Sage the Barista Express Espresso Machine, Bean to Cup Coffee Machine with Milk Frother, BES875BKS - Black Sesame

Are you a coffe lover, enthusiast barrista... Some people will call us coffe snobs, but no no no. We are coffe lovers, latter artists, and this is our bible. Shortlisted to BE as I have a small household, me and my oh, I went for this model instead of dual boiler. There are some companies witch for a yearly coffe subscription will offer you be or other similar sage machines, or the one witch always sell it for a low price is costco; offers are usually advertised on specialised chats, this is how my oh find the offer and messaged me, the next thing was me ordering it... Price was around £400 witch is a bargain... Also during first lockdown sage had a small offer of 50% off the entire range for keyworker... My oh is a nurse but of course the offer went out so fast. So we got it, in the black variant, witch we don't mind, build quality is superb, it comes in proper packaging... Amazon takes extra precautions so you will get a special code for delivery; all materials are of a high quality, and really easy to use. Starter manual is simple and has plenty of images. Razor is a good tool, but you will use it for the first week or so as you'll get plenty of experience to know what it is a good amount of coffe. At the first time with my machine order I did order a small kitchen scale. So I am more accurate on our dosage then using the razor. Tamper looks nice black in our case, of a good quality, but as general rule you have to use approx 2kg force, so we gone for a dedicated one. On the sage lovers chat there are plenty of people sharing 3d mould drawings for the portafilter funnel, this is a common issue as you will end do a lot of spillage/mess, we just order one from the group, works just fine. Coffe coffe coffe beans We are fans of Italian style pellini lavazza Is all about the personal taste, Amazon sells large packs 1kg £12-15, or small ones 250g. The grinder has capacity of 250g,but we roast the beans on the spot so our grinder always stays empty. General rule is 1:2, usually for 18g of beans, you should get 36-40g of liquid for a double shot at around half minute max 32sec. First 5 6 sec there will be nothing pouring down as the machine is doing a pre infusion, also the clock should be in the espresso range more towards the end, but depends on the settings and coffe freshness/type. The grind should start from 6 and increase in order to be in the region of 30sec. This will take some time until you will smash the coffe beans and will differ, a good idea is to try different try taste packages. Try to use independent roasters and local if possible, as fresh coffe is the secret, 2 weeks fresh is generally the norm. We use rave atm as they are based in Gloucestershire near to us in Cotswolds, but we might change it... Water tank has aprox 2.5l capacity, well we are using bottled water as our tap is really hard, also watch the tank not to go under the minimum as it will damage the waterpump really easy as it's struggle on dry. Descale should be done after 60days or 30l of water witchever comes first. Also the tray in front will collect water as the machine is turned on it has some quick cleaning infusion tests, so every other day depending on how often you use the machine, check the tray and empty it. Sage also offer tutorials on how to use the machine, and develop your latte art, it is really useful and I highly recommend joining them, also they offer some 25% discount code from their website if you will attend their classes. Amazon has really good support, in my packaging we was missing the milk frothing jug, after we contacted customer service they refund us as a gift card, Finally if you love coffe. Buy it, enjoy it, Also useful to buy will be Fresh roasted beans. scale, timer, remote starter, strong tamper, knock box and if you like syrups, also porcelain cups and double wall glasses. The rest is your practice and imagination, enjoy it and thanks for reading my review.

New to the art of pulling expresso but not to drinking it, I wanted a machine that would provide sufficient flexibility to fine tune a good brew but not so much that the whole process would become overwhelming, too complex, and just a chore. I think this machine might be the perfect balance. There are sufficient controls to allow for the variation of all the main parameters: grind coarseness, amount of grind, amount of water (or length, as it's called) and there is a very useful (I would say invaluable) pressure gauge. There a few more controls if really needed, but these are the ones you're going to need to tweak most often, with each new bean choice. Although I'm a gadget freak, I thought that touch panels, and programmability would be too much (possibly unnecessary?) and I think I'm right on this occasion. The most important thing I've found is that you should pay attention to the choice of filter used: single or double walled. The manual says that single walled is for freshly roasted and double walled for everything else. I initially made the mistake of thinking that freshly opened beans = fresh and therefore that the single walled basket should be used. Not so. It's the date of the roast that is important and I now know that this can usually be deduced from the batch codes present on many bags of roasted beans: 2236, for example, might well mean week 36 of 2022: not that freshly roasted (writing this in December) even if it has been sealed in a bag since the roast. So unless you are sure the roast is very recent, go with double walled filter baskets. If not, you will likely find, as I did, that it's almost impossible to produce a good crema. With that nugget of knowledge learned, the rest is pretty easy. Follow the instructions for default grind coarseness, amount of coffee and water, and you'll get a pretty impressive crema straight away. Some tweaking with the dials, paying attention to the pressure gauge - really useful - and the wetness of the puck produced after the process has completed, and you'll very quickly learn how to dial-in the best settings for a particular bean. Once you've done that, it's easy-peasy to produce a really excellent pull every time you use the machine. The steam wand is great, the hot water dispense useful for making certain coffees, and overall the machine design is great. The layout of the controls is clear and logical, with the flow of the whole process working from left to right. The water reservoir is large enough for many shots, and the waste tray at the bottom has a good capacity: you won't need to empty it too frequently. Finally - the look and the build quality are great. It feels solid, and like it's going to be a reliable machine that will give good service. I'm very pleased with the purchase. It was expensive, but there seems little point in paying less for a machine that doesn't have all the controls: you're not likely to get something nice to drink, so what's the point. And it really does produce extremely nice coffee with just a small bit of practice (an hour?) and some fairly low-cost supermarket beans. I can't wait to experiment with some really nice roasts.

