Unfortunately, this deal is no longer available
Posted 18th Apr 2022
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Craft barista-style drinks at home with this superb bean to cup coffee machine by Sage. Its 14 pre-programmed coffees include lattes, cappuccinos and flat whites, meaning there’s a beverage for every occasion. This model is compatible with beans and ground coffee too, so you’ll always be able to taste your favourite blend. Plus thanks to the built-in grinder, which uses less heat to preserve flavour, every sip will be as delicious as the last. You can even adjust the strength, milk texture or temperature for each drink depending on your preference, for a true tailor-made experience. The intuitive touch screen display makes operating the machine simple, with on-screen tutorials to take you through the process step-by-step, so you’ll be your own at-home Barista in no time.
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28 Comments
sorted byI've worked my way up through coffee machines over the last decade.
The barista touch makes a great coffee but certainly isn't worth £900.
Instead of me writing a long post and review about various machines let me ask:
How often would you use it? (How many times a day).
How long would you have you to prep your coffee ( minutes make a big difference in the morning.
How much do you want to manually input:
Bean grinding,
Tamping,
Milk frothing.
In terms of value for money its hard to beat a sub £300 delonghi bean to cup (refurbs can be had for half that)
Sure you can get a better machine but a whole load more needs to be spent. (edited)
If I wanted to spend around £1000, I’d buy second hand. Something like a Francino cherub. But you’d also need a grinder but should still be within budget. The steam power on it is awesome. I’m often disappointed with the steam on a lot of home machines. I even found the Sage Dual Boiler disappointing.
That said, the original Sage Oracle I liked, you can pick one of those up for around £500, again secondhand.
Really depends what you want. Bean to cup machines are convenient and make a nice coffee, but they are all about convenience. If you are more passionate about it, I’d say you’re better off with a proper machine. If you’re that way inclined of course… (edited)
Presto beans on Amazon.
Careful with the auto milk containers on some machines. Milk can be just about warm at best! Now I don’t like hot hot coffee, but I had a Jura machine once and even by my standards the milk was nowhere near warm enough. With a manual steam wand you can make the milk just how you like it. Hard work with a lot of domestic machines, but done in a flash with a machine with its own steam boiler, or a heat exchanger. (edited)
The Barista touch without auto tamping is available at Costco for a reasonable price. costco.co.uk/App…700
Is there a different machine you'd recommend instead of this that makes as good coffee? I'm looking for a machine so recommendations from experience are great
...ummm you still need to pay for the beans...
It's not bean to cup anyway.
This grinds then you have to manually tamp and thread in the holder....
Wayyyyy overpriced for a very mediocre machine. (edited)
Return it. I had one and it was terrible.
The espresso itself was great. The automated milk is what let it down. Whilst the texture was fine the temperature was lukewarm at best.. you wouldn't get to a good temperature until the third or fourth coffee in a row, which was rare as I only made two.
The milk container was a faff to keep the smaller components from smelling up and ruining the milk. It also had to be kept in the fridge between coffees and had no thermal properties whatsoever.
For non espresso based drinks Darkwoods have good beans. Square mile is another option but think they are quite expensive for what they are.
For espresso + milk based drinks I use regularly use Grindhouse. They are always freshly roasted and are brilliantly priced.
The milk masks a lot of the flavour notes of speciality coffee so why pay a premium for it...
Good!
The same experience I had!
Luckily I purchased through John Lewis and after with the same complaint after 2 "repairs" JL issued a refund.
I don't understand how they are still selling!
Good to know - thanks!
Thanks a lot. My other option was a delonghi bean to cup (knowing the quality wouldn't be as good - but great for convenience).
It'd be used about 5 times a day, with no preference in terms of manual intervention, but just wanting a half decent cup of coffee! (edited)
Do you drink milk based or just espressos please?
Milk based
I'd be interested to know as I'm looking and was considering an oracle for the right price.
I usually drink a latte (large), have about 10-15mins to make in the morning, drink 1 or 2 a day, want as little input as possible, also don't want a milk container as the milk goes off in the containers.
Any advice welcome
£900 on average a cup nowadays is nearly £3 so about 300 cups if you are a one a day man then a tidy 300 days
but then after a year, it’s probably still worth £500 second hand: tidy profit… how could anyone resist?!
Jura have many fully automatic bean to cup machines on the market now with milk and hot water temperature control .
link here for some fab deals Jura Coffee Machines - Jura - Brands | Harts of Stur (edited)
I did
Did you give it a try? How was your experience of it?
Terrible, Luke warm coffee at best, milk portioning all over the place. They wanted up to stick a thermometer in it to test the temperature before they would issue a refund but we stood out ground. No way was it hot enough!!