Barista Express Impress

I love my impress express. Got it for $499 at TJ Maxx. The TJ by me always has Breville machines so check there if you have one.

Sage Barista impress - bought it before xmas and can't fault it. I like all types of coffee so americano's flat whites caps... its expensive but still cheaper than buying coffee and its way nicer than the stuff you buy in most coffee shops once you find a decent bean source.

Hey all, I'm in the market for a PID controlled, single boiler machine for experimenting with brewing light to dark roasts. I'm upgrading from a Sage Barista Express Impress which tbh I have not enjoyed using at all for 2 years so far, partly because it's grinder is dogshit. I'm in the UK so we have fairly limited options here but as I'm going to be doing 90% espresso, 10% milky drinks from this I've decided that a single boiler is appropriate for me. No point in spending more on a dual boiler, and HX ones seem to take too long to heat up for me. I've come across the ECM Classika PID which is at the top of my list atm at 1,259.00, which leaves a good bit of my budget free for a grinder. Any other machines I should be looking at in this category? Also keen to find out the best grinders in the £250-£500 budget.

I have the impress because my girlfriend wanted a machine she could just use without much effort, because she doesn’t care that much about coffee. So it’s set up for her to use and honestly once I dialled it in it makes a pretty good coffee. She just hits the button, tamps it down and away she goes. I did recently convince her to try giving the beans a lil spray and using the WDT tool and she seems to think it makes it better, so that’s a small win. I have my own grinder, a timemore, so I can play around with grind a bit more. I really like the setup, but I know that’s a bit OTT because I essentially bought a second grinder that costs about the same as the whole machine, which destroys the point, but it was a compromise haha

As a someone who frequents r/espresso. I would recommend a Sage Bambino (or the Bambino Plus if you want to get into making a lot of milk drinks). You will need a separate grinder (it’s usually better to have a separate grinder as most ones that are included aren’t great.) If you have a higher budget and want closer to a bean-to-cup experience: Sage Barista Express Impress. Sage bought a maker of coffee grinders and has been equipping their newer machines with those better grinders. The Express Impress is pretty easy to use. When it comes to beans it’s important to not get really old beans. Most I’ve seen from coop/migros have been sitting on a self for 6+ months. Ideally it’s used within 2 months of roasting. I’m currently greatly overpaying for specialty coffee so I can’t give many recommendations for store bought ones. Whatever tastes best for you.

I had Sage (european Breville) Bambino (normal not Plus), switched to Sage Barista Impress and I definitely prefer Barista. The grinder is decent - I have Comandante C40 to compare, not much of a difference, I find myself using Barista's grinder 90% of the time because it's just more convenient. The Barista feels more solid, Bambino felt cheap and to remove the portafilter you had to hold the machine with the other hand cause the machine is so light. Plus you have temperature regulation with Barista, Bambino doesn't have this feature.

Good choice! I had the Bambino for a week and sent it back and got Barista Impress (so basically Barista Express with automatic tamping). Bambino felt cheap (very light, the portafilter is like taken from a toy kitchen), coffee coming was a bit random, sometimes not hot enough. I made a few great cups with Bambino, but it wasn't much that much better than Delonghi 685 I had previously. I don't really understand the little hype about this machine. Btw when I was cleaning Bambino before sending it back, I accidentally scratched whole side of it by using... a kitchen sponge 🙈

I have the regular express impress, now for about a month. So far I have found it to deliver pretty tasty espresso. Is it a barista grade machine? No, but for ease of use it can produce a good enough shot for me compared to the super automatic we used to have My gripes with it: if you’re pedantic you’ll have to use manual mode every time because you never know if you’re going to get 30 grams, or 35 grams out every once calibrated. I haven’t been able to replicate shots “automatically” but they’re good enough I use a timing scale and manual mode, my wife uses auto based on how I calibrated it. Works for us We use darker roast blends so the grinder has been adequate This place can be a bit of a rabbit hole suggesting you absolutely need all this extra stuff and steps in your work flow for maybe 1% extra. If that’s your bag, then maybe these machines aren’t for you. If you don’t care that your shot is 80-90% decent then I’d run with it like we did. That’s the trade off for getting a tidier and simpler workflow and automating some of the process