Breville BES870XL Barista Express Review [June 2023]

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Nothing matches the taste, the fragrance, and the sip of hot espresso coffee. It could be a great option to have your favorite drink at home instead of visiting an expensive cafe. As some of you go for filter coffee, but some go with the espresso. Though some of you all have questions like – Are filter coffee and espresso the same? 

So the answer is no, as these brews have their own origin. The only difference is in the firmness of grinding and brew timing. You can enjoy both the drinks if you perfectly prepared them.

Here we arrive with Breville Barista Express BES870XL that gives you amazing cafe-quality drinks at home. The most desirable machine for espresso lovers. These kitchen appliances design to add spark in producing a perfect beverage. 

To see how well Breville Barista Express tastes or works. Read on and dive deep into this review. Thanks to its technology, an integrated cone-shaped grinder allows you to host a coffee day at your place.

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Breville BES870XL Barista Express Review: First Impressions​

Breville Barista Express BES870XL Specifications
Power	1,500 Watts
Voltage	110-120 V
Construction	Brushed Stainless Steel
Water Tank	67 fl.oz removable water tank
Weight	23 lbs
Dimensions	15.8 x 12.6 x 13.2 in.
Warranty	1 year, limited
Sleep Mode	1 Hour
Auto-Off Mode	3 Hours

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Breville BES870XL Barista Express: Detailed Specifications

With this semi-automatic espresso machine, get the tasty espresso in less than a minute.

1. Design

The designing quality build of Italian-made parts that ensure a real finest look. Sizing about as a standard drip coffee maker but twice as wide. If we compare it with other espresso machines, this one is larger and physically stronger.

The stainless steel chassis, portafilter, and handle attachment helps in enhancing the look. Moreover, a large seed hopper, integrated conical burr grinder, and pressure gauge dialer seal its grave look.

Its amazing constructed body fits well on a countertop or under any cabinets, though your kitchen definitely gets a stylish look. Besides brushed silver finish, it also comes in cranberry red and black sesame varieties, which look stunning.

2. Setup Process

Let’s start with the top. The most apparent highlight is built-in, conical burr grinder, and bean hopper. The hopper on the top is easy to remove. You can also feed into a high-quality grinder. Its great cone-shaped burrs and 16 grind size setting encourages the fine-tune range. 

Further down, look at the display, the buttons, and the dashboard. It gives a remarkable option of deciding if you want a single or double shot. By its filter basket and filter size knob, you can select the number of cups. You can choose the “dial-in” that use a non-pressurized basket or for “lazy mode” go with pressurized basket. 

Then push the port-filter into the grinding basket. By hitting this button, it grinds the perfect amount of coffee beans into your filter. Lock the port-filter and let the machine start extracting by pressing a single and double cup button.

By all this, the Breville began with a “pre-infusion stage.” This means that the machine applies low reservoir pressure at the start of the extraction to even.

3. Performance

The Barista Express is fast and easy to use, but it requires patience in the first time around. Starting from the tamping the shot. A tamping requires a good tamper. This machine comes with a handy and sufficient weight tamper.

Use the little finesse brush, a tamper, and the “razor,” tool that measures out the perfect shots and discards excess. Although each part has its purpose in producing an excellent cup of coffee. Read down some essential features.

• The Pressure Gauge

Its pressure gauge monitor communicates the Breville’s brewing chops. It is located in the center front on the control panel. The circular dial on the displays allows the internal pump to push the hot water through your coffee grounds. It tells the shot quality based on the pressure level. 

• Calculating the 1 Cup and 2 Cup Shot

The filter button on the dashboard helps you to choose between the 1-cup or 2-cup. The single basket resembles the 1cup and the dual basket with 2 cups. It’s essential to know about this feature as many of you get confused. This process is recommended to be done while there is coffee in the portafilter. Fill the hopper and set the grind size amount according to your need. 

Place the stainless steel portafilter into the grinding cradle and press it with the flat of one palm, and then it will automatically grind out to the selected size and grind amount. Tamp or packed by tapping the portafilter several times and then press down with the tamper. At last, you achieved the right flat surface for the machine by rotating the tool “Razor” back and forth in the portafilter.

At last, press the program button, and both cup buttons start blinking. Pay close attention to the grind amount of espresso. Press cup 1 for water flow and stabilizing the machine temperature. And again, press the cup 1 for a single shot and cup 2 buttons for two shots if using a dual filter. The machine will automatically stop when your beverage is ready.

• Milk Frothing

Frothing the milk is a smooth process. However, this machine helps you make great espresso, cappuccino, or silky microfoam for a latte. But first, you have to learn how to produce steam and froth milk with Barista Express. The most fantastic feature is the steam wand movement that makes the steaming simple.

