Sage bean to cup
- Thread starter Robert
- Start date
Got a Sage Barista Express as well, 3 years of it and love it. Great machine - although seems expensive, has been faultless, reliable and easy to use (although I can not do cup designs with milk forth!). I've found a bean to cup cheap to run! Although noisy at times and have heard people say the pumps start to go on them and they get really noisy. Would think they're replaceable/serviceable.
Came from 10+ years of Dolce Gusto - very cheap & easy capsules. Went to a Nespresso Vertuo for a few years (won in a competition), great machine but as a 'regular joe' kinda guy it was wasted. Expensive way to make mugs of coffee for a few years and never quite got a flavour I was happy with for the price... Even the Sage could be a bit wasted on me - I tend to go for normal plain/cheap beans (nothing fancy, don't get the appeal) & rarely steam my milk. Double shot it and top up to make a mug full...
Sometimes 'Rave' coffee when they have deals. But usually Taylors '3' or '4' medium when on offer. But when 1kg bags are not on good prices I'll go for Sainsburys medium 3, usually find a 225g bag £3.60 lasts me over a week (probably a week if I WFH) so a 1kg bag lasts over a month. Quite often find them on 'Nectar price' to multibuy the 4x small bags even cheaper than a 1kg. Couple opposite to the £55 every 3 months for Nespresso...
Using cheap filters, tablets and descalers from Amazon.
Came from 10+ years of Dolce Gusto - very cheap & easy capsules. Went to a Nespresso Vertuo for a few years (won in a competition), great machine but as a 'regular joe' kinda guy it was wasted. Expensive way to make mugs of coffee for a few years and never quite got a flavour I was happy with for the price... Even the Sage could be a bit wasted on me - I tend to go for normal plain/cheap beans (nothing fancy, don't get the appeal) & rarely steam my milk. Double shot it and top up to make a mug full...
Sometimes 'Rave' coffee when they have deals. But usually Taylors '3' or '4' medium when on offer. But when 1kg bags are not on good prices I'll go for Sainsburys medium 3, usually find a 225g bag £3.60 lasts me over a week (probably a week if I WFH) so a 1kg bag lasts over a month. Quite often find them on 'Nectar price' to multibuy the 4x small bags even cheaper than a 1kg. Couple opposite to the £55 every 3 months for Nespresso...
Using cheap filters, tablets and descalers from Amazon.
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Express isn’t true auto bean to cup, you have to grind and tamp yourself, then foam milk or whatnot.
I’ve had the express for a while, but took it to work and bought a Gaggia and separate grinder for home, which imo is quite a bit better.
The express has been faultless so far though.
Just to add, I had a De’Longhi bean to cup previously and the Express murders it for quality of drink.
I’ve had the express for a while, but took it to work and bought a Gaggia and separate grinder for home, which imo is quite a bit better.
The express has been faultless so far though.
Just to add, I had a De’Longhi bean to cup previously and the Express murders it for quality of drink.
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Not sure I'd worry about the not true auto-bean being an issue. I'd never tamped coffee before and the grinder works well. Maybe some tweaking of the grind and amount when you swap between beans. But it's not hard & easy to figure out.
I have an Express and a Pro (at work space). I don’t understand the Impress, I don’t think it’s a good idea. More complicated and takes away from the process.
I briefly had a Delonghgi bean to cup machine and it was awful, it blew itself apart and whilst it was being repaired I bought the Pro.
Don’t buy rubbish beans for any of them. Look up James Hoffman on YouTube about how to make espresso
I briefly had a Delonghgi bean to cup machine and it was awful, it blew itself apart and whilst it was being repaired I bought the Pro.
Don’t buy rubbish beans for any of them. Look up James Hoffman on YouTube about how to make espresso
This is my experience. Got mine in 2018 and its never missed a beat. Used daily at least once. Grinder burrs had started to wear a bit but there is an easy adjustment to fix this. M-I-L got a Delonghi one earlier this year. it broke and to be honest it was nowhere near the build quality of the Sage.
Indeed.
For me, the more hands on (with a bit of practice) the better the outcome.
It can however become expensive, but what price can one put on the most important drink of the day?
the dedica is currently £140 on amazon and its that plus a grinder that would be equivalent to the impress(renamed express?) at £600, thats a lot of brass;
you could get a eureka mignon grinder with the dedica.
e: like others forgot to say there is an enormous coffee machine thread in cuisine - forgot we weren't there
you could get a eureka mignon grinder with the dedica.
e: like others forgot to say there is an enormous coffee machine thread in cuisine - forgot we weren't there
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As others have pointed out, the Barista Express Impress is not a true bean-to-cup, I believe it's classed as an assisted manual machine? Something of a stepping stone between a bean-to-cup machine and a completely manual espresso setup.
Probably worth looking in this thread: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/siliconslaves-how-to-make-espresso-thread.17887005/
I had a Barista Express (not Impress) for a couple of weeks and didn't get on with it - the espresso machine side of it was good enough, but I struggled to dial in the built-in grinder - changed to a Lelit Anna and separate Eureka Mignon Zero 55s and I'm getting consistently much better results!
The all-in-one machines are convenient as they take less worktop space and only a single plug, but they take the same amount of "work" as separate grinder/machine, with the downside that you end up with a somewhat compromised version of both - not sure if the grinder on the Impress is better than the standard express, but the retention on mine was awful, and the notches on grind adjustment far to big. I wish I'd followed the advice in that thread and just gone for the separate machines to start with.
Probably worth looking in this thread: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/siliconslaves-how-to-make-espresso-thread.17887005/
I had a Barista Express (not Impress) for a couple of weeks and didn't get on with it - the espresso machine side of it was good enough, but I struggled to dial in the built-in grinder - changed to a Lelit Anna and separate Eureka Mignon Zero 55s and I'm getting consistently much better results!
The all-in-one machines are convenient as they take less worktop space and only a single plug, but they take the same amount of "work" as separate grinder/machine, with the downside that you end up with a somewhat compromised version of both - not sure if the grinder on the Impress is better than the standard express, but the retention on mine was awful, and the notches on grind adjustment far to big. I wish I'd followed the advice in that thread and just gone for the separate machines to start with.
Also consider the very well reviewed Ninja Luxe Cafe Pro (ES701)..
Its very flexible and has a wider range of options, but also does the basics pretty well (considering).. I pull double shots regularly on mine and find that the Barista assist that monitors and suggests grind adjustments is pretty decent, I'm usually within 1 or maybe 2 grind settings for optimal settings, but if I didn't have scales and didn't want to faff getting the perfect shot, I'd have no issues with just following it's guidance..
The thing with the Ninja is it's convenience, the automatic milk frothing and ability to do filter coffee has been great and its versatility is all that really elevates in overall..
Any machine will do a good job if you know what you are doing and have the tools to dial it in.. but sometimes I just want to make a quick Espresso or Latte and not have to faff..