Posted 2 days ago
Sage Barista Touch?
Just been looking at some of the machines including the Touch in John Lewis - nice to fiddle with them.
Present Nespresso machine is dripping a bit and the coffee just isn't strong enough for my liking)
The Touch is coming in at £400 more than the Barista Express at £649? for example.
Have to admit the black looks nice than the silver.
Did find the base plate that the cup sits on to be rather cheap and flimsy, and the steam wand only seems to swivel up and down rather than sideways?
Is there any major benefit for a £400 difference?
Primarily, I would be looking at espresso, the stronger the better (any suggestions how to make strong coffee as some that says "strength 11" or "strength 4 out of 5" is like water). May play around with milks, although prefer Iced coffee that neither do (or I'll pour the coffee over ice).
The Qantas lounge at Heathrow T3 seems to do some rather strong espresso with their fancier machine and Vittoria beans)
(assuming no sales where it could be £799 or less).
Present Nespresso machine is dripping a bit and the coffee just isn't strong enough for my liking)
The Touch is coming in at £400 more than the Barista Express at £649? for example.
Have to admit the black looks nice than the silver.
Did find the base plate that the cup sits on to be rather cheap and flimsy, and the steam wand only seems to swivel up and down rather than sideways?
Is there any major benefit for a £400 difference?
Primarily, I would be looking at espresso, the stronger the better (any suggestions how to make strong coffee as some that says "strength 11" or "strength 4 out of 5" is like water). May play around with milks, although prefer Iced coffee that neither do (or I'll pour the coffee over ice).
The Qantas lounge at Heathrow T3 seems to do some rather strong espresso with their fancier machine and Vittoria beans)
(assuming no sales where it could be £799 or less).
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4 Comments
sorted bytomscoffeecorner.com/bre…ce/
Your Nespresso has been push button paint by numbers - with these machines you are now entering the world of semi automated but still essentially manual coffee making. It will be up to you to choose the beans (massive choice available with a multitude of potentially subtle differences) and decide on the grind, extraction length etc.
You will need to learn how to do this.
Learning to use the machine properly will allow you to make coffee of whatever 'strength' you want.
I'm bewildered by your preference of steamer angle by the way.
Be warned, this can become a bit of a hobby rather than a simple coffee making process.
Sage are quite rightly highly regarded as excellent home, semi automatic machines. The Barista Express is a good machine. I see no point at all in paying so much money for a 'Touch' silly screen thing.
If you decided that this is for you - and I hope you do - then the coffee you make will be consistently better than anything you've made before.
I too find even the original Nespresso capsules insufficient and will end up using two. Don't even mention the non-Nespresso/Starbucks ones.
Yes I've owned and used a variety of Bean to cups as well but I just don't have the time and patience any more
From time to time L'or have an offer for their 'Sublime' Nespresso machine that takes their large dual pods along with 150 assorted pods for £60, cracking machine and a great deal when it comes up. (edited)
Love the sage. It's a nice bridge between full automatic bean to cup and fully manual machines.
Before that had a Jura Ena9 for 13 years.