This was my first REAL espresso machine and after 2 months of scouring the internet, Reading reviews and taking advice from dozens of friends who have had various other machines including. I decided to take the punt, and buy it my girlfriend as a present. (She could be the guinea pig). Note. It’s super simple to use. Has very Clear instructions and makes incredible coffee. Water filling is a sinch. And it looks fantastic. Easy to clean. Has a spill tray that catches the stray drops well. I would make sure you have place near by to dispense of the spent coffee after making each couple of cups. The grinding of the coffee beans is super easy but you need to practice to get the right grind. I wish the bags of beans came with directions as I went through half a bag experimenting with different levels of fine grinds. It’s incredible how you grind the coffee makes a huge difference to how it tastes and filters. Eventually bought some ore ground Lavazza (which is delicious coffee) used that to check the consistency and flavour then ground the beans to the match and amazingly it worked. All lavazza coffee with the espresso or all machines icons on the front work fine and is the easiest way to get quick delicious coffee. I feel like a pro barista having never made anything other than an instant before! This machine literally does everything for you. Well apart from those fancy little pictures on the top. No clue how they do them, but I will learn! What my coffee machine owning friends said. “The steamer is by far the most superior. It’s as good as the ones that are up at commercial level that are over £990+“ They were bang on. Literally made perfect latte first time ever trying!!! One friend who is a professional coffee buyer for costa said she would not recommend anything else. It may be £200 more than most but trust me, you save nothing buying the cheaper machines as you never get a decent cup out of them! Buy once and Sage money! I noticed there’s an identical version from Breville in Europe. Not sure if it’s same brand just called something different over there.

Have been using The Sage Barista Express since Jan 2020 to replace my burned out Kitchen Aid machine, which was one of many coffee machines used over 20 years. The Barista Express is the best of all due, quite simply, to the depth of flavour it extracts. I have used the same beans, Segafredo Intermezzo for around 7 years and this machine produces the most flavour. It DOES take a good few attempts to get the grind size right, to get the tamping pressure right and the razor, which I thought was a bit of a gimmick, does it’s job by evening out the coffee spread. Most coffee machines I have had have had a pressure gauge that was for show only, this one is crucial, keep the extraction within the sweet spot and you can taste the difference easily. The crema it produces is light years ahead of the Kitchen Aid & I thought that produced good coffee. The hot water outlet is excellent and is ready within 2 mins of switching on machine. The frothing system is superior to any I have used, produces excellent, rich froth and the jug was supplied with purchase and this is also important as it has a built in thermometer to let you know when the correct temp is reached. Even the coffee dispensing is a pleasure due to being able to slot the holder into a ‘cradle’ and click & leave, allowing your chosen dose amount to be dispensed from built in grinder. All cleaning cycles have been carried out as indicated by the machine and have been pain-free due to excellent instructions. It got 4 out of 5 stars simply because coffee machines DO require regular cleaning and it IS time consuming, so it reflects the hassle of owning ANY coffee machine rather than being a mark down of this one. I have also cleaned the top burr of grinder with the supplied brush and removed the build up of oils through choice. This meant the fine-tuning was lost for a few ‘grinds’ as the oils built up provided additional flavour, but it soon returned. Overall, it is a fabulous machine. A huge amount of thought has gone into the build. The tamper holder, drip tray and water tank for example are designed for complete ease of use and storage. It came supplied with 4 filter baskets for use with beans or pre-ground coffee and a set of cleaning/fixing tools all storable behind the drip tray! Cost was 400 pounds so it is not cheap, but is easily worth it. Excellent, thoughtful design and delicious coffee.

