Also , the portafilter has a plastic insert to improve thermal stability in it, helping to reduce any temp drops caused by hot water normally touching metal
54mm is a good size. Della corte mina also uses 54mm. or other dual boiler expensive ones..There is non sense about changing a machine because it does not have 58mm portafilter. its grinder is also good, you can make extra mm adjustment inside the grinder's reservoir.
Big miss is not explaining when brew time is stsrted. Was it when button was pushed or when first drops come out? As others have mentioned, there is a pre-infusion time when using this unit, so the video ends up being confusing. Otherwise good high quality vid!
Smart switch will not turn on this machine as it requires button press, so the smart switch will turn on the circuit, but not the machine. Also, if you run one cycle i.e. single pull, it will circulate the enough water through the system which cuts down the warmup-ready to pull time considerably, with minimal loss of pull quality.
Not true. They rarely have it. Talked to store associates in 2 stores in Austin. Bought it on Amazon about a month ago for 356 with $200 off for amzn prime card.
Press of the button less pre-infusion if there is any (not sure if there is on this machine). What you're measuring is contact time between coffee and pressurised water. Just know that the 25-30s rule is a starting point only and can vary depending on type of beans and roast. If it takes more than 5s for the first drops to appear from your pf, then your grind is too fine.
i Have that model of expresso machine,and i have a geeni brand samrt switch and i put it on ,but iturn on the expresso and when i give it the command to turns on but the the expresso machine does not .
Very interesting video. Thanks! Learned a lot. Dumb question - what does an expensive grinder do differently that makes such a big difference? Also, do you manually run a 25-30 second pull every time you make coffee, or is that only for the dialing in, and use the 2 shot button for everyday use?
HELP..... No one ive seen, talks about the setting of the inside grind setting. ive only been able to pull shots at outside 8 inside 5. if I go any finer the shot normally won't even flow anything. any suggestions.......
Awesome review! Do you think is much better buying a separate breville grinder than the all in one machine? Because the separate grinder has 60 granulometry adjustments
Thank you Kyle for spending time for a thorough video like this!switch bot was mind blowing and I think ppl need to appreciate others effort a little more. Also, your b roll rock! I am from vancouver and would be curious what beans did you use in the video. Thanks for the awesome video as always!
Great video ! I also have it the BBS870 and with hand grinder 1zpresso JE-Plus, grinder will make huge different I was planning to upgrade machine to Rocket Appartamento
for the grinder.. niche zero is also conical grinder so whats the difference? if you buy flat grinder i will understand but now it doesnt make any sense.
You didn’t show the pressure in your last 2 shots. I’m curious because I always get a high pressure that’s outside the “espresso range” and that causes channeling which makes the coffee not that tasty. I haven’t figured yet out how to pull a shot in the correct time range, with 9 bars of pressure and no channeling. It’s driving me crazy.
Do you recommend Breville Infuser instead with a separate grinder ? If so, which most affordable grinder ? Niche zero that you mentioned is sold out. (Beginner) Thank you !!!!!!!!!!!
I really like that this espresso maker does everything, because I have never used any type of espresso machine, I am a beginner, I am looking to open a coffee truck, would this be a good machine to start my truck with? or do I need something bigger, better?
I’ve this BES870XL and am curious about when to stop the pulling of the shot. I’ve had several Breville machines over the past 20 years (including two of these, one for home and the other at work). All of them seem to keep discharging espresso after I push the button to stop the pull (not much, but I can always assume about 3-5 grams of liquid will continue to come out of the portafilter after my shot is “done”). So in the scenario of 17 grams of ground coffee, when would you stop the pull? At 34 grams of liquid out (ie, in the cup) which will yield closer to 38-40 grams of espresso... or would you account for the extra liquid and stop the shot at 30 grams, yielding closer to 34 grams of espresso in the cup? Great video! Thanks for talking this machine up! It is one of my favorites. I got extremely lucky, was gifted a Bed Bath & Beyond gift card, and bought the Breville Smart Grinder Pro. And even though the Barista Express has the built in grinder, it’s been about 6 years since I’ve used it last hahaha. BUT I still love this machine, and would probably buy it again over the Infuser if given the choice. I think it all has to do with the footprint on the counter. The Infuser machine, though nice, just seems dinkier and smaller and doesn’t have the same eye-appeal as the Barista Express. Not only does it look more commercial with the hopper on top and the larger footprint, I think it feels sturdier too. Maybe those are superficial reasons, but I think, even with a separate/better grinder, I’d still pick the BES870 over the 840 model.
