In this Breville Barista Touch review, we’ll discuss why the machine has been a hit among customers with its ability to make some of your favorite coffee drinks quickly and effortlessly. Don’t miss the What You Need To Know Before Buying section, as it’s full of informative tips that will help you decide if this is right for you before investing in such machinery.
Our Quick Reivew
Breville Barista Touch
4.6 / 5
Reviewer
Pros
- 3-second heat-up time.
- Intuitive touch screen display.
- Digital pressure control (PID).
- Has automatic milk texturing.
Cons
- Single boiler.
- Limited tinkering on drinks.
- A bit expensive compared to other models with the same features.
- Grouphead can be a bit messy with coffee puck sticking.
Summary
The Barista Touch espresso machine is the most recommended espresso machine to a lot of aspiring home baristas. It can heat up fast, has a built-in grinder, and it has an easy touchscreen control panel that allows you to choose from eight customizable coffee drinks and five other beverages that you can preset before the day begins. But this machine is not for those who are earnest about making milk froth because its automatic milk frothing produces inconsistent quality froth.
Overall Design5
The Brewing System4.5
Coffee Quality & Versatility4.5
Cleaning Maintenance4.5
Value4.5
Overview
The Breville Barista Touch allows you to make café-quality lattes and cappuccinos at home with ease. It has an intuitive touch screen display that lets you choose from a menu of pre-programmed specialty coffees or create your custom beverage to suit your taste buds using the built-in grinder for fresh ground beans on demand. And since it brews in under two minutes, there’s no reason not to enjoy a great cup of coffee every day!
Breville is an iconic global kitchen appliance brand that empowers people to do things more impressively or easily in their kitchens. Breville has a history dating back to 1932 with its founding in Sydney, and since then, it has grown into the beloved household name known for boosting creativity through thoughtful design.
LDC Touchscreen + Burr Grinder
Breville - the Barista Touch
Barista-quality performance with new intuitive touch screen display with pre-programmed café drinks menu and automatic milk texturing. All within a compact footprint. A built-in grinder delivers the right amount of ground coffee on demand and with a 3 second heat up time, you go from bean to cup, faster than ever before.
Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API or Directly from the Manufacturer. #CommissionsEarned
Overview of the Breville Barista Touch
The Good:
The Barista Touch has four features of an espresso machine that every coffee lover will surely love. It has an intuitive touch screen display, personalized coffee settings, an automatic coffee milk frothing, and a hands-free operation. It’s like setting up a cafe in your kitchen that can make you coffee at the touch of a button!
Other features of this espresso machine worth mentioning are its built-in, conical burr grinder that permits you to grind coffee beans in your desired size and amount—also, the fast 3-second heat-up allows you to prepare coffee on demand.
The Bad:
The thing that’s a turn-off about this espresso machine is that it’s a bit expensive compared to other espresso maker models that resemble its features. It also lacks preheating options for mugs to ensure the longevity of the temperature of your coffee. Lastly, cleaning is a challenge because the coffee puck often sticks to the grouphead rather than staying in the portafilter.
The Bottomline:
Overall, the Barista Touch is easy to use and can prepare coffee as quickly as 3-seconds. In addition, its features and functionalities are simple to operate, which makes it a newbie-friendly machine. Best of all, it allows you to experiment on your brew and beans with its settings that allow customization. However, it’s worth remembering that above all these features, it also comes with a price.
So if you’re on a budget, you can opt for Bambino Plus if you’re not a froth person or a Breville Dual Boiler if you’d like an espresso machine that can also prepare barista-quality coffee on a friendlier price tag.
Features and Benefits
Is the Barista Touch enough to satisfy your specialty coffee cravings? Then, check the features and benefits of this machine to guide you on your buying decisions.
Performance and Quality
Precise Espresso Extraction
Brewing the perfect cup of coffee is as easy as pressing a button, thanks to Digital Temperature Control! This PID delivers water at just the right temperature +/- 2°C for optimal espresso extraction. Low-pressure pre-infusion gradually increases pressure at the start and helps extract all flavors smoothly during extraction, resulting in balanced tasting cups that are both rich and bright with every sip.
Three-seconds Heat Up
If you want coffee on the go, the Barista Touch can prepare and get it ready in under two minutes. Its ThermoJet heating system heats up in three seconds, so if you want to start the morning with a flat white in an instant, it’s possible with this espresso machine.
How is it possible? Since its features are customizable and the machine operates automatically at a touch of a button, grinding 16-gram coffee beans takes twenty seconds, custom brew takes thirty to thirty-five seconds. In contrast, the first drip from the pre-infusion takes about twenty-five seconds to have 2 ounces of espresso land in your cup.
