BackgroundBarista Express
TheBreville Barista Expressis one of the top selling espresso machines in North America, if not the absolute top of the list. Breville claims it’s the #1 in both Canada and the USA and has been for nearly 10 years.
And why not: the price point is absolutely fantastic (at $700 it’s a deal; at the sometimes sale price of $600 or less, even more so); it looks fantastic and serious (especially with the pressure gauge up front); comes in a variety of colours (we’re testing the Black Sesame model), and it functions extremely well based on hundreds of thousands of units sold in the past 11 years.
There was an earlier variant of the Barista Express, released around 2011; it was replaced a year later in Australia by the current model (the BES870XL range), and in 2013 in North America. Only one minor change was made in 2019, when Breville re-set the machine’s OPV (overpresssure valve) to 135psi / 9BAR. There are rumours the machine may be updated to use Baratza’s M2 burrset in the future, but other than that, the machine has remained the same since 2013.
We long hesitated reviewing this model because of very poor experience with combination machines (mostly from Italy) in the 2000s. Back then these “combi” machines, as they were called, usually featured really poor grinders, lousy sound insulation for the pump and grinder, and were designed in such a way that if you got the smallest amount of moisture anywhere near the grinder or doser areas, everything would gum up. Very little thought went into these machines beyond a) making them 110V for North America, and b) slapping the cheapest grinder they could find into an espresso machine housing.
The Barista Express from Breville set a new standard that, frankly, the Italian brands still haven’t caught up to, including the latest Delonghi La Specialista machines, which have a variety of deficiencies when compared to the Barista Express.
A lot of care and attention went into all the things that normally made combi machines bad: the Barista Express’ grinder is excellent and well suited to the job at hand; the machine is quiet and keeps vibrations to a minimum with good use of rubber grommets and insulated areas; and the Barista Express is designed from the ground up to do two things well: grind coffee and pull shots.
We promised a full review of the Barista Express for 2022. I did not deliver on that. I wanted to change this in 2024, but realised our previous “First Look” had some dated aspects, so this is a complete redo of this article, in anticipation of a Full Review later this year.
Out of the BoxBarista Express
The Breville Barista Express looks serious the moment you get the box. It looks great from the operator standpoint, and looks feature rich once you turn the box around and read the back panel.
The front of the box contains some of Breville's promotional information on the machine.
Left side, for the Canadian market has French
The back of the box is chok-full of info. Note, this box is being updated in 2024, so yours may not look like this.
Right side with English information.
The Barista Express is packaged extremely well and safe, but with very unfriendly (to the environment) styrofoam. We really hope Breville will continue to introduce enviro-friendly packaging to their machines in 2024 and beyond (they are doing so with some of their product lineup, but existing machines seem to have this legacy packaging).
When you open the top of the box, you see another thing that sets Breville apart: this machine comes with a lot of extras. On top of the styro forms, you see extra filters, a cleaning kit, a Razor dosing tool, a nice heavyweight portafilter (with the standard double basket already inserted), a water filtration system, a coffee scoop, and Breville’s magnetic tamper. And there’s still more inside the box – it also comes with a great quality 450ml (16oz) steaming pitcher (saving you at least $15 or more).
Inside the cleaning kit box, you’ll find a cleaning disk (needed to backflush the machine) and starter cleaning tablets, along with a cleaning brush for the grinder, a special cleaning tool for the steam wand and an allen key for the grinder.
Inside the filter box, you’ll find the 1 and 2 shot dual wall filter baskets (for using older coffees or producing foolproof crema) as well as the single shot normal basket (the double shot basket is already in the portafilter).
Practically the only thing missing is coffee and a knock box. They do sell avery nice mini onefor under $30, if you’re inclined.
Inside, as you open the box, you see some of the extra goodies that Breville includes with this machine.
Here's the included tamper (magnetic, latching) and Breville's Razor dosing / levelling tool.
The Express ships with four filter baskets (one is already in the portafilter). There's also the quick start guide to get you up and running. Follow it religiously.
