Breville Barista Touch Espresso Machine BES880BTR, Black Truffle

AN AMAZING MACHINE!!! AWESOME COFFEE!!!
Ok, I am going to try to split this into two sections- the short review and an extended review.The short review: It is AMAZING and well worth the expense. Buy good beans and you are good to go.The longer review:First of all, this machine is expensive so I would look for any sort of sale. For us, it was worth it.The expense: At time of purchase this was going for roughly $799, but in terms of value it was worth it for us. Looking at our Starbucks bill, we spent well over that in just a few months because we would go there each morning and sometimes on the way home from work. We haven’t visited Starbucks at all since we bought this machine so it has more than paid for itself, and that is including the purchase of good beans.Starbucks was always a hit and miss depending on who was making our coffee each morning, but the Barista Touch has been a hit because once you create your settings it is always the same AND you can make micro adjustments until you get it just right (see “Features” below).The quality: It is very well made and the touch screen makes this a breeze to use- sooooooo easy. It has a drip tray that is very easy to empty and clean. The froth wand is easy to use and makes perfect frothed milk without any hassle at all. The tamper, it was good but not great so we opted for a spring loaded tamper and purchased a grind distributor which made using this even easier. If you have never tamped coffee, it can be tricky but using a spring tamper just made it so much easier however the tamper included is perfectly fine. We purchased the Sccody 53mm Calibrated Espresso Tamper which makes espresso tamping a breeze without any guesswork needed. The Barista Touch does come with a “blade” distributor, but I opted to buy a better one which has made for perfect coffee. We bought the Gurudar 53mm Coffee Distributor which is also a palm tamper but we just use it for the distribution of the grind instead of using the included Breville blade- again the included blade is good butr we wanted something a bit easier to use. Both the Sccody and the Gurudar are perfect additions and take all the guess work out of learning to make espresso, but there are many other options and even using what is included with the Touch you will be good to go with a small learning curve.The features: First, the touch screen- the Barista Touch comes with a screen that makes it so easy to create your coffee of choice. It has preprogrammed options (which are adjustable) and it allows you to custom build your coffee of choice and assign it an icon. In fact, everything is icon based and it even has a tutorial built in. For instance, if you want to make a latte, press the latte icon and a screen pops up with the easy to follow steps. You can make many different types of coffee including Americanos, Cappuccinos, and even simple espresso shots. You can even custom design your coffee, then assign it an icon, then every time you want that coffee you just hit the icon and follow the steps. Blamo- great coffee every time.Second great feature-the grinder. It has a built-in grinder which makes all the difference. The grinder is adjustable so you can change the grind size to fit your needs and to customize your coffee (fine or coarse grind).Next good feature- the water tank. It holds a good amount of water and is located at the back of the machine. You just have to watch the level but it will give you a “water tank is empty” message on the screen when you need to refill it.The downside: The only real thing we found to be a problem is the grinder and changing beans. We decided to try a different brand of coffee to see if we liked it but the hopper was full. Removing the beans from the hopper was a bit tricky and I know there is probably some short cut, but we managed and honestly it wasn’t that big of a deal.Comparisons: Our first espresso machine, the De’Longhi 15 bar espresso maker, was a good beginning machine but just isn’t as good as the Barista Touch. The De’Longhi didn’t have a grinder so we used pre ground coffee which was ok, just not super good and certainly not good enough to keep us from returning to our Starbucks habit. Our kid ended up taking it to college, so we upgraded to the touch. One thing that has made a world of difference, besides the included grinder, is the automatic milk frother on the Barista Touch. Super easy to use and is as simple as placing the milk pitcher, which is included, under the wand but it has to sit on a temp sensor to work accurately. We haven’t had a single problem with it to date. You can also use the frother in manual mode if you want, which is a great added feature but the automatic mode is good enough to make latte Art…that is if you know how to actually make latte art unlike me.As for adjustability, you can adjust how much coffee is ground, how fine you want the grinds, and how long the machine grinds the coffee. You can adjust the temp of the milk froth, you can go from automatic to manual mode to froth the milk so there are several options to adjust and fine tune to your exact specification.Overall, we love the Barista Touch- it makes amazing coffee. Of course, the beans have a great deal to do with it but still this machine rocks.UPDATE: Ok, I did find one tiny aspect of this most excellent machine that Breville could fix, aside from the price, and that is the frothing wand. Once you finish frothing the milk you have to clean the wand. It does a self clean, but when it self cleans the wand does not line up directly with the hole in the drain pan. ours is off a slight bit. The drain pan hole should be just a bit larger and that would fix everything. We found that after cleaning the wand we put the damp paper towel or rag near the base of the wand on the drain pan to avoid splashes. not a big deal but thought you should know.

Excellent sub-one thousand dollar machine
I was originally looking at a model with more manual options, but for a couple of hundred dollars more and touch capability, I couldn’t pass this unit up. Setup is a breeze, and cleaning the unit is as expected and not bad at all. The machine is pretty self intuitive and, overall, the results are excellent. This machine makes great coffee drinks that are tailored to your liking. The frother workers well, and I love the fact that it cleans/ rinses itself after each use. Keep in mind that it will take a few uses to dial-in the machine to your specifications. The most important thing to watch is the grind level. The Breville manual recommended a starting grind at number 12. That was way too fine and did not allow sufficient flow from the portafilter. It was not flowing at all. I have experience with these machines, and I was not over tamping the grinds prior to brewing. I adjusted the grind to number 20, and the coffee flows like a dream with excellent crema on the surface and still very robust flavor. Any finer, and the espresso or cappuccino was way too bitter and did not flow at all. It trickled and sputtered out of the portafilter flow vessels. I use the best coffee beans from boutique coffee roasters around the world — most on the darker side. If you just pay attention to the grind level, you will eliminate any unnecessary frustration right off the bat and the machine will work perfectly for you. To reiterate, adjust the grind level to number 20 to start. You can always go lower, but I doubt you will need to. To conclude, I’m very happy with the purchase and recommend the Breville Barista Touch to anyone looking for a sub one thousand dollar machine.