Unit is pretty impressive, takes about 15 minutes to setup and rinse through internals for initial use. The grinder is trash with the adjustment between numbers too big. I hit the limit of the grinder, but found out you can tweak more by adjusting the internal burr as well. This allowed be to go even finer. I found it pretty difficult to dial in, and has been about 2.5 weeks and I have finally got close to where I want to be in terms of extraction. I have gone through loads of coffee in the process. This is not a bean to cup machine, and requires a lot of manual intervention which is a double edge sword. You get ulitmate control, but can be painful and take up time. I was intially drawn to this machine as it is an all in one - however I feel the grinder is pretty bad so would probably just buy one without a grinder and get an separate grinder. Unit is easy to clean up with is a bonus. I partially recommend the machine; I think there are better ones out there, but not at this price point. So maybe save a bit more or get this and be prepared for a step learning curve. --TIPS-- 1. Use the double basket. 2. Buy some scales to measure out the beans and your yield. (search for coffee scales). Start with 18g beans and aim for around 36g out in 25 - 30 secs. 3. Tare you scales and put 18g of beans in a container, then dump into hopper. This was you will have a consistent dose and if you need to adjust grind size you won't have any jamming or old sized coffee in burrs. 4. Buy a calibrated tamper - this helped me the most (search for calibrated tamper). 5. Place a cup on scales under portafilter and hit the programme button and the 2 cup button. When you get close to 36g hit the 2cup button again to stop. If you got 36g in less that 25 secs, grind finer. If you got less that 36g in over 30 secs, then grind coarser. 6. If you hit the limit of the grinder sizing - adjust the internal burr (video on youtube). I set mine to 4 internally. 7. Buy a kilo of beans and be prepare to waste the lot of them. while you practice dialing in. 8. Try using beans that were roasted 5-7 days ago - I think too fresh and they are harder to dial in.

This is a good upgrade on other models in the Sage range (I've previously used the Duo Temp Pro & Bambino). The integrated burr grinder saves some space on the worktop and has good controls over fineness & dose quantity; the only issue is that finer grinds often occupy more volume than the basket can hold. Warm-up is pretty quick at about 20s, and extraction is aided by the pressure gauge at the centre. Although there's no direct control over extraction temperature, there are automatic & manual options for shot volume. I get consistently good crema & flavour when the variables are right; it does take a few shots to optimise for new beans or roasts and when switching over to pre-ground when supermarket stocks of beans have run out. Cleaning is simple with a large drip-tray (plus room behind for additional baskets). The pop-up warning means it's unlikely to have overspills. The parts are easily washable, although not suitable for dishwashers, obviously. I rarely use the steam wand but previous experience with the Duo Temp Pro suggests it will be pretty easy to foam milk or top up with hot water for longer drinks. In summary, this machine works best when I've taken the time to fine tune the grind dials & shot volume. It would work as a single-button automatic machine, but there are better value machines out there if one doesn't have the time or interest to fiddle with the settings!

Ive been after one of these for ages, and went for it when the price dropped to £399. Im familiar with Bean to cup machines, so sort of knew what to expect in how it's used. We had 2 lovely latte's within 10 minute of getting it out of the box. The quality and flavour of your coffee obviously depends on the beans you use, but we had some Cafe Nero standard beans at hand and they worked a treat. Its not that strong so had to do a double shot per cup. My only slight niggle being that to get enough coffee in the porta thingy and tampped down, to get the pressure up, the resulting coffee grinds spilled over and made a bit of a mess of the stainless steel drip tray and the worktop. Having said that, if we went for a finer grind, then we might not need as much. Its very much trial and error until you get the perfect grind for volume and pressure. The milk frother worked straight away and is very straight forward. We're now going to experiment with the temperature preset's and the program options. Overall, very happy with this coffee machine so far. Looks premium, and makes a lovey cup of coffee while being manual enough to make you feel like a barista.

This is a quality machine and to get the best out of it, you really need to watch some youtube videos and appreciate the art. You do need to "dial in" the machine to your beans which is just figuring out the best setting for your beans but you are in total control of how you want your coffee, more milk? use less milk! too bitter? reduce the grind fineness! Too watery? Reduce the extraction time! Too strong? Use less grind! Although it takes more time than a bean to cup. I actually found that I save on maintenance. If you owned a bean to cup to will know you have to go through clean cycles. With this, you rinse and wipe with every use. The one thing that does really annoy be about this machine is that it doesn't provide any indication when water level is low. I wasted some beans a few times because the tank ran out of water and the machine still tries to operate. For sucha premium machine, I expect that feature to be there. Regardless, I still recommend this to anyone interested in great tasting coffee.