The 54mm portafilter (with the double filter basket removed so you can see the plastic insert). I believe this insert can be removed with a bit of elbow grease.
Unboxing is pretty straightforward, though I did put the box upside down to let the styro-enclosed machine slip out easier. This is fine to do with the machine when it’s brand new; but if you’re storing the machine in this box after use, never flip the machine upside down, as the water remaining inside could damage things. Find a friend to help re-unpack it.
The Barista Express itself is wrapped in lots of plastic to protect its beautiful outward appearance. Tape is also used to secure things like the drip tray and water reservoir. The grinder bean hopper is not attached, and is stored under the machines’ grouphead.
The machine is very well cocooned for transport and storage, though we'd like to see Breville move away from the styrofoam.
For first time unpacking, turning the machine upside down or on it's side is fine, but don't do this if you've used the machine and are then storing it and want to re-unpack it later.
The machine is well wrapped in plastic and tape to keep things secure and stable. The bean hopper and milk pitcher are stored in the drip tray area for shipping.
All the goodies the machine comes with: milk jug, filter baskets, cleaning kit, Razor dose tool, tamper and full manuals and guides.
The espresso machine and grinder combo has a nice weight to it. Not super heavy by any stretch, but not a lightweight either, weighing in at 9.55kg empty (21lbs). The Barista Express is a good size too. It measures 41cm tall, by 31cm wide and 34cm deep (15.8″(H) x 12.6″(W) x 13.2″(L)) and will fit under most cupboards on your kitchen counters.
Normally I cover espresso machines top to bottom, but in the case of the Barista Express, I’m going to focus on the things my eye and attention is drawn to first. And the first thing I really noticed once getting the machine all unwrapped is the steam wand. Inoticed right away the full rotation and feel of the steam wand. I’m so used to budget espresso machines having wonky, tight and awkward moving steam wands, the Barista Express’ variant feels very “pro”.
The steam wand has a full 360 degree swivel action, for use at almost any angle. It features Breville’s “assist” mid handle ring design, giving you a place to grab the wand and move it without getting burnt (it is not a cool-touch wand).
Unlike other budget espresso machines, the Barista Express has a dedicated hot water tap, which sits in front of the wand. It is in a slightly awkward position (if you want to hold your cup close to it when dosing hot water). Still, this is another “prosumer” feature on this budget friendly machine.
The magnetic tamper included with the Barista Express slots into the front left, and becomes pretty intuitive once you use the machine for a few weeks (ie, you can insert it or remove it without watching). Interestingly enough, Breville designed it this way with the thought that some folks would just tamp upwards, right into the magnetically held tamper, skipping the step of removing it to tamp traditionally. This comes from the old school days of big espresso grinders with the dosing chambers; many of them would have a built in “tamper” in the front of the doser that baristas would raise up to to press down on the dosed coffee. Weird, huh?
The next thing to catch my eye was the cradle area where the portafilter is inserted when grinding coffee with the machine. The cradleis a grippy, flexible plastic that locks down nicely on the portafilter, but also easily flexes and releases it when you remove the PF from the cradle. Another bit of “polished” package here from Breville.
The water reservoir drew my next attention, so I checked it out more. The Barista Express comes in a lot of different colour choices, and depending on the machine’s colour, the water reservoir could be clear plastic, light gray “clear” plastic, or what I had on my test machine: a smoke-grey plastic. Filling it up measured to just over 2 litres at the max line (68fl.oz), and it can be easily removed thanks to the flip top cover that changes to a handle, and brought to the sink for a refill. Since 2018, Breville has included a water filter with their reservoir (nice!), but it remains one of the few machines in their lineup without a low water sensor system built in.
