inexpensive Breville Barista Express Espresso Machine BES870BSXL, Black Sesame

inexpensive Breville Barista Express Espresso Machine BES870BSXL, Black Sesame 

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Kyvnmiller
5.0 out of 5 stars 1st month review
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2014
Color: Black SesameVerified Purchase
Its been a month since I have bought this machine. I have not worked every coffee making device out there but I have operated and tasted many. I had just lost my Deloghni magnifca super automatic machine after seven years of use. It was a pretty good machine for being a super automatic. But I have craved to get a real espresso machine and do a proper cappuccino. I have used french presses, Vietnamese phins, drip, siphon, and single serve kuerigs. Being in the Pacific NW you would except awesome cafe's everywhere, and you would be wrong. To get a good barrista that knows what they are doing, is slim to none. So with the exit of my super auto, I shopped for a good one. I kept coming back to the breville. Only knocks it was really getting was that breville was Australian and new to the game. I took the plunge and bought it, and I do not regret it.

So the good:
It comes with its own grinder. It not the best, but then again its no slouch. It can be taken apart and cleaned. My super never did that. What this means is that as you build up grounds on the Burr, you can pull it apart easily and clean it. It has a hopper that you can remove and place unused beans back in its container, that is just awesome, you can make decafe then switch to a new bean. A reviewer gave a good tip that when you first run it, start at the coarse then work it to fine when you start to grind, good advice. I word of caution from me, every different roast of bean will be a new setting for the machine. If you use a oily bean, then you might have to clean the burr a lot in order to get that fine grind. Also be prepared to go through a lot of coffee to figure out the right setting to get that perfect cup.
Temperature control. You can decrease or increase the temperature by 4 degree's, in 2 degree increments. Doesn't sound like much, but it can change the taste of your espresso.
Easy to program grind amount, and shot times.
It has a gauge to measure the pressure as it goes through the port a filter. It is a nice touch to be able to tell how things are working, several high price machine you have to feel it out and guess, this you can tell right away if something went wrong and you can adjust.
The steam wand is easy to use, the switch on the side is okay, my super did have a better control knob that you could control the amount of steam that came out, but this one is slow enough that its not that bad to operate.
Clean up is a snap, I really enjoy the fact that I can easily and quickly clean it up.
It has a water filter, where I live we have a high concentration of hard water, so having a second filter to go through is nice.
Parts. Breville has all the parts you can buy to fix your machine if they go out or need replaced. I am talking about new port a filters, rings, hoppers, water reservoirs, ect.
It is pretty, looks really good, makes you want to drink coffee.

The things that are not so nice:
You will go through a lot of coffee. This is most true when you first get the machine and try to figure out how to run it. There is a couple of way things can go down. 1) you drink every cup you make, I suggest you do this alone. Anyone around you will worry you are on something because you will be running at a 1000 mph on that much caffeine, no matter what your tolerance is. You will be wondering why everyone around you is moving so slow. 2) invite people over and watch there reaction to find out well you are doing on making that espresso.
Mess from the grounds. It has a tray, but for some reason my grounds always seem to go further then the tray. I placed a small dish under the grinder it that keeps it contained and its easily cleaned. You can also fill the port a filter, tamp, then fill a little more until you reach the proper level. I place a paper towel down and do the tamp on that, it catches the grounds that fall when tamping.
Don't expect a piping hot cup of joe. You can get it hot enough, by following their suggestions. I poor hot water in my cup before and do a single shot on a empty port a filter, that seems to do a good enough job.
My latte art is of clouds, mushrooms, cotton balls. I believe that is my malfunction though.

Overall, for the price (especially now) and the quality of espresso I am getting, its the top choice. Is it the best machine out there, no. But if you can afford those then I am not sure why you are reading things on amazon. Try different beans, they will taste different from what you are used to, each type will need different techniques to get the right pull. The Seattle best coffee bean, I only need to lightly tamp, the Vietnamese Civet I have to really press hard to get to the right tamp. I will trying several others as I go along, but I think that's the best part of this machine. And to the few people ( there is other things I would call you) about the California restrictions, in the manual it does say that the parts on the machine that does come in contact with coffee or water is BPA Free and there is no parts that will make you grow a third limb, unless you already have one. If you read the blasted bill you might figure out what it actually is saying, Anything with a grinder or power cord falls in this warning. I don't know about you, but I am not grinding bits of plastic in my coffee, and I am not sucking on the power cord, but if that's what you want to do, go for it.

