Breville Barista Express Manual Espresso Machine BES870A – 1 cups – Brushed Stainless Steel – Semi-Automatic Espresso Machines

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• 5.0

  Verified

  Transform Your Coffee Game: One-Month Review of the Breville Barista Express

  If you're considering upgrading your coffee routine, the Breville Barista Express is absolutely worth it. After one month of daily use, I can confidently say this machine delivers café-quality results right in the comfort of your home.Design & Build Quality:The build quality not only looks stunning but also feels premium and durable. It’s compact enough to fit neatly on my countertop yet substantial enough to showcase its quality. Every detail—from the pressure gauge to the built-in tamper—feels thoughtfully designed for usability.Ease of Use:This machine strikes the perfect balance between control and convenience. As someone new to making espresso at home, I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I got the hang of it. The intuitive dials let me adjust grind size, dose, and shot volume to suit my taste. The built-in grinder is a game-changer, producing consistent grinds that make a noticeable difference in the flavor.Performance & Flavor:The espresso this machine pulls is exceptional—rich, smooth, and always topped with a gorgeous layer of crema. Whether I’m making a quick shot or crafting a latte, the results have been consistently amazing. The steam wand is powerful and precise, creating silky microfoam perfect for latte art. My morning routine has gone from ordinary to extraordinary.Maintenance:Maintenance is easy, with removable components like the drip tray and water reservoir. The machine even reminds you when it’s time for a cleaning cycle, which keeps everything running smoothly without the guesswork.Final Verdict:The Breville Barista Express has been a fantastic investment. In just one month, it has elevated my coffee experience and saved me money I used to spend at cafés. If you’re a coffee enthusiast or just looking to treat yourself, this machine is a must-have.

  Anthony A. · December 26, 2024

• 5.0

  Verified

  Good expresso machine for home.

  I was looking to get a expresso machine for a while and saw this on deal during sale. I was about to get Hibrew but for the price Breville Barista Express was available it was a no brainier. Overall excellent performance and fast delivery by Amazon and Latteholic. They even gave a free bag of beans inside the box.

  Karen N. · May 24, 2025

• 5.0

  Verified

  Great machine for coffee lovers and beginner baristas and the whole family

  This is our first espresso machine. We love the professional look of this product and its easy to keep it clean. I like the little pop up sign when the drip tray is full. We have had it for just over a month and only now really starting to understand how to use it properly and pull perfect shots and get the milk frothed properly, thanks to a number of good instructional videos on line. It's still a bit hard to predict how it's going to come out as small variations in puck compression etc can make a difference and I'm working on my cappuccino art skills. The machine heats up quickly, but it's recommended to turn it on in advance and warm the cup on the top grill. My daughter LOVEs the frother for the most amazing hot chocolate using ordinary carnation hot chocolate powder. This is a great machine if you want the satisfaction of pulling your own shots and frothing your own milk. I am really happy we didn't buy a fully automatic, where's the fun in that? I am also very happy that it has a built in grinder but wish that a water line could be installed to replace the tank. We unknowingly ran out of water once because it was hard to see the water line, but other than that I don't know enough about other machines to say anything bad. We still have our regular coffee maker along side this one for the daily grab and go.

  James A. · January 11, 2016

• 5.0

  Verified

  Great espresso machine with built-in grinder for the money.

  I've had this almost two years now, so I figured it was time for a proper review.If you don't want to read my in depth review but just my quick opinion and are in the market for a semi-automatic espresso maker (with grinder!), you can't beat this machine for the money it costs (especially here compared to a department store). It comes with a satisfactory grinder (anything better itself will cost you hundreds of dollars on its own), and an easy to use (and learn) espresso maker which makes good espresso, latte's, etc. (assuming you don't use garbage beans of course). Its been nearly two years and I've yet to have a problem and still works just as good as it did the day I got it.I'll start with the cons, because there aren't many and they are very minor, picky issues.The grinder: I find the size setting to be slightly misleading. I'd assume you could use the full range of grind sizes, but anything less than a 4 you'll have trouble pulling a shot with the proper pressure. Over time I've found I've needed to reduce the grind size more and more, but that could be to poor (lack of) regular cleaning habits because I'm lazy.The pressure gauge. There's an "espresso range" on it which you may think anywhere in that is OK. Its not. To get a good pull you'll need to make sure it starts around at least "12:30" and ideally about "1:00" if you treat it like a clock (pointing straight up would be 12:00). Once you get a feel for the grind and how much tamp pressure to use, you'll be able to do this with regular ease after a couple weeks of use (assuming you mainly stick with one type of espresso).The port-a-filter. Its not standard sized so it may be hard to replace. No big deal. Those interested in this probably have more "professional" machines anyways and aren't in the market for this.Now onto the good things:If you've never used a steam wand before, this is probably a good machine for you. Enthusiasts may say its not good or powerful enough, but its great to learn on. Its not a

  Cynthia N. · August 20, 2019

• 5.0

  Verified

  The best home machine I've ever used. Brilliant design, ease of use and a good coffee

  It takes just a few times to get the hang of operating this unit. The Consumer Report reviews are absolutely right. High quality, brilliant design, the bean grinding integration is awesome, and the result fantastic. I wouldn't mind the coffee being a little hotter, to be honest, but that is likely the result of it being 110 and not a higher voltage like commercial units. I don't think I could give a home unit a higher mark than this. It's just really well done, easy to clean and the functionality and design is outstanding.