Having a Barista Touch at home is like skipping the long queue lines on buying coffee from Starbucks or the waiting time to have your coffee delivered to your doorstep.
Microfoam Milk Texturing
The Barista Touch has automatic microfoam milk texturing feature. The automatic steam wand gives the barista control to deliver a perfect latte for your taste buds. Likewise, it helps you create latte art, whether you’re a practicing barista or a simple coffee lover of espresso-based drinks. This feature is hands-free, so it’s easy to use.
Built-in Burr Grinder
The Barista Touch comes with a built-in, conical burr grinder for freshly ground coffee at the touch of a button. In addition, the Barista Touch features an easy-to-use interface that allows you to grind and brew with total control. With 15 individual grind settings, you can dial in on the perfect grind size and dose amount for any coffee drinks you desire. You can also program automatic grinding times, so your beans are ready when you want them.
Design
The Breville Barista Touch boasts three features that make it stand out among other coffee machines on the same price tag bracket. It has an integrated full-color touch screen display, lightning-fast heat up and automatic milk texturing.
This espresso machine is an excellent addition to your kitchen with its streamlined but straightforward design. It comes in a modern brushed stainless steel finish with removable and dishwasher-friendly parts like the drip tray, upper and lower burrs, bean hoppers, and portafilters.
The machine is easy to operate with buttons, knobs, and touch screen display for specific functions. For example, you can turn on and off the device with the button, adjust the grind settings with the knob and customize your drinks and pre-program it for the next day’s brewing with its intuitive touchscreen panel.
Usability
Programmable Shot Control
When you program the shots volumetrically, it produces authentic espresso consistently. Using 19 to 22 grams of coffee beans with the 54-mm portafilter allows you to achieve a uniform and balanced espresso. Such pairing is the key to maximize the full flavor of coffee beans and get a cafe-quality coffee.
Basket Options
The Barista Touch also includes two furthermore using types of portafilter: pressurized and non-pressurized. To choose between pressurized and non-pressurized baskets, consider your brewing skills. You may also want to think about how comfortable you are with the process!
Dry Puck Feature
If you don’t like soggy or soupy pucks, you’ll surely love the dry puck feature of Barista Touch. This feature removes excess water from the ground coffee in the filter basket after extraction. It allows you easy and mess-free disposal of the coffee puck.
Durability
Breville Barista Touch is a durable machine, thanks to its robust brushed steel construction. It also features a thermal protection system that reduces the chance of damage by shutting off power in rare cases when, for example, there are rapid fluctuations in water temperature.
The Barista Touch has been designed explicitly with ease-of-use for moving it from place to place, so it stands up well to wear and tear. The brushed stainless steel housing looks great on even your busiest countertop and resists corrosion. All detachable components can be quickly removed and cleaned. Furthermore, using which means fewer parts are handled needlessly or deteriorated over time by regular washing modes. Finally, its push-button control, knobs, and touch screen panel make this espresso machine easy to operate.
Specifications
- Item Model Name: Barista Touch
- Item Model Number: BES880
- Automatic Purge: Automatic cleaning function for the steam wand.
- Bean Hopper Capacity: 1/2 lb.
- Water Tank Capacity: 67 oz.
- Construction Materials Brushed Stainless Steel.
- Water Tank Material: BPA-free
- Dimensions (WxDxH): 12.7″ x 15.5″ x 16″
- Power: 1680 Watts.
- Pre Infusion Function: Steadily increases water pressure to expand grinds for an even extraction gently.
- Settings: Touch screen operation
- Five pre-programmed Café favorites.
- Create, save and name eight customizable coffee settings.
- Adjustable Grind Control.
- Programmable Milk Temperature and Texture.
- One/Two Shots.
- Hot Water.
- Voltage: 110–120 Volts.
- Warranty: 2 Year Repair Guarantee
Accessories Included
- Stainless steel milk jug
- Cleaning disc
- Cleaning tablets
- Dual Wall filter baskets (1 cup & 2 cups): Use with pre-ground coffee.
- Single Wall filter baskets: (1 cup & 2 cups) Use when grinding fresh whole coffee beans.
- Water filter and holder
- Cleaning brush
- The Razor
precision dose trimming tool - Steam wand cleaning tool
- Water hardness test strip
Note that all parts of the Barista Touch that come into contact with coffee, water, and milk are BPA-Free.
Cleaning
Barista Touch comes with cleaning tools you’ll need to keep your espresso machine spic and span each time you use it. To properly maintain your home barista coffee machine, the following are steps to clean the essential parts of the Barista Touch.