For me, this has been a awesome buy, thank you for reading.
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Kelly
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing and user friendly
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2024
Color: Black SesameVerified Purchase
My husband and I just invested in this machine and we love it. It’s pretty easy to set up and use. It comes with everything you need, the tamp is super nice . This machine also powers on and heats up in just minutes, it also super easy to break down and clean. I would recommend this to anyone it’s worth the investment to be able to make your own drinks at home and save so much time and money.
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Placeholder
5.0 out of 5 stars Great product and money saver!
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2024
Color: Black SesameVerified Purchase
Simple to run and maintain. It’s a huge money saver, compared to buying Starbucks almost daily.
The best machine on the market!
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Morgan
5.0 out of 5 stars Yes, yes, yes, 1000x YES!
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2023
Color: Black SesameVerified Purchase
What is there not to like about this machine?? It’s by no means a commercial espresso machine- but it is a phenomenal personal machine!
Takes a bit to warm up properly, so if you are an early morning espresso consumer, turn this on first thing when you wake up.
Very customizable brewing methods, as well as grinds! It is a bit heavy, which I consider a good thing. Personally, it is a comfortable size. The portafilter is a good weight and very comfortable to hold.
The steam wand is exactly what I was hoping for! Very good range of motion on it, powerful, accurate, just all around pleased with that!
It will take you some tweaking to find the correct settings for each type of bean you put into this machine, so please keep that in mind! So far, nothing that comes out wonky is the machines fault. It is either user error, or just a trial and error kind of thing! That is exactly what you need to do. Trial and error until you find the perfect setting for your beans. Every bean/blend is different!!! This is not a miracle machine that you can choose one setting and every type of coffee you put through it will be the same, that’s just unrealistic!
If you are an amateur barista, this machine may seem overwhelming. I do recommend you do your research to find exactly the kind of machine that will be most suitable for you! There are lots of videos online explaining how to get the best grind and quality out of your brew with this breville, so watch those as well!
I cannot stress this enough!
Easy to clean, comes with just about everything that you need! Mine came with two cleaning tablets and one filter pod, so be sure to grab extras as you want to clean this machine every use to keep it functioning properly! Cleaning maintenance videos are online from breville.

If you are in the market for a quality machine and know your way around brewing espresso, this is the one for you! Even if you aren’t familiar, just educate yourself and you will fall in love with this!! Wish I had the means to gift this to everyone in my family this holiday! Couldn’t be happier to invest in this!
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Sebastian Robles
5.0 out of 5 stars The best coffee
Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2024
Color: Black SesameVerified Purchase
Well worth getting this machine. Can adjust to your preferred beans and tastes amazing. After a bit it's pretty easy to use. I feel like you have to refill the water tank somewhat more often than you'd think but not too bad. Pretty quick to warm up.
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Patrick
5.0 out of 5 stars Would Buy Again - Great Customer Service
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2018
Color: Black SesameVerified Purchase
The reviews I found online were extremely helpful so thought it only right to post one based on our experiences so far following a purchase in February 2018.

Initial reaction - very high quality product. Heavier than I expected as well which may also have been a psychological factor that it was built well. We were switching out from a Starbucks Athena which had worked flawlessly for 15 years so clearly this machine has a lot more bells and whistles than the Starbucks unit.