Thank you for the info and great video. I just received this machine for Christmas from my girlfriend because I make coffee in a Forever Espresso coffee maker. Boil water and the pressure rises the coffee to give you an espresso. I have NEVER used an espresso machine, what video can you recommend for a day 1 beginner?
Thanks for the video! I have a Barista Express at home and one question I have and can't seem to find a straight answer is when to start timing my shot? Should the time start at pre-infusion(as soon as I press the button) or first drip? I have a Acaia Lunar scale and have the easy option to start timing at first drip but not sure if that's the correct way or if there even is a correct way?. I've tried both ways and get varying results. Not being a pro I'm trying to keep as many variables constant in this process as I can as I move forward in learning. I'm curious what your thoughts and method is with this machine and other espresso machines or if it changes for different reasons? Also is your grinder's internal burrs set at the stock 6 in this video or have you changed them? Look forward to your reply. Thanks!!
Hi! Either one of those methods works fine. It’s a debated topic. I personally start the timer after pressing the button. This will time the amount of time in contact with water. And the internal burrs were adjusted.
I have a Breville Express (without the built in grinder, but I use a separate Breville grinder). The Breville has a 10 second infusion, so I start the timer when the first drip hits the cup. I’ve found that when using 18g of coffee to try and get about 40g of extraction the sweet spot is 23-27 seconds. So a 2:1 ratio would be slightly lower time.
Hey Kyle, thanks for the video. Is 1.26oz all you recommend getting out of the dual shot basket? This is defined as a double shot? I’m confused about that a bit.
Hi Kyle thanks for the video.it was so helpful. Wanted to ask you…. I dialled in my espresso with the breville express 870, 1:2 ratio at 28 secs, but the pressure gauge was almost to the maximum (pressure to high). Was wondering what i should do to rectify this. The shot ended up tasting a little sour and lacked body. I used an 18g dose by the way. Could it have been the way I tamped? Would be great to hear your thoughts and recommendations. Thank you 😊
Great video. The Barista Pro is probably slightly more convenient and easy to use imo. That thing is ready to brew in like 2 seconds, the shot timer is extremely handy, and it has double the grinder settings. But other than that it’s pretty much the same machine.
Love your vids. I’m a new owner of a barista express. This may be a silly question but do you start the time from when the coffee begins pouring or from when you push the button. Also do you use the razor thing they give you to scrape the top after tamping?
Thanks for the video and explanation - what to do if I get almost towards the end of espresso range in pressure gauge, but still the coffee comes out in ~18secs + pre-infusion? going more finer will lead the pressure gauge in over extraction range
Hi! Great video, and very helpful too. I have been having trouble with my machine. I use a grind setting of 3 with freshly roasted coffee and when I pull the shot, (I use the automatic setting), the extraction takes between 10-15 seconds. Any advice on what I could do to improve? Thank you!
If it is still too coarse, you can adjust the inner burr to grind even finer. There are lots of RU-vid videos on how to do it. Also a dose of 17-18g works best with the single wall double shot basket. A 1:2 ratio usually works well too! Hope that helps - timing from press of the button, it should be 25-35 seconds.
Would this machine be a good choice for brewing white coffee? I have heard you have to buy pre ground only so I wouldn't be able to change grind size to dial in my shots.
I like to drink a full cup of coffee in the mornings. Would i have to drink 10 little cups to be satisfied or is there a way I can make a full cup? I took back the Nespresso due to the fake crema. Started using a French Press and kinda like it but missing the perfect coffee...... Thanks
Hi Kyle fab help - I’ve same machine (my second same machine!) but it’s extracting within 10-11 seconds I’m on number 4 - should I try 6 - Tk u -- also you say warm up 20 mins but instruction book says automatically turns off before 20 mins 🤔 if not using thank you again ☕️😊
I need some guidance on how to tamp correctly. I'm always struggling getting the perfect espresso with the correct tamp. How do you keep a consistent tamp pressure and when do you know it's good enough? There are moments I can not repeat the tamping process and mostly getting over extracted espresso but when I just touch it (almost no pressure) the pressure seems to be in the correct range but it brews to short. Are there some tricks you can do?