  Edward A. · March 29, 2018

• 4.0

  Verified

  Full-featured, high quality home machine, but, if I had to do over again...

  This is the first espresso machine I've ever owned. I purchased it this Spring (2020) because, like many of you, I needed to stop going out. I didn't know much about home brewing espresso, but I have lots of Breville products, and I thought this would be a good entry-level machine., I liked that it had all of the features I needed in a one-stop solution, but would still allow me to make "real" espresso, not the stuff that shoots of a pod, which I typically dislike. Armed with nothing more than the instructions it came with, power, water, and beans, I was able to brew espresso good enough to keep me from going into withdrawal, but typically not delicious, and appreciably less enjoyable than my favorite baristas in my favorite cafes. I also wasted a lot of beans in the process. After about 10 days of this bumbling around, I decided to start researching how to get better performance, learning a lot of coffee science along the way, and over the next few months, my technique and results improved, but ultimately plateaued at a point where I felt my home-brewed espresso was now generally better than my favorite baristas - but still not consistent - one day I could make a perfect shot, with all of the lovely sweetness and velvety texture of great espresso, with little or no extraction defect, but then the next day, doing the exact same thing, would get something uneven and over- or under- extracted, and not as good. I was not exactly sure what the variable was, but I suspected it was the grind consistency, since by now I had become very practiced at everything else.The obvious issues with the grinder are that there is a limited range of adjustment, and as you get to a good fineness for your beans, there will be popcorning - the phenomenon of the beans bouncing off the burrs before passing through; those popcorned beans will be ground more coarsely than the beans that were packed into the grinder by the weight of the beans sitting on top of them. Also, while the machine has

  Amanda N. · December 5, 2020

• 5.0

  Verified

  great product, one of the best purchases if you drink coffee

  We have had the unit for 8 months now, it's been through 4 cleaning cycles (2 descaling, 2 normal backflow), so I've 'tested' out most of the possible functions it has. We like it, a lot. If it dies this year, it is probably a break-even so far based on the number of times we've used it vice buying from coffee shops. At $5 a cup, you have to buy at least 120 cups to even do a simple break-even. Of course, using milk/substitute and other items at home adds to this cost. Assume that you have to run 200 cups at home that you otherwise would have bought elsewhere, and you have basically done a break-even. If you drive to get to the coffee shop, and buy other things, then it may save you a lot of money sooner. In my opinion, this unit easily costs less than what we would have done within a year.The grinder seems to do a great job, and the dials to alter the size and amount, work well. I have had to clean it once since the grinds seemed to be working poorly, on Breville's recommendation, running rice through the unit, and then cleaning it (removing the screw from the top), helped.We have not tried other machines, having been satisfied with the reviews, and price, of this one as listed. So far, just great results. We tend to do espresso drinks each time, meaning we use the grinder, frother, and espresso for each drink. The machine would likely last longer with less maintenance needed if you just did espresso, and used preground beans (or had a separate grinder), most likely.Family of 2 (with kid), in general we probably push through 4-6 cups a day on average, and up to 9 max at times. If we have guests, maybe 10-12, but not often. While we would certainly have NOT been buying this many from the local brewhouse, the quality of the product is just great.We choose to use almond milk exclusively as our base, and we make it ourselves, so the quality of the milk will never be that of the rich and creamy milk frothed up, but it is still amazing. This machine does a great job of g

  Steven A. · May 21, 2016

• 1.0

  Verified

  Maintenance and usability

  As my profile name says, this is my first ever review and a feedback for anything I bought anywhere online. I felt like doing it because I have some spare time over Christmas and also I hope someone will find this helpful.If your primary criteria for choosing an espresso machine is the looks, don’t read further. Choose this machine as my opinion it is the best looking machine on the market as of right now. If on the other hand you are assessing other features, keep reading.Bough this machine 3 weeks ago. Was away for a week on work travels and used it effectively 25 times. Made around 15 espressos and 10 cappuccinos. in two weeks. I owned two espresso machines in last 5 years and these were half the price of this one so you understand where my base line or the previous knowledge is.IssuesThe first issue is around excess amount discharged of water in the bottom tray (you will see it because Breville obviously even made a floater that flips red when it is about to overflow).Issue 1. Bottom tray was overflowing with water after using the machine 15 times. I thought this was strange, emptied the water and continue using the machine and this time I was monitoring the level of water in the bottom tray. After 10 further drinks (mostly espressos and a few cappuccinos) the tray was half-way full. I did not think this was right so I gave Breville support a call. They were very responsive and called me back. I explained the situation and the gentlemen I spoke with said it is a normal operating condition for this machine and that end-user is expected to empty the tray after a while due to, as he stated, 3 events taking place:- Event 1, When you switch the machine on it automatically drains any stale water from its pipes into a tray so that a fresh water from the plastic container is used. I see this as a positive and a smart function for the machine to do and can confirm not much water is discharged into a tray.- Event 2, Machine drains a certain amount of water after every esp

  Betty N. · December 20, 2022