Breville - Creatista Pro (BNE900BSS1BUS1, BNE900)

How many coffees a day in your household? In mine it's one and I was a big a Nespresso hater as you could meet but love my Breville Creatista Pro. If you make more than one a day then certainly the rabbit hole awaits.

No regrets so far, 2 days in. lol. It’s so quiet! The steam wand is so powerful compared to other machines I’ve used (Breville Oracle touch, Breville Nespresso pod machine). Its small footprint is much appreciated, though I find myself already longing to get a drip tray with an integrated scale for that little bit of extra cup room. Heats up quickly, and seems to heat the portafilter up quickly as well, if I forget to lock it in place the night before. One question: I seem to be setting the Df64V grind setting at least 5 or more notches higher than with the flair 58. Is this normal? I’m using both with filter paper at the bottom and the flair 58+2 puck screen at the top…

Opinions vary on if the grinder is good enough, so YMMV depending on where you've personally set your bar. Keep in mind if you end up buying a better grinder down the road, it will mean half the machine's width would then be a very large paperweight. According to Lance Hedrick, the grinder should do if you're only using it for dark roast coffee, but the machine still has longevity issues. But there's also many other anecdotes from people who are happy with this machine. So to make sense of this, my hypothesis is this is perfectly fine if you're trying to replace your daily coffee shop visits with a DIY approach and this will do. I have the Pro model instead of Express, which has a better grinder, and my main reason for wanting to upgrade is because the machine is physically incapable of chewing through dense lightly roasted specialty beans. I'll know it when the machine makes a very unpleasant noise as it refuses to grind as a protective measure in case there's an actual rock. Then I'd have to unplug the machine so I can safely pick out the beans with my fingers, then continue the grind by slowly feeding into the grinder at the cost of consistency, or feed in single beans one by one at the cost of time, and remember to do this from now on for that particular bag of coffee.

I loved the Breville Express so much I bought the Pro version for my house. The office one is at least 8 years old now and it’s starting to trip the breaker randomly even when it’s the only thing plugged in. Electrician checked the outlet and wiring and didn’t see any issues, so I’m guessing the Breville is just on its last legs. After reading through the advice here, I’m thinking a superauto probably makes the most sense for the office. We’ve got too many people using it to rely on everyone dialing in shots properly. Consistency + low maintenance probably wins. I’m going to talk to some local suppliers and see what lease options look like and run the numbers properly. If there’s still room in the budget though… I’d love to sneak in something like a La Marzocco Linea Micra / ECM / Profitec with a proper grinder for the people who actually care 😂

I got the breville pro and am super happy, making an espresso barely takes more time than a full automatic machine, (apart of the first setup), is easier to clean and the tase is of course another level. Now I got mine for 370€ (returned and refurbished machine with some exterior damages which I still haven't found) which made the choice easier when compared to a 1000€ brew/grind combo but I'm positive that tgis 2in1 solution is right for me who doesn't want to make it a hobby I just want a good tasting coffee or 2 in the morning and have limited space in the kitchen. Little hint if you get this machine set the internal burr to 2 or 3 or you won't get a fine enough grind with the external setting

I got the breville pro for my husband’s first Father’s Day present this year… and made him open it a week early because he was going back to work that week and I wanted a tasty coffee 😂 It’s pretty straightforward to use once you futz around with the grind settings, and seems pretty low maintenance so far. We were literally spending like $40/day on “out” coffees during our parental leave because it gave us something to do with baby and kept us awake, so it’s delightful to have most of that money back, even buying fancy beans!

I just bought the same machine a few weeks ago, upgrading from the Barista Express. The touchscreen is cool or whatever but honestly, the biggest improvements over my old machine are the Baratza grinder, the milk wand is far superior, the fact that it helps you to dial in grind size and amount, the cold extraction feature is intriguing and I need to play with it a bit more, and the overall build quality. Not important, but I also go a colour that complements my kitchen much better than my old one. I have a lot of respect for the people in this sub who like the manual process of dialing in everything manually, but for me, I just want good coffee without a lot of thought, effort, and cleanup, and this machine is the perfect balance of those things.

The majority of these things are on facebook marketplace bc someone bought one, couldn't figure out how to make a decent cup - misused it or didn't maintain it and something simple but seemingly complex broke, and they are throwing it out. The Breville sub will light the way.