Sage the Barista Pro Espresso Machine, Bean to Cup Coffee Machine with Milk Frother, SES878BTR - Black Truffle

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It isn’t just the grind time that’s adjustable, however. The Barista Pro also allows you to choose how long to infuse the coffee before extraction (this forces water into the ground coffee for a set amount of time to help eke out the most flavour), and you can customise exactly how much hot water you want to push through the coffee for the single-shot and double-shot buttons. Getting the most out of this coffee machine means tweaking its settings so that you get the coffee you want, which is great for experienced coffee drinkers. You shouldn’t buy it if… At first glance, the Barista Pro looks like most other manual bean-to-cup machines. It has a 354 x 410 x 406mm body, with a single burr grinder on its top that can hold around 250g worth of beans (a standard bag’s worth). This model also comes with all the accessories you’d expect of a machine at this price including a well-sized steel jug for steaming milk, one of Sage’s razer tools for getting the right amount of coffee in the filter basket, a basic tamper and a 54mm portafilter.

A dial on the machine’s right-hand edge controls the hot water and steam delivery; you simply twist it towards the front of the machine for steam or the rear for hot water. Unlike cheaper machines, which dispense hot water through the steam wand, the Barista Pro has a spout hidden just alongside where the coffee is brewed, so you can dispense hot water directly into your espresso to create an instant americano. And, as mentioned earlier, there’s virtually no heat-up or cool-down time required. After a few seconds, the Barista Pro delivers the water or steam you asked for. Sage Barista Pro review: Performance The Barista Express is a mid-range model, it builds on the entry-level espresso machine - the Bambino - by adding a built-in burr grinder to dispense freshly ground coffee right into the portafilter. But unlike the more automated bean-to-cup style machines from other brands, this one allows you to flex your barista skills. You’ll need to tamp the coffee yourself, use the razor tool to get it to the perfect level, and steam your own milk, all of which might take a bit of practice to perfect, particularly if you’re a novice.Longer-term you’ll need to sporadically run descaling and general cleaning cycles, both of which can be activated in the machine’s settings menu and simply require you to follow a series of on-screen commands. You should buy it if… Once you do, the system works great, however. The wand is just as snappy as the rest of the machine, generally taking between seven and eight seconds to build pressure and then delivering wonderfully uniform results. Within a few minutes you’ll be able to create frothy cappuccinos, velvety lattes and pretty much any coffee you like with the wand. The Sage coffee machines you can find are from the following ranges: Bambino, Oracle, Barista, Duo and Precision Brewers. Most devices will come with a built-in coffee grinder but if it doesn’t, you’ll need to buy one to grind your beans or you can buy pre-ground beans to use in it. As an added bonus, I found the system worked great with non-dairy milk including soy, almond and oat. This is great news for vegan users and something I can’t say about all the frothing systems I’ve tested.

We liked having the pressure gauge during the initial setup process, the correct pressure range is very clearly marked and it’s a helpful indicator that you can watch as your espresso pours, to see whether it’s being extracted at the correct pressure. The manual then advises what adjustments you’ll need to make to correct an under or over extracted espresso, which is usually either the grind size or the amount of pressure you use when tamping. Spend a little time getting everything just so, and the Pro rewards with a fantastic cup of coffee. As ever, I was looking to produce a double shot of espresso with a 2:1 ratio – that is, 18g of ground coffee to produce around 36g of espresso in the cup. While the default settings produced an extraction time of less than 20 seconds – too fast, in other words – I was able to maintain the same amount of espresso but lengthen the extraction process to around 30 seconds by notching the grind size a couple of settings finer and customising the extraction time in the menu. The customisation process is easy: select the correct menu option, tap the single– or double-shot button to start the extraction, and tap it again once your preferred amount is in the cup. Under the hood, Sage has made a few key changes to differentiate the Pro from its cheaper manual bean-to-cup models. The two biggest are the addition of the firm’s custom Thermojet heating and volumetric pouring.Another key feature is that this is a volumetric machine. This means that it accurately measures how much water it’s pushing through each time and does so consistently. Cheaper machines simply run the pump for a set amount of time, so how much water actually makes it through the coffee grounds and into your cup depends entirely on how finely you grind the coffee and how hard you tamp it down. Suffice to say, if you want a consistent espresso, both in terms of flavour and amount, a volumetric machine is a giant leap forward from lesser machines. Sage also includes both single-wall (unpressurised) and dual-wall (pressurised) baskets for the portafilter, and in both single and double-shot sizes. The pressurised baskets will come in very handy for beginners as they make it a little easier to get good results if you can’t be bothered to seek the perfect grind and tamp. And, if you have to resort to supermarket-bought ground coffee rather than good quality fresh beans, then they also help to eke as much crema as possible from coffee that’s past its fresh best. Thankfully, this is easily fixed using the machine’s adjustable infuse time controls. These are accessed by pressing the machine’s menu buttons and scrolling across to the pour settings. Here you can select how long the machine keeps hot water in the coffee before pushing it through, and it’s a key way to tweak the flavour of the end result. Milk Digital Temperature Control (PID) delivers water at precisely the right temperature, ensuring optimal espresso extraction The Sage Barista Pro, where precision meets speed. Brew perfect espresso at home with this incredible coffee machine.

The only minor issue is that the drip tray doesn’t feature adjustable heights. The machine is prone to splashing when pouring into espresso cups as a result. This, plus the slightly difficult to gauge manual grinding, means early on you’ll find yourself needing to wipe the Barista Pro down fairly regularly. Confusing grinder settings and the Barista Pro’s completely manual steamer will be intimidating to first-time manual machine owners, however. The two-cup capacity and single bean tray also make it inappropriate for larger shared houses. Design

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Bar pressure is applied during the extraction process via the 15 Bar Italian pump. The steam wand textures the milk to a velvety mouthfeel. Creating silky micro-foam capable of composing silky latte art.

If you’re trying to save money or curb your takeaway coffee habit, investing in a quality coffee machine is a great way to keep your monthly costs down and stop unnecessary spending. Sage is a premium and reliable coffee machine brand that has topped our lists on the best coffee makers, best bean to cup coffee machines and best espresso coffee machines. The Sage Barista Pro doesn’t make things particularly easy, so you need to already know what you’re doing to get the most out of it. If you do, then the results are excellent. The machine is fully manual and offers a huge range of customisation, though it’s a very steep learning curve for beginners By comparison, cheaper machines just push out water by time. The benefit is that it means you should always get the same amount of espresso in your cup with each pour, something you can’t guarantee with budget machines.

With a grinder built in, you get everything perfectly set up for this machine, delivering the best-quality coffee from bean to cup. With a single touch the dose control delivers the correct amount of coffee from the integrated conical burr grinder. Both grind size and dose are adjustable if required. The Barista Pro provides a set of tools to help take the guesswork out of the coffee-making equation. The grind and extraction timers are an essential aid for consistency and getting the most flavour from your coffee and, while you do still need a small set of (accurate) scales if you want to make sure your ground coffee is translating to the right amount of espresso in the cup, that’s not a huge extra expense. The LCD display with grinding and extracting progress animations. The screen provides you all the precise information you need to make coffee exactly the way you like it, every time.