The Coffee Bros is reader-supported. Affiliate links on our site may earn us a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Gather round, my coffee-obsessed friends! Today, I’m going to be sharing my review of the lovely, albeit quite expensive, breville barista pro espresso machine.
There’s a lot to get through, so sit back and relax as I go into detail about everything you should know before purchasing one of these bad boys.
Stars
Design
To start with, let’s discuss the design. I absolutely love what they’ve done with this one. With many espresso machines that have grinders, the grinder is usually pushed to the side making the overall appearance look weird.
However, the Breville Barista Pro doesn’t do this. Instead, it is well integrated into the design.
If we move over to the steam wand, you can see that its placement has also been well thought out. It can be moved effortlessly to get the right angle. So, this gets another thumbs up from me!
Lastly, I want to talk about the digital display. Many of the other espresso machines I’ve had the pleasure of trying don’t include a display. Yes, it’s not really a necessity, but I really enjoy having one, even with the Breville Barista Pro one being quite basic.
Apart from what I’ve highlighted, all the other features are pretty standard and work as they are intended to.
Coffee Taste
With this machine, you can make a variety of coffee drinks, from cappuccinos to lattes or just espresso shots, if that’s your thing. A lot of the machine is made out of metal (as you can see from the design).
This means the hot water and steam traveling through the machine isn’t coming into contact with much plastic, which I and maybe others would agree can really impact the overall taste.
It also means that less microplastics are going into your coffee – can’t complain about that, right?
In other words, the end result for me was amazing.
The espresso was perfectly brewed, and I could heat up the milk to the right temperature in a matter of minutes, allowing me to make cappuccinos, lattes, mochas, and more in no time at all.
Obviously, this machine is a lot of money. So if I had found that anything less than perfection was achieved, I would have been severely disappointed!
Speed
I’ve touched on speed a little in the last section, but I want to go into more detail because this machine is crazy compared to others on the market.
The Breville Barista Pro uses a heating system called “ThermoJet” that is ready in 3 seconds. Yep, you read that right. It only takes 3 seconds for the optimal hot water or steam temperature.
Coffee machines I’ve tried in the past, like the Jassy and the Mcilpoog, left me waiting a few minutes or sometimes longer for them to be ready.
Therefore, the speed on this machine was very impressive, and I found that it consistently reached the right temperature by the 3-second mark every time.
Cleaning the Breville Barista Pro Espresso Machine
The display on the machine lets you know when it’s time to descale or flush it – amazing, right?
The majority of the other machines I’ve reviewed don’t have this feature, which can be a little annoying for new espresso machine owners who aren’t sure how often to clean them.
Doing the cleaning isn’t that difficult too. All of the pieces on the espresso maker that need to be cleaned can be done so relatively easily.
I personally use white distilled vinegar and water to take care of the steam wand (but there are specialized cleaning products that can be used instead) and espresso machine cleaning powder for the rest of the machine.
Cleaning the whole thing took me about an hour, but I like to do a deep dive into how it’s all built, so it will probably take you a lot less time!
However, I’d recommend looking online when trying to figure out how to clean it as the manual provided seemed overly complicated.
Conclusion
To conclude my review of the Breville Barista Pro Espresso Machine, I’d give it an 8/10.
There were innovative features that other machines lack, and the machine’s ability to make a coffee in record time was absolutely fantastic.
With that being said, the cost of the machine and manual provided with it definitely knocked a few points off.
So, if I was you, I’d take that into consideration when trying to decide whether this is the right one for you!