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

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.

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 beansWe are fans of Italian style pellini lavazzaIs 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 beFresh 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.