Review The Breville Barista Express BES860XL Café Machine

[copa48]

The Breville Barista Express BES860XL Café Machine – another great innovation by Breville.

I am a lover of grand mochas and have paid plenty for them at Starbucks, but since I purchased this machine, there’s left-over cash going into my pocket. (Sorry Starbucks!)

So if your obsession is a cappuccino, espresso, americano, macchiato, con panna, cafe latte, etc, then let me tell you what this machine has to offer…

~ Easy to use: Fill it with fresh be ans, choose the filter, press a button
to fill the filter with fresh ground coffee, tamp, then press another
button to make the coffee.

~ Looks great: It’s heavy, stainless steel and built solidly to last a long
time. It compares with much more expensive machines, (Pasquini, Bunn,
Cecilware).

~ Easy to clean: Its quality construction and stainless steel body make
clean-up a breeze. All you need to do is dump the grounds, give the
portafilter a quick rinse, and wipe the machine down. If you spill coffee
or milk into the machine, no problem – the lower tray removes easily and
the contents can be dumped.

When I was researching this machine, two main drawbacks were being mentioned…

~ Temperature control: In some pre-set settings, there were complaints about drinks not being hot enough. By simply researching the manual, I’ve found that pre-heating the cup averted this small problem.

~ The slick design: Husbands are complaining that they have to modernise the kitchen area for their wives because this BES860XL Café machine looks sooo good!

 

[CCafe]

Glad your happy with your machine! Keep them posts a coming and its a great review.

 

[shadow745]

It is great that you like your machine. IMO Breville does make nice looking home machines, but previously the form way outdid the function. Maybe they're taking a step in the right direction with this unit. Have also read good things about their new "smart grinder..."

The temperature issues with the Breville machines have/had more to do with consistency in brew water temperature than a simple preheated cup fix. It's due to these machines using thermoblock heating systems as they don't provide consistent brew temperature or pressure. That is why Breville has used the "crema enhancer" baskets for so long. This allows pressure to build in the puck because there isn't sufficient pressure developed in the heating system. Some people have experimented with standard non-pressurized baskets with mixed results. Usually the machine can't build enough pressure consistently to give much improvement though... If Breville continues to make improvements things may get that much better. Later!