Take note that the machine notifies you with a prompt about when you’ll need to clean your espresso machine. Usually, it tells you that you need to do a backflushing cycle or a descaling.
How to clean the drip tray
You’ll know when it’s time to clean the drip tray and remove the water that fills up the tray as soon as you see the “empty me!” pop up just in front of the drip tray. To clean it, simply pull out the tray with its cut-out handle at the bottom. As you pull it out, the back tray also dragged to the front.
How to clean the portafilter
Clean the portafilter every few weeks by removing the grime and build-up of coffee residue wrapped around the pour-out or the piece of metal splits the espresso. When cleaning the portafilter, it’s best to unscrew it to get to the surface and have a thorough cleaning.
How to clean the steam rod for milk frothing
The steam wand is an essential part of the espresso machine that needs to be thoroughly cleaned because it comes in contact with the milk you put in your espresso drinks. In most coffee shops, baristas wipe the steam wand immediately after frothing the milk with a clean damp cloth.
Other ways of cleaning the steam wand are running steam for 5 seconds while using a microfiber cloth. In doing this method, you should pay attention because the steam is boiling. Some remove the dried milk by pointing the wand over the drip tray’s hole and running the steam for 30 seconds.
Keep in mind that counting the duration of steam starts from when the steam comes out, not when you turn the steam wand on.
How to clean the coffee grind bin
Another part of the espresso machine that requires regular cleaning is the knock box. It’s a container where you throw the used coffee grinds. To prevent the grinds from getting moldy, the coffee grinds should be removed from the knock box not longer than three days. A more sustainable way is to throw in fresh coffee grinds into your flowerbed or potted plants.
To clean the knock box, simply wash and scrub it under tap water for a few seconds and leave it to dry upside down.
How to backflush the espresso machine
You’ll know it’s time to backflush your machine when you see the “clean me” notification. Take note that backflushing is different from descaling. Here are the steps to follow:
- Ensure that the espresso machine is off and check if the water tank is full.
- Insert the cleaning disk into the single filter basket.
- Place a container below the port ahead if you’ll be using a cleaning disk with a hole to prevent liquid from splashing out. If you’re using a no-hole cleaning disk, the liquid will pour straight into the drip tray.
- Include the cleaning tablet into the cleaning disk before inserting the portafilter into the machine.
- Press and hold the single and dual cup buttons at the same time. While doing it, push the power button to turn on the machine.
- Release the buttons when you hear a beep, and the machine starts up.
What You Should Know Before You Buy
To help you with your buying decision, we’ll share everything you need to know about Barista Touch.
- The Barista Touch is a single boiler espresso machine. If you’re aiming to buy a dual boiler in the Breville line, you should go over between Breville Oracle Touch or Breville Dual Boiler.
- It has manual overrides, which allow you to brew espresso to your liking.
- The Barista Touch coffee machine allows you to tinker with your drinks, but you better go with Barista Pro when it comes to complete flexibility, as it permits you to do more tweakings to achieve the best-tasting coffee.
- The Barista Touch is a better option when it comes to usability than the Barista Express. It is easy to use and has a faster heating element than the latter.
- It’s a coffee machine with automatic milk frothing and fast heat-up times that pre-entry coffee enthusiasts will surely love.
- This espresso machine allows you to have complete control of the brew temperature and the brew times.
- One of the impressive features of this machine is its preinfusion which helps you produce a delicious espresso.
- It doesn’t have a pre-heating feature for mugs.
Looking for coffee recomendaciones? Check out these articles to get the best insight into which coffees to bu yat home.
- Our 16 Best Dark Roast Coffee Beans
- Our 11 Best Light Roast Coffees To Buy
- 8 Best Sustainable Coffee Brands You Can Trust
- 8 Fair Trade Coffee Brands that Support Social and Environmental Efforts
- The Best Kona Coffee Brands + SCAM WARNING
- 11 Best Decaf Coffee for People with No Plans to Give Up their Coffee Habit
FAQ
Is the Breville Barista touch worth it?
Barista Touch is worth it because the coffee will taste amazingly fresh. Great for when you are REALLY in a hurry (or want to impress).
The Breville Barista Touch could save you a little bit of time and money if you drink coffee all day. It also makes things easier by creating the same quality of espresso every time since there is one button that needs to be pressed. The downside is that this machine is expensive, but maintenance can often make up for the cost, with cheaper devices running into more problems than their high-end counterparts over time. So, although the price tag may scare some people off buying this machine now, once they redeem themselves with tight budgeting and find it saves them enough dough later on.
What is the difference between Breville Barista Pro and Touch?