First product use - I had read some negative feedback on using 'oily' beans which I thought was a bit weird given that we use very dark roasted beans (Italian Roast) that are typically oily. Sure enough, the first attempt at bean grinding was essentially a bust - so I naturally assumed it was the oily issue. Contacted Amazon who connected me to Breville immediately (e.g. 2 minute wait). The customer service rep was fantastic - had me do a grinder calibration by running rice through the machine and dialing the grind number up and down. Once that was done and the beans went back in, the coffee started grinding without a hitch! So, not an 'oily' issue. Problem number two occurred while the rep was still on the phone. I was getting little-to-no pressure on the press. The rep had me switch out the insert to help on the pressure. That problem was fixed. I immediately got a good shot of espresso (note that she said good pressure was between "11am" and "1pm" on the gauge). Next test was the foam. We use 2% milk and I was a bit worried that the small foaming tin included would overflow and generally not be big enough. Wrong. This machine produces VERY good foam and does it quickly. I had considered buying the dual-boiler so the steamer was always ready but thought about it a bit and realized we only do espresso or macchiatos so probably overkill. Right call on that. The steamer 'uptime' is less than a minute and foam is less than a minute. Excellent all around on this front.

Tweaks - we set the water temp up to max as I've historically found this to be a problem with first runs in the morning. Overall, this seems to be a good adjustment.

Still need to work on the following - 1) for whatever reason, we still get an occasional low pressure on a single or double shot - not sure why. No change in grind using the same insert. I'm convinced we're using the same amount of ground coffee and tamping it the same. But, the pressure gauge stays in the 9am range...not 11am to 1pm that the customer service rep said was in the good category; 2) I haven't spent enough time playing around with different grinds and inserts so I'm sure there is a better taste waiting at some point; 3) Size of single or double shot - these seem to be consistent and appear to be tied to the compaction of the grind - when tamped a lot, the shot runs longer but you get about the same amount of espresso (makes sense). However, I thought I read that you can adjust this flow and I'd like to do that given my preference for a longer pull of espresso. 4) we haven't done a thorough cleaning yet, e.g. full clean of the grinder, but the machine is easy to keep looking great. We make a point of cleaning/washing the water catcher immediately after use each day given that our old machine stained after years of use and lack of daily cleaning. So far - it's working.

I've seen a lot of 'tinny' products on the market and this is not one of them. I also read a lot of comments on 'perfect espresso' - seems to me that espresso is a lot like good wine. One wine - most people just know if it's good or not and whether they like it or not. This machine will be a great machine for all of you. It might be a good fit for the experts but I just don't know...I'm not one.
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Tom T
5.0 out of 5 stars The best espresso and latte
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2018
Color: Black SesameVerified Purchase
I have been using the Brevill BES870BSXL The Barista Express Coffee Machine for a couple of weeks. We have very pure well water, though it is hard since it contains calcium and magnesium. This has no taste, but can affect the clogging of any water heating appliance. I mentioned this because the flavor of the espresso and the function of the machine can be affected.
I have used and reviewed several espresso machines through the Amazon Vine program and bought one other, this one I researched specifically for several months and purchased it myself. I have received for review/used mostly the cheaper units of several manufacturers, (Mr. Coffee, DeLonghi, Capresso, etc.) The comparison between this higher priced Breville and the less expensive machines is not entirely fair except on the level of taste.
This Breville machine is far beyond the functioning of any that I have had. As I learned about espresso, I mostly drink latte, and my taste has refined, the cheaper machines would not satisfy. This Breville machine makes amazingly great latte and espresso.
The biggest difference in using this machine rather than using the less expensive machines is the ability to control the strength, flavor and coffee grind; and the pressure. The flavor of my latte is not only as good as the latte purchased from the better coffee shops, it is consistently better. I had to fight to get a good flavor out of the other machines and work them to the maximum.

THE PLUSES OF THE BARISTA EXPRESS:
The beans are held in a storage unit on the top of the machine, they can be ground to powder if you desired, but it has multiple grind settings.
The water tank holds a lot of water and is easy to remove and fill or fill while attached.
The function buttons are easy to see and the functions make sense and are easy to use.
The correct amount of ground coffee goes directly into the filter basket automatically. The tamper stored under the machine by a magnet. The amount of coffee has multiple settings for both one and two cups of espresso.
The ground coffee basket holder goes into the group head with ease.
The pressure gauge lets you know the pressure of the tamped coffee being extracted with an indication of the optimum pressure point. The pressure of your tamping is a learned function by using the gauge. In this way you learn the strength of your tamp for your best espresso.
When you are finished, the machine purges itself of stream and hot water in the tray.
The streamed milk function works better than any machine I have used. Very small bubbles to big foam can be made easily. You decide what you want.
Hot water is also available on the unit.
The machine comes with cleaning tablets, tools, tamper, milk frothing cup, extra filter cups, and a place to store them.
NEGATIVES:
As far as I am concerned there aren't any. It is important to clean the milk frothing wand immediately after frothing or the milk gets hard on it from the heat, but I did not find this an issue.