The steam wand performance a desirable task of creating hand texture micro-foam milk. It enhances the flavor and enables the creation of art. But make sure the machines “Hot water/Steam” light is on in the front and turn the dial on the right side for steam. As you may get the air into the foam, so do practice if it’s your first time.

Though it includes a drip tray with easy cleaning and a removable reservoir with a sturdy handle. Overall the Express steam wand allows you to create coffee shop drinks with good volume, high temperature, and smooth microfoam.

4. Cleaning and Care

All the great espresso machines demand deep cleaning to stay in good working order. Even so, Barista Express comes with several accessories or tools that are simple for deep cleaning.

• After making a shot clean up right away to prevent more difficulties in the cleanup.
• Rinse the portafilter and basket with hot aqua immediately after use to remove oil.
• Cleaning of the steam wand is vital once the milk dries, it gets difficult to remove.
• As its liquid container is removable so you can remove it to rinse thoroughly with fresh and clean water.
• Turn on the hot and steam option to flush the decalcifying solution from the machine.
• It comes with a cleaning disc and tablets that ensure the rinse of the portafilter.
• There is an “Allen Key” to undo the screw in the middle, which opens the showerhead.
• Use pin if any hole in the filter container is blocked.
• Use the wiping brush to move in and out or circular in the grinder.

5. Precautions

As all, you come to know that this a semi-automatic espresso machine that allows easy making. Its parts and dashboard are so explicit that any beginner soon gets used to it. But always read the instruction booklet before handling it.

•  Forever check the bean case as if it’s not correctly locked into the position, then “filter area led” will flash.
• Monitor the water level before use and replace the water daily (recommended cold, & refine water).
• It’s essential to note down the grind amount of espresso extracted that depends on the grinding set.
• Ensure the drip tray is firmly pushed into place and emptied whenever “Empty me” indicated.
• Keep an eye on the steam/hot water light as it will flash after 5 minutes of continuous steaming. At this point, return the dial to the “standby” position.
• It’s normal to have over-filled portafilter with ground coffee before tamping but make sure to in-tamped it.

6. Accessories Included 

• Stainless Steel Milk Jug
• 54mm rinsing Disc
• Cleaning tablets
• 1 Cup & 2 Cup Dual Wall Filter Basket
• Allen Key
• Cleaning Tool
• Water Filter Holder and Filter
• Coffee Scoop for Pre-Ground Coffee
• The Razor 54mm Precision Dose Trimming Tool
• Cleaning Brush

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Final Verdict​

If you’re looking for a cafe-quality coffee at home, look no further than Breville BES870XL Barista Express. Since there is no need to buy your favorite cup of joe as this machine offers you to make 6 different flavors. Get the silky taste and velvety mouthfeel of pure microfoam milk. Yet the steaming with pressure creates thousands of tiny bubbles. While the temperature brings out the milk’s sweetness and excites your taste buds.

This coffee maker is easy to use and no need to purchase a fancy complicated machine. Instead, you can rely on this semi-automatic espresso express. However, its two dual-wall pressurized filters work automatically. Plus, you can also adjust the setting to make the process easier according to your need. Just press the button and wait for all the magic.

Overall no matter how proficient a maker you are, everybody wants to enjoy the cup of joe without putting much effort. And for those coffee lovers, this Breville is a fabulous choice.

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Frequently Asked Questions​

1. Is this Barista Express Espresso Machine worth to buy?

With a great variety of coffee makers in the market, most of the customers prefer this machine as it produces a creamy, rich, full flavor mouthfeel java. Here are the top 7 reasons that convince you to pick this right now.

• No matter what your kitchen area is, it comes in a compact category that adds attractiveness to your kitchen.
• This machine has many default setting that makes it easy to use. 
• Come along with the cleaning kit and has a fantastic feature “clean me” that pop-ups automatically when the cleaning period arrived.
• It has various features that help to make excellent coffee.
• This machine ranks on #1 as best sellers in Espresso machine.

2. How many types of coffee does this Barista make?

Enjoy or make 6 different kinds of coffee at your place and surprise everyone with your coffeepot skills. Try making these 6 flavors-

• Americano
• Latte
• Cappuccino
• Espresso
• Macchiato
• Ristretto

3. Can this Barista be caught up to hot water?

No, as it is recommended for cold filter water as this machine is equipped with a tank that is integrated with charcoal. Always check the water level before use and replace water daily. As we don’t recommend the use of distilled water nor any other liquid. 

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