 La máquina está preciosa, por donde la veas y lo que le veas está bien pensado, bien hecho y bien ensamblado. Los accesorios (jarra para espumar, portafiltros, filtros, etc.) son de la misma buena calidad y trae todo lo que necesitas para hacer espressos y cualquier bebida a base de espresso.Todo fue como lo esperaba: la caja llegó en perfecto estado, todo super bien empacado, es muy fácil de usar aunque no tengas experiencia, pues te va guiando y dando consejos para que ajustes la molienda y el tiempo de extracción. El sistema de la máquina está en inglés o en francés, pero el manual de instrucciones está en español de México así como la documentación de la garantía y la información de contacto y soporte para México.Todo perfecto hasta que llegué a la razón principal por la que compré la máquina:A mí me encanta el espresso americano (doble shot de espresso sobre 200 ml. de agua caliente) y esta máquina trae un programa específico para “americano” que emplea una salida de agua caliente que tiene la máquina y que cae directo a la taza antes de que extraiga el café. Lo que Breville no aclara en ningún lado (ni en el manual, ni en las especificaciones, ni en info en la página) es que la elevación de la ciudad en la que uses la máquina afecta la forma en la que sale el agua y ¡vaya que la afecta?!!!Yo vivo en León GTO, a 1,800 metros sobre el nivel del mar, que es altura media si comparas con otras ciudades en México: CDMX está a 2,250 metros, GDL a 1,575 metros y MTY a 540 metros para que se den una idea.Lo que sucede es que empieza a salir un chorrito muy controlado y a los pocos segundos empieza a salir vapor por la misma salida y hace que el agua salga como rociada para todos lados y se salpique todo en 30 cm a la redonda (vean el video para que no crean que exagero). Hablé a soporte de Breville y resulta que es un problema que tienen bien identificado y la única solución que me ofrecieron fue regresar la máquina. Volví a llamar un poco más tarde y abrí un ticket de soporte por la página y luego luego me respondieron lo mismo. Lo tienen perfectamente bien identificado y tan saben que no hay forma de arreglarlo que me dijeron que pasaría lo mismo con la salida de agua de cualquier otro modelo. En todos los casos me dijeron que, si la función de obtener agua caliente era importante para mí, me recomendaban regresar la máquina a Amazon y casi que buscarle por otro lado. Claro que super amables y cordiales, pero yo estaba en shock y dudando si algo más le iba a fallar por ese: “¡Ups! ¿A poco hay gente que toma café en las planicies elevadas y en las montañas?” que se aventó Breville.Afortunadamente hay otras formas de obtener agua caliente de la máquina, pero la función de “americano” es imposible de usar en mi ubicación. La solución es hacer lo que he visto que hacen en algunas cafeterías con máquinas profesionales y es dejar que corra agua sin poner el portafiltro. Para sacar 200 ml de agua caliente se tarda 30 segundos (con el mismo botón de extracción), cuando termina pongo el portafiltros ya listo con el café prensado y todo y vuelvo a extraer 30 segundos para que salga el espresso. Lo único que hay que cuidar es la limpieza de la regadera por la que sale el agua para el portafiltro después de cada extracción para que cuando saques solo agua no arrastre café molido de la extracción anterior.Lo de la salida de agua fue una mala experiencia y me hizo pensar muy en serio si debía quedarme con la máquina o regresarla. Decidí quedármela pues toooodo lo demás lo hace extraordinariamente bien y en menos de 7 intentos, ya estaba sacando unos espressos super ricos y ni siquiera había comprado buen café, estaba usando el Garat de grano que molemos al momento para la cafetera de goteo. Hoy, a 5 días de recibir la máquina, ya ni me acuerdo que tiene salida para agua caliente y ahora que compré un buen café tostado recientemente, no puedo creer que me esté tomando un café tan rico en mi casa y que me tarde menos de 2 minuntos en hacerlo (el espresso americano).A mi esposa le gustan los lattes y capuchinos y no se tardó nada en aprender a usar el espumador. Le encanta la textura de la espuma y ya me dijo que guarde el Aeroccino y la Nespresso porque nada que ver el sabor.Si les sirve de algo, les recomiendo ajustar a 13 la finura del molido, moler por 17 segundos, prensar sin tanta fuerza y extraer por 30 segundos. Son los ajustes con los que estoy obteniedo 18 gr de café molido y aprox. 36 gr de un espresso con buen sabor y buena crema. He notado que si aplico mucha fuerza al prensador, varía mucho la cantidad de café que obtengo, el sabor y la crema, por lo que antes de ajustar molido y tiempo de extracción, les sugiero practicar el prensado hasta que sean consistentes.

Una cafetera muy bonita, muy funcional y completa.Tiene de todo y super facil de programar, revisar y sobre todo de usarCAFE de calidad todos tus dias