Overall:
I really love the way this machine works and the espresso and latte that I can make. It makes the espresso easily and much quicker than any machine I have used. The taste and texture of the lattes are beyond compare. My only regret is that I should have got the red one instead of the black, though the black unit looks really great. I never realized that the price of the espresso machine would make such a huge difference in the quality of the espresso and the latte.
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Christina Ferrante
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best purchases I have ever made!
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2023
Color: Black SesameVerified Purchase
Disclaimer: I spent a month in Australia last year and found an absolute appreciation for good coffee/espresso. So I went on a mission to have that experience right in the comfort of my own home.

With that being said, I spent tens of hours scouring the internet (and asking friends) on what at-home machine I should invest in. The answer was the Breville Barista Express. Then I read the reviews on Amazon...and one review was so concise and informative I took the plunge. The reviewer commented on his experience from the machine to all the accessories you would need to get. And that's what I did.

** WHAT I WILL SAY IS THIS.... WAIT to purchase until the machine is 20% off (if you can stand to wait & watch). The sale was almost $200 cheaper during the Prime sale. ** Because you will want to spend money on a few other items, which could potentially be that extra $200 **

1) The machine itself is extremely easy to use. There are videos on YouTube that are less than 10 minutes that will tell you how to unbox, set-up, and pull your first cup of espresso.

1a) Turn your machine on and start getting everything ready and let it warm up for about 10 minutes. Use the top of the machine to warm your cup before you pull your espresso.

2) I purchased beans at Whole Foods. I only buy 1/2 bag at a time...which lasts me a week or two (I don't make an espresso every day)... I suggest getting "fresh" whole beans. It makes a difference. Definitely purchase an air-tight container for these. Target, Amazon... get something that fits your visual vibe. But get one.

2. In terms of measuring beans and all that... I did it the first few times. I purchased a digital scale at Target. But to be honest, if your grind amount is set correctly, you're gonna be okay without one. I add a couple of scoops of beans (with the Breville measuring cup that is added) and grind those.

3. The tamper that's included is good... but I'd also recommend the "MATOW 53mm Coffee Distributor & Tamper, Dual Head Coffee Leveler" - I actually use both. The amount of coffee grounds in the filter cup is extremely important. When using the tamper, the silver part of the tamper should just be seen above the rim of the filter cup. DO NOT OVERFILL! Use the leveling tool to get the right amount and them tamp!

4. This machine is EXTREMELY easy to clean. I'm all about iced lattes. So as I'm waiting for my espresso to cool down a bit I empty the grounds, pull the bottom try (which will fill with water each time after use) and empty/wipe it down.

I wouldn't say I visit coffee shops very often... but once you start making your own espresso you'll become super judgmental of how others prepare your coffee. Once you get the hang of it... you'll be pleasantly surprised with your newly developed skillset.

It's worth it. Take the plunge!
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Mary
5.0 out of 5 stars I promise you can save $$$
Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2024
Color: Black SesameVerified Purchase
It takes a lot of practice but I promise you can make coffee that is BETTER than chain coffee places. There are so many videos that will show you how to properly use the machine to get the best coffee every time. It’s an investment, sure, but you will safe yourself money in the long run with this machine. Delicious coffee every time right at home.
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Erika
5.0 out of 5 stars Just buy it!!
Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2024
Color: Black SesameVerified Purchase
The ease of having a great iced Americano at home instead of buying it at the cafe….as much as I love coffee shops! I am in Washington state lol but I would also like to save money. This espresso machine is worth a buy. I have been looking for years for one and it’s costly but worth it. Make sure you check on the price monthly if you’re waiting like I did.