Our Price: $589.00
Product Description
The Barista Express, with its integrated conical burr grinder and dosing control, helps deliver the optimum path for beans to espresso in under a minute, ensuring a smooth and thick crema. The measured dose is delivered straight into the coffee filter to maximize luscious crema with every extraction.
Product Features
• Programmable or manual settings
• Sealed bean hopper with 8oz capacity
• Integrated conical burr grinder
• Preset o… More >>
Order Today: Breville Barista Express, BES860XL
I’ve just started to use my new machine, and everything but one looks fine.
The problem I am facing is that I just can’t have expresso hot enough. Reading the manual I’ve found two mentions about “accurate temperature control” but when I looked for a path to set it I’ve bumped with recomendations to pre-heat the cups.
Rating: 3 / 5
I recieved this as a gift for xmas and have had it now for 1 week.
It is a visually stunning machine and the quality of the espresso is just as
exceptional.
You need to read the instructions, and proceed from there. It is a very
easy machine to operate once you know what all the buttons are for.
I have had a starbucks machine and a gaggia classic in the past and i think
this is of superior quality.
Rating: 5 / 5
We have had our Breville unit for several months now. It has given good, reliable service and makes a terrific shot. I take capuccino (and the steam wand frother is very easy — the best manual frother I have used), and my lovely wife takes americanos. We use the “barista” filters rather than the Senseo-style “beginner” filters. The included pressure gauge makes it very easy to “sight in” your favorite shot by varying the grind and tamp till you find what you like.
The pump assembly, heating block, and user interface are terrific. The buttons have a nice feel, everything about the machine’s style radiates solidity. It is a pleasure to use. The waste reservoir in the base is large enough for several days’ coffee drinking, and is easy and simple to empty. The convenient hidden compartment behind it is a great place to stash the extras and cleaning tablets.
The grinder is indeed adjustable and delivers consistent sized grind when it is working. But there are several problems with it — it’s obviously Breville’s first attempt. First, the bean reservoir has very shallow sides — they are not sloped enough for most beans to autofeed, so we often end up pulling the top open and stirring the beans with our fingers, to get them to feed down into the grinder. Second, the grinder *will* jam if you use oily beans — which is too bad as we like a very dark roast. Mixing oily and dry roasts 1:1 seems to be OK, except… Third, the grinder *will* jam if you get even a little bit of water in it, which is inevitable if you fill the tank in-place on the back of the device. The molding at the top of the machine seems custom designed to direct otherwise-harmless drops of water straight down into the grinder where they will do the most damage.
The worst thing about the grinder is that it is a bitch and a half to clean. You can disassemble it — at least as far as getting the stator blades out from around the burr — but the part that jams is the feed paddles that push grounds out of the area under the grinder, into the top of the chute that feeds the espresso head in its holder (as pictured). That part is nearly impossible to get to. When the grinder jams, I vacuum out the coffee beans and grounds with the blade head on our vacuum cleaner (incidentally, Dyson vacuums rock), then go after it with a combination of toothpicks, pipe cleaners, and dust-free canned “air”. This generally happens in the morning, so I wake up the kids with the vacuum, and then everyone’s in a bad mood — the kids want sleep and/or breakfast, I want my coffee, and I’m rooting around with a toothpick cursing the designers.
We do run the clean cycle when the “clean me” light comes on, but I suspect it is on a fixed timer — we user reverse-osmosis water, shouldn’t have any boiler-scale issues at all.
Rating: 4 / 5
I spent my Christmas 2009 reviewing expresso machines. I had just returned from a trip to Europe and finally was going to fold and get an expresso machine. I missed the expresso from Italy and France. 1oz of crema delight.
So, I liked the Breville from all the reviews but was worried about some of the negativity on the “wet puck” I had read. All the reviews mentioned excellent coffee though, so it was on my short list.
Then I saw the Breville BES860XL, also known as the Barista Express Programmable Expresso. From the looks you can tell this unit has exchanged the hot water dispenser for a bean grinder. This unit is a fully automatic expresso machine with the super automatic feature of grinding a pre-measure of beans for your brew. Note, it is not a super automatic machine as you still need to manually mount the portafilter into the group head, and clean the filter afterwards. This is as automatic as you will want to go if you want to really control your coffee.
But, let me walk you through the pleasure:
1. the box. this has excellent graphics — even as you open, the getting started guide and pictures guide you along. The unit removes easily.
2. The tamper is magnetically held in place on the front of the machine — you can use it in place or remove for manual tamping.
3. New: -there is a dry puck feature now for all the fussy reviews — this removes excess water so you get, a dry puck
– an excellent burr grinder — you can dismantle this for cleaning, and it has a wide range of control
– for those that previously complained about the “cheat” dual wall filters — the unit comes with single and double dual wall AND single wall filters
– there is a hideaway storage tray to hold all the small goodies
4. Steaming — excellent steam temperature and pressure — works very well with the provided frothing jug, very minimal excess water to start
5. The real test. I am using the dual wall filters, and the Illy whole expresso beans I got from Italy were made into pure heavenly expresso. Nice crema. This is the real thing.
This is one finely engineered machine. From a mechanically inclined electrical engineer to the folks at Breville: you have created an exceptionally functional piece that does the job. Did I mention it is beautiful on the counter as well? I have it on an island, no bad sides.
Drawbacks: none. BUT, when making a real expresso shot, make sure you pre-warm your demitasse. Otherwise the expresso will heat up your cup and your coffee will not be hot. I run a water cycle first into my cup to heat up the group head and the cup.
In my opinion this is the best buy in the market under $1500. At the office, daily I use a super automatic machine that is at that top end.
Rating: 5 / 5