The Breville Barista Touch is a more entry-level espresso maker than the Breville Barista Pro. They both have pros and cons, but the barista touch should take care of most simple espresso-making tasks just fine.
The Barista Pro has more features that will be useful to experts in coffee and those who may want multiple espressos brewed at once. For example, it has adjustable water hardness settings, manual tampers, timer buttons for brew cycles, and an interesting integrated variant of PID-automated steam wand heating that allows you to control how much air gets into your milk foam with manual pressure-activated extraction times or “shots.”
Does the Breville Barista Touch make regular coffee?
Yes. The Barista Touch allows you to make regular coffee by selecting from the screen the type of drinks you’d like to brew, ranging from Americano, flat white, latte to cappuccino. In addition, you can customize the extraction of the coffee beans by adjusting the grind duration, the grind size, and the duration of the extraction.
What comes with the Breville Barista touch?
The Breville Barista Touch comes with all the essential items you’ll need to brew a delicious cup of coffee. Accessories you’ll find upon unboxing this espresso machine include stainless steel milk jug, dual wall filter baskets, single wall filter baskets, water filter and holder, The Razor
precision dose trimming tool, cleaning disc, cleaning tablets, cleaning brush, steam wand cleaning tool and the water hardness test strip.
So when you purchase this espresso machine, the only thing to care about is the coffee beans and milk you’d like to use to prepare your favorite drinks.
Is Breville a good espresso machine?
Breville is one of the higher quality espresso machine manufacturers on the market. They offer coffee, tea, and espresso machines featuring power, precision, and control. They focus on “solving common problems that are often the result of poorly designed or tampered with equipment,” and their quality control standards strive to ensure that every coffee drinker gets optimal flavor.
Is the Barista Touch worth it?
Absolutely! The Barista Touch is much easier and more intuitive to use than the manual espresso machines – which can be a complex affair. The Breville Barista Touch also trumps the other semi-automatic machines because it takes just a few simple steps to make espresso instead of pulling shots in the correct order on these entirely manual variants.
With this automatic machine, you needn’t worry about getting your ratios right for one thing; the process has been automated for you.
Is the Barista touch a dual boiler?
No. The Barista Touch can’t brew coffee and froth milk simultaneously because it’s a single boiler. It can only do one task simultaneously, so it first needs to brew the coffee before it can froth the milk.
If you’ve observed, the milk must be heated to 160 degrees Fahrenheit to create a micro-foam for use as an espresso component successfully, and this needs to be done by placing it under your espresso machine’s steam wand, which is inaccurate enough on its own without also trying to brew coffee at the same time (and you wouldn’t want cold milk being poured onto your freshly brewed cup of hot java).
Yet its fast heat-up times compensate for its particular boiler. Moreover, the speedy heat-ups shorten the time to wait before you can pull shots and froth milk for your desired espresso drinks.
Is the Breville Barista touch worth the money?
The Breville Barista Touch is a quality espresso maker for the price. Its intuitive controls and smooth double spout make it easy to control water pressure while simultaneously pouring coffee into an espresso cup, cappuccino, or other milk to foam at the press of a button. However, if you are looking for something with fewer bells and whistles but still want good quality, go for the Breville BES870XL Barista Express instead- you can adjust all aspects manually.
Alternatives
The Breville Barista Express
The Barista Express
is the first all-in-one espresso machine that allows you to create third-wave specialty coffee in less than a minute. It features an integrated grinder, PID temperature control for optimal extraction, and manual microfoam texturing so you can be hands-on like a barista.
Built-in Grinder
Breville - The Barista Express Espresso Machine
The all-in-one espresso machine. Create third wave specialty coffee at home –from bean to espresso– in less than a minute. The Barista Express
allows you to grind the beans right before extraction for full flavor and precise temperature control (PID) ensures optimal espresso extraction. Be hands on like a barista with manual microfoam milk texturing to deliver authentic café style results in no time at all.
Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API or Directly from the Manufacturer. #CommissionsEarned
De’Longhi La Specialista Espresso Machine
The La Specialista by De’Longhi is a fully automatic espresso machine that makes it easy for anyone to make delicious espressos, lattes, cappuccinos, and more. In addition, it features an advanced latte system where you can choose between flat or foam. You also get two different heating systems: a thermoblock for precise extraction and an independent heating system for texturing or steaming milk.
Best Alternative
De'Longhi La Specialista Espresso Machine with Sensor Grinder
- Sensor grinding technology: Exclusive sensing technology delivers precise, consistent grinding and the optimal dose for espresso, every time. Plus, the bean sensor ensures you’ll never run out of beans while grinding.
