Breville Barista Express Espresso Machine, Brushed Stainless Steel BES870BSS Delivered for $617.
Plus receive a BONUS Gift Pack ‘valued at up to $176’ when you register at https://promotions.breville.com.au/barista-experience-oct-20…
• 4 x 250g. St. ALi Wide Awake Coffee Beans
• 1 x Roaster Online MasterDemo
CamelCamelCamel.
What did you pay?
I assume money
$764
Nowhere near the lowest but wanted to grab it for Xmas and wasn’t sure there would be another sale between now and then and ensure they had the colour I wanted.
With shipping container costs going through the roof and long delays in getting stock, I wasn’t taking any chances.
You did really well. Enjoy.
the BES878? I bought that a few months back. Loving the damned thing. I got some WA Coffee Beans (Five Senses - Dark Horse) these are really, really good beans. Delivered to QLD and only roasted three days prior!
Thanks for the tip on the beans
Will give them a try.
Trying to find local (Sydney) beans to keep shipping to a minimum
Yeah they're not cheap by any means. I paid maybe ~60$ (inc 8$ shipping) for a 1kg bag. I didn't shop around, to be honest
Mecca is good.
This is the machine I'm now waiting for. Pref in the matte black on sale for 10%+
In what world is that redemption promo valued at $176!?
Dont get excited by Breville's bonus packs.
Looking forward to the Mother's day bonus pack when I bought my Breville last year. Advertised as included knock box, mat, jug etc.
But "due to overwhelming demand" and an asterix, what I got was a couple of packs of Pablo and Rusty's mediocre beans delivered.
St Ali coffee beans are absolutely overrated, you didnt miss much. Not saying P&B is anything (haven't tried it) but never understood the fanfare.
St Ali > P&B
8% cash rewards
Looks like it
mydeal has $10 off first time user
Not a deal at all, bought for 560 a few days back by just negotiating at tgg.
Good job buddy
Cool story - I got it for $530 @TGG
Did you pay cash?
Is this a decent machine? I have a delongi magnifica and looking to upgrade. Would love to get a double boiler, but then you are looking at serious $$$
I would pay abit more and get the Barista Pro if you can stretch the budget. They go for about $800-ish retail or $750 or so on discount. Dual boilers are at the totally different price point which will be almost double the price. Coming from a Magnifica, I can only assume that you are not super pedantic about your espresso shots and temps, etc. So the Barista Express and Pro will likely to be a good upgrade.
Just note that this is a manual machine. So you will be wasting alot of coffee at the start trying to dial in. It took me maybe a couple hours worth of youtube videos, buying a scale and wasting about 20 shots before I understood how everything worked and got my first decent shot with beautiful crema. And then steaming milk is a whole other ball game. It takes so much practice but that sense of satifaction is worth it once you get your first cuppa which can rival any cafe out there.
Thanks. I like to fiddle with the simple settings of the magnifica with grind size and shot strength. I think this is the next step provided once I am skilled enough it doesn't take forever to make a cup of coffee. Probably just an extra 10 seconds to grind and tamper right?
It is not really about the extra time required, you could probably make a coffee real quick once you get your process down. But it is more about getting 6-8 variables (grind setting, dose weight, pre-infusion time, shot time, distribution in portafilter, tamp pressure, temperature, milk steaming) to line up to make a great cuppa. The magnifica takes a couple of variables away so your coffees are more consistent. But the Breville machines will allow you to fine tweak your cuppa to the way you prefer.
I think you will have a fun time on this journey if you are someone who loves coffee.
Dialling in on the Pro can be slightly harder since you can't stick a binder clip on (to make it effectively stepless) like you can with the Express or the Touch.
But they are both great machines.
Well unless I have tastebuds that can tell the difference between half steps and potentially void the warranty by screwing up the mod, I dont think im ready to take that journey yet.
@mjwills: Oh sorry, i thought you meant another mod that has to open the machine to effectively make it "stepless". So for using the binder clip, you mean just clipping the dial at half step?
@KaTst3R: Yep, exactly. Or a quarter or whatever. Dialling in with the Brevilles otherwise is almost impossible since the steps are too far apart.
Had it for 2 years it's amazing. I've had it as my covid coffee fix and it is was sublime. Unless your a coffee snob, I guarantee you'll enjoy this.
Which specific delongi magnifica do you own?