If you were dialing in using single shot basket, is it a linear adjustment in terms of grams of coffee to add? i.e. half as much as you use with the double? Ive just bought the Barista express. Still tinkering with it, havent quite got the right settings. the coffee wastage was bothering me so i switched to the single shot basket. Would have been ueseful to know what grind setting you had for the inner burr (I reduced mine from the default 6 to 3). Thanks for the vid
Hey Kyle, what grind size, gram amount and brew time do you recommend for a 10-12oz. latte? I'm assuming I should be doing a single shot, correct? Also, is the wand capable of producing enough heat to steam coffee shop quality milk?
I want a machine but I don't want to have to buy a separate grinder that's crazy maybe I should get Machine without Grinder gaggia ?? I'm use to making a Starbucks Double shot on Ice was 5 shots now they only doing 4 shots..use to there espresso..I like both Decaffe and caffeinated... What do u recommend?
Although I agree on the 20min preheat of the machine... Be aware this hinders the life time of the brewhead gasket...not expensive part (4-5euros) to get from dealers, but in Europe is almost impossible to get...so forced to order for around 15euros instead from third party dealers. Better pull 2-3 empty double shots with the group head locked and you get a very well heated group head in 1-2mins...
@@TurreTuntematon What I try to say is, put the portafilter with the basket as normal BUT without coffee, run twice the double shot brew (so only hot water passes through) and it is almost at a good temperature to brew espresso... At least this is what works for me...
I’ve been watching your videos and I like them a lot, congrats for the good job. I’m educating myself because I’d like to buy a Breville Barista Express, would you have any suggestion for websites or stores where to get this machine for a better price? Generally it’s listed for $700, but I’ve seen many videos saying during holidays you can get it for around $500. Until now (Thanksgiving) I’ve been looking everywhere but couldn’t find any promo or discount, nothing. Still listed at full price. I’d appreciate any suggestion, hoping at this point for the cyber Monday...
Hi Kyle, I have the same model. just to confirm, to manually test it, press and hold the 2shots button then when you release, it will automatically stop?
Hey, Thanks for the info. Just wondering how you adjust the timer for the extraction and what grinding setting it would be best? I currently have it all thw way down to the finest setting in the grinding and feels like the extraction is too quick and the shot is watery and have no crema. Could you please assist me? Thank you!
Hi Kyle, you sated we could reach out if we have questions, so here it goes. I am lost as to what I am doing wrong. I have the same machine as in this video. I am weighing both my does and yield but cant seem to find the right pattern. I start with an 18g dose that I have to set my grind to a 2 in order to get the correct pressure of the needle being at 12 o'clock. i see most people use 5 or 7 but I cant make this work for me. then I tamp down the grounds solid and run a timer when I do the pull. I end up with an 18g dose, 36g yield, and a run time of 34 seconds from the time I push the button to start the double shot. the result is a horrific acidic and bitter expresso. its so bad you cant even hold it in your mouth. if I try to back off the grind setting I get no pressure no matter how hard I press the grounds into the portafilter. in order to get something that's drinkable(but still not great) I end up with a yield of 67g with a dose of 18g and a run time of 45 to 50 seconds. could it be the coffee? I just don't get it.
Great video Kyle. Spot on Everyone says that its more important to have a great grinder than a coffee machine to get a great espresso. So if you have a good grinder like the Niche Zero, or a Baratza grinder, how does a more expensive machine such as a Linea Mini or Lelit Bianca machine deliver better espresso? Do the variables (temperature, pressure etc) change so much when upgrading to a more expensive machine?
@@xlectrikx single dosing is the best technique for the best results. Dose will be weight based and coffee can be stored properly to keep the coffee the freshest possible.
@@KyleRowsell and single dosing and running the grinder past the last of the beans won't harm the grinder? (I'm not suggesting it will, just cautious 😂)
I just got a Breville Barista Express but a different model, a bit cheaper but with a 58 mm portafilter. I was looking for a bottomless portafilter online but did not find any... Do you have any ideas if I can get one (living in Germany). Thank you... :)