As I looked around the machine, the drip tray slid out, so that garnered the next attention.The drip tray is one of the deepest I’ve ever seen on a machine this size, measuring in at 1.1 litres capacity (37 fl.oz) when you see the “empty me” flip up sign. There’s also a nice multi-element design to the drip tray to help keep stray grounds from the grinder from fully mucking up the drip tray water. And the drip tray also latches onto one of Breville’s secrets of this machine: a hidden accessories tray that slides out along with the drip tray when you remove it.
To be honest, a ton of engineering has gone into the drip tray design, and it shows.
Since I’m all about measurements at this stage, the grinder hopper drew my next attention. It almost holds a standard 12oz bag (250g is more realistic), and has the usual Breville design of a nice bean shut off system for removal while it is still full of coffee beans. The hopper does overhang the cup warmer area a bit, but you can still fit six espresso cups up there easily, or 3 espresso cups and two cappuccino cups with ease.
The wand has a full 360 degree travel, and while it is not a cooltouch wand, it has the nice big Breville Assist ring midway up for easy control and manipulation.
One of Breville's signatures on espresso machines is the magnetic dock for their tampers. They aren't the best tampers, but they're not bad.
Depending on the machine colour you get, the reservoir might be smoke black (like this one) or a light grey see through design. The lid transforms into a handle for carrying.
The low profile hopper holds 250g of coffee; there's room for 6 espresso cups on top of the machine, or 3 espresso cups and 2 cappuccino cups.
The drip tray on this machine is an engineering marvel. It can hold up to 1.1l of spent water, and the quality starts at the metal cover, designed to funnel water below.
Here, you see the "sub assembly" of the tray, featuring a ground coffee "stop" plus rubberized grommets so there's no vibration noise in the metal drip tray. Very nice feature.
This traps about 90% of the stray coffee grounds coming from your grinder. Very nice design.
This machine features a hidden compartment that latches on to the main drip tray and slides out from deep inside the machine. Store you filter baskets and cleaning supplies here.
Now for the main attraction: the Barista Express’ control panel.It may look a bit complex, but in reality, everything is pretty straightforward.
The power button on the left is next to the grind volume amount dial (an electro-mechanical timer dial), and those sit next to the grind dose button (single or double) which also acts as a stop button for the grinder when actively grinding. Below that button are the single and double shot indicator lights for which dose you’ve selected. If I have one gripe here, those indicator lights are way too bright.
In the middle of the Barista Express is the very accurate pressure gauge; in testing, it’s “play” is a lot more accurate some more expensive machines I’ve used.
To the right of the dial is the program button for programming the single and double shot volumes. Next to that is the single and double shot brewing buttons, and below it are two indicator lights, one for cleaning indication, and the other to show when the steam or hot water system is active.
Here’s the layout with some tool-tipping.
On the left of the machine is a rotary dial for selecting the grinder’s fineness setting. On the right side is a two way dial for activating hot water or steaming functions. When the dial is pointed straight up, those two systems are in standby mode. The only other indicator on the machine is a floating “empty me” warning sign built into the drip tray.
Where the grind can be modified in roughly 15 steps (it's sort of stepless). Sweet spot seems around 4-6 on our test model.
Steam and Hot Water control - rotate it clockwise for hot water, counter clockwise for stem.
The North American version of the Barista Express runs on a 1600W system, which divvies up that power to the grinder, the pump, the electronics package, the lights, and of course, the thermoblock, which chews up the vast majority of the power.
Overall, the entire machine looks polished and well done. I’ve been reviewing a lot of budget machines lately ($300 to $600 range) and the Barista Express, along with other Breville machines (the Bambino Plus, Infuser, and Bambino) all have a fit and finish that is just in a league of their own.
One last note from this unboxing session: I noted the packaging said this machine has a one year warranty. I checked with Breville and yes, the Barista Express has just a 1 year warranty. This is notable, because their newer machines, including the Barista Touch, Barista Impress, and even the Bambino Plus have 2 year warranties. I wonder if this is just an overlook by Breville.
On the Counter
The Barista Express from Breville doesn't take up a lot of counter space, but provides both the grinder and espresso machine, as well as a hot water source.