A friend designed Sunbeam appliances years ago, but as China got more Sunbeam work, he and many others there moved on. Many went to the 'Dark Side', Breville, where their influence can be seen in the similar look and, with their previous experience, more reliable internals and some clever little features that at first go unnoticed like the accessory tray that gets dragged out from its recess just so far by the drain tray, then disengages at just the right spot to access its contents.
I've had 2 Sunbeams over the decades, but now like my ex-Sunbeam friend, we've have had this model Breville machine for about 4 years. My only complaint would be the size of the drain tray (compared to our previous Sunbeam) which needs emptying every few days especially when using the frother often. One trick learnt from YouTube is to add a few squirts of dish washing liquid around the drain tray before placing back into the machine - easy empty and rinse next time. Of course, a dual boiler would be nice - less delay between coffee shots and steam, but that's more $$$$.
Like any manual espresso machine, it takes a few shots to get your preferred coffee and more practice frothing milk, but once you figure it out, with this model, it's consistent. Also, like any coffee machine, invest in some cleaning powder/tablets and some time for coffee residue cleaning at regular intervals. Hard water risks calcium build-up inside, so run a tank of diluted vinegar (or equivalent) through the machine's cleaning cycle quite often in high risk areas - don't forget to rinse the tank and run fresh water through afterwards :)
I started off with a Delongi Magnifica many many years ago…… Frankly you would be wasting money buying fresh beans for a budget, fully auto, thermo block, piece of plastic. The thing was pretty much shagged after 2 years of reasonable use (4 shots a day) and regular maintenance. When they stuff up, and they will, you can't fix the damn things due to no parts and everything made out of plastic.
Now if you are semi-serious or like a half decent coffee then the Breville range is very good for the features you get. Not really prosumer level but can be easier for beginners to master than temp surfing a Rancilio Silvia or dropping bigger coin on a separate grinder and heat exchanger/dual boiler setup. Although I paid less than $700 for my BES920 over 5 years ago (the golden age of retail) and not much more for a modded Oscar Simonelli
had it for about 6 years - going strong. Costco
republica beans at $18 for 1kg is the current load.
make sure you clean it after each pull by running unit without basket
You clean after each pull? I normally do two cups in the morning then just clean after that
Not Good, bought in TGG ebay for 509 2 months ago
This machine has really surprised me as the price hasn't exactly changed since I bought one last 2018.
I've been using this and I've been happy so far
Covid really saw prices shoot up, though they are thankfully on the way down again.
Maybe some more room to slide in coming months
I'd probably suggest that it would be a better option to go with both the Bambino Plus ($361) and Smart Grinder Pro ($216) from TGG Commercial if you can get access.
Quicker heat up (3 secs) and auto milk steaming on the Bambino Plus is great and having the grinder seperate (which is the same as what's in the Barista Express) gives you the option to upgrade either machine separately down the track.
Agreed
Obligatory mention of the fact that no coffee machine is really ready in 3 seconds. In practice all the machines will take at least 10 minutes to heat up.
Brought the black version of the same model a year ago and I am still happy with it. Wish the temperature of the coffee could be a little hotter though, but apart from that, it's a fantastic machine.
Just wanted to ask if anyone knows if there is a way to stop coffee extracting in the pre-infusion phase with this model.
Would like to know the pre-infusion thing, but there is a secret button press to get hotter water.
https://youtu.be/y_S7Hg0N980
Are these types of machines just as convenient as Capsule Machines?
I'm assuming all you have to do is Grind, Tamper, Extract. But I've heard some say its quick+easy while others say its a pain like "dialing" it in every day.
Personally, if my capsule machine doesn't need dialling, why would this?
Any thoughts?
No they aren't as convenient as capsules. There is no way around that.
The extent to which you need to dial in daily depends on a number of factors. a) How pernickety are you re: your coffee (if you are drinking capsules, we can presume not too pernickety)? b) Is there milk in it? (since milk covers a multitude of sins) c) How well you store your beans (the better stored, the less need for daily dialling in)?
I time the extraction daily, and if it moves outside the sweet spot I'll tweak the dial for next time. My guess is it takes 4-5 minutes to make a cup of coffee, factoring in weighing, grinding, frothing etc etc.
I reckon this has expired as the price is showing 679 to me now?
Just bought the Barista Pro a couple weeks back on 15% off sale.
Would have loved to bundle it up with the redemption offer ($320 value), but still pretty happy with my price