Breville Barista Impress

Nick Kulinich

Breville is probably the most important company in the home espresso market. I would say that 90% of Mosaic Coffee Roasters customers use a Breville to make their in home daily cup of coffee. 

That being said, I have always found it difficult to recommend Breville espresso machines to friends and customers. This goes for all price range models. There are quite a bit of reasons, but the biggest ones being; grind quality, small portafilter, terrible tamper, and automatic steam quality.

Each model has some things that are better than the other models, but at the end of the day, they all have some sort of deal breaker for me personally.

That is until Breville release the Barista Impress in September 2022. Finally, although not perfect, there are no deal breakers for me on a Breville machine.

 

1. The grinder is the same, but has more grind settings that helps with dialing in a good shot compared to models at a similar price point. 

2. Even though the portafilter is still small, with the new tamping mechanism, you're able to grind and tamp without coffee grounds falling out of the portafilter and making a mess. 

3. The tamping mechanism is quite nice to use. Very easy to adjust the dose amount and easy to tamp. There is also an auto dose feature, but I think your shots will be more consistent if you dial in the dose manually.

4. When it comes to steaming. The automatic steaming on the higher priced machines are considered an upgrade, but it's a downgrade for me. The manual steam wand on this machine produces smoother, silkier textured milk. 

 

In conclusion, for $899 you're getting a great user friendly espresso machine. The only week point is the conical burr grinder, but at the same time, that's what makes it so easy to use. As long as you clean it properly and use non oily, good quality coffee beans, you will enjoy it for a long time.

Back to blog

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.