- The smart tamping station: Simply pull the lever to tamp the ground coffee with the right pressure for perfect results. There’s no need to remove the porta-filter, so you get to enjoy a mess-free experience.
- Active temperature control with dual heating system: The best temperature stability for optimal coffee extraction and milk texturing. La Specialist is equipped with two independent heating systems. One thermoblock for extracting coffee and an independent heating system for steaming milk or frothing ensures immediate beverage preparation
- Advanced latte system: Choose your style of froth: Micro-foam frothing for Latte Art or rich froth for cappuccino. Just place your cup under the spout and select flat or foam. Once it’s finished, you can enjoy your flat hot milk, or the perfect foam to express your latte art creativity.
- 1 second quick start: Power the machine on, grind and tamp your dose, then immediately brew authentic espresso – no additional heat up time necessary. Thanks to a second heating system dedicated to the advanced latte system, you don’t have to wait to steam your milk, either. La Specialist is ready when you are.
- Separate hot water spout: For added convenience, use La Specialist's separate hot water spout to brew an authentic Americano. And the spout also delivers hot water for tea without the residual coffee taste transferring from the brewing unit.
- Warranty: 2 years, plus 1 additional year of warranty for registering your espresso machine.
Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API or Directly from the Manufacturer. #CommissionsEarned
The Breville Barista Pro
Are you looking for a great espresso machine?
The Breville Barista Pro is one of the best home espresso machines on the market. It’s easy to use, has a variety of settings, and makes excellent coffee. If you want to upgrade from your current machine or are just starting, this is a perfect choice. Read our full Barista Pro review to learn more about this versatile machine.
Highly Rated
The Breville Barista Pro
- The Breville Barista Pro delivers third wave specialty coffee at home using the 4 keys formula and is part of the Barista Series that offers all in one espresso machines with integrated grinder to go from beans to espresso in under one minute
- DOSE CONTROL GRINDING: With a single touch, the integrated precision conical burr grinder with dose control delivers the right amount of coffee on demand, for maximum flavor
- OPTIMAL WATER PRESSURE: Low pressure pre-infusion gradually increases pressure at the start and helps ensure all the flavors are drawn out evenly during the extraction for a balanced tasting cup
- FASTER HEAT UP TIME: Innovative ThermoJet heating system achieves the optimum extraction temperature in 3 seconds with the instantaneous transition from espresso to steam
- PRECISE ESPRESSO EXTRACTION: Digital temperature control (PID) delivers water at the right temperature +/- 2°C, ensuring optimal espresso extraction
- MANUAL MICROFOAM MILK TEXTURING: The powerful steam wand performs at the level allows you to hand texture microfoam milk that enhances flavor and enables creation of latte art at home
- INTUITIVE INTERFACE: LCD display with grinding and extracting progress animations; The screen provides you all the descriptive information you need to make coffee exactly the way you like it every time
Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API or Directly from the Manufacturer. #CommissionsEarned
Verdict
The Barista Touch espresso machine is the most recommended espresso machine to a lot of aspiring home baristas. It can heat up fast, has a built-in grinder, and it has an easy touchscreen control panel that allows you to choose from eight customizable coffee drinks and five other beverages that you can preset before the day begins. But this machine is not for those who are earnest about making milk froth because its automatic milk frothing produces inconsistent quality froth.
LDC Touchscreen + Burr Grinder
Breville - the Barista Touch
Barista-quality performance with new intuitive touch screen display with pre-programmed café drinks menu and automatic milk texturing. All within a compact footprint. A built-in grinder delivers the right amount of ground coffee on demand and with a 3 second heat up time, you go from bean to cup, faster than ever before.
Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API or Directly from the Manufacturer. #CommissionsEarned
Other Breville related articles you may be interested in:
- Breville Oracle Touch Review: Best-in-Class Automated Coffee Machine
- Breville Dual Boiler: A Satisfying Espresso Drinker’s Tool
- Breville Barista Touch: 3rd Wave Espresso at Home
- Breville Barista Pro: Precise Espresso at Home
- Breville Infuser: Can it Brew the Perfect Espresso?
- Breville Precision Brewer: The Do-it-All Drip Coffee Maker
- Breville Smart Grinder Pro: An Intelligent Grinder for Coffee Beans
The post Breville Barista Touch: 3rd Wave Espresso at Home appeared first on BIG Cup of Coffee!.
By: Cheryl De TorresTitle: Breville Barista Touch: 3rd Wave Espresso at Home
Sourced From: bigcupofcoffee.com/breville-barista-touch/
Published Date: Sun, 04 Jul 2021 18:01:13 +0000
