Breville Barista Express Impress Espresso Machine

I would not recommend buying the express impress. So many features of the machine only work some of the time and it is particularly sad when multiple are not working at once. The beans do not grind properly. The milk does not get hot when frothed. The brew is usually a few sad drips of espresso so we have to brew 3-4 times to get a shot.

After purchasing this machine I stopped going to coffee shops and I enjoy making my own coffee.

I had another espresso machine for many years and loved it, but when it was finally time for something new, I decided to try the Breville Barista Express Impress. I liked the idea of an all-in-one machine with assisted dosing and tamping that would take some of the guesswork out of making a good espresso. Unfortunately, after living with it, I find myself missing my old one. My biggest complaint is the dosing. It's just too inconsistent. The manual dosing doesn't seem to produce the same amount from one dose to the next, and the automatic dosing occasionally seems to recalibrate itself. I find myself constantly grinding, tamping, grinding again, and tamping again instead of just getting the dose right the first time and making coffee. The beans also have a tendency to get caught in the hopper rather than feeding properly into the burrs. The grinder will sometimes stop even though there are plenty of beans sitting right there. The water reservoir also feels too small for the amount of water the machine goes through. More frustratingly, there isn't a sufficiently obvious warning when you're about to run out. If you're not paying attention, you can get partway through making a coffee before realizing you need to refill it. Actually dispensing the espresso is mediocre. There is a lot of distance between the portafilter and a normal espresso cup, so coffee tends to splatter. A small removable shelf to raise espresso cups would have been a simple solution. There is a separate hot water dispenser for Americanos, which I appreciate, but it's positioned off to the side. You have to move your cup and perch it somewhat awkwardly near the edge of the drip tray. Again, it works. It just doesn't feel particularly well thought out. There are some nice touches. The top doubles as a cup warmer, although I don't store my cups there, so for me it mostly makes the top of the machine hot. The instructions also aren't particularly detailed, so figuring out some of the finer points of customizing the machine hasn't been especially intuitive. I do like the hidden storage drawer for accessories. The drip tray, however, seems to fill up constantly. This wasn't something I noticed nearly as much with my old machine. Maybe the Breville is simply routing more purge water into it, but either way I find myself emptying it surprisingly often. Even fitting the portafilter into the group head feels clunky. It takes considerably more force to lock into place than I was accustomed to with my De'Longhi. None of these things is a dealbreaker by itself. Together, though, they make the process of making coffee feel more cumbersome than it should. And then there's the Razor. Breville includes a precision dose trimming tool designed to scrape excess coffee from the filter basket and get the dose to the correct level. It's actually a useful little tool. But on a machine whose selling point is assisted dosing, the fact that it comes with a separate tool to manually correct an imperfect dose feels almost like an admission that the dosing system isn't always going to get the job done. That's ultimately my frustration with the Barista Express Impress. It makes good coffee and has some clever features. Maybe someone coming from a more manual espresso setup would appreciate all of the assistance. But after years with a De'Longhi, I expected the Breville to feel like an upgrade. Instead, making my morning coffee now feels like working around a collection of small design problems I didn't have before. Bought from a Williams and Sonoma, had to return.

Love the machine. Figured it out in about 45 minutes. Have my perfect latte every morning.

Defective from the box. Would not pull an espresso shot properly and the pressure gauge wouldn't move. Had to return.

This is an excellent machine for those who would like an excellent espresso drink without having to conduct a major science experiment. Once dialed in, the machine brews an excellent espresso every time. The crema is great and always consistent and the machine remembers your grind and dose to achieve a great pull. The built in tamper is also very convenient giving you a perfect dose and tamp with no mess. Highly recommend for a home or office setup.

Work like a charm. Need some adjustment for coffee grinding dosage in the beginning but nothing major. Definitely 5 start product

I don’t recommend this espresso machine. The steaming is hard to work with and not strong enough. I don’t even think the instruction on the manual is explaining it enough. Absolutely not recommending it, it also has leaking issue from first use open from box. Unfortunately, return it!

If this was the first and only espresso machine I've ever used, I'd likely overlook the flaws. But it's not. And generally speaking, I'm not too pleased with it. The espresso comes out hot 75% of the time. The steam wand seems to require industrial lubricant to clean the milk after frothing. And the dosage system - while it has a cute green smiley face that lights up - is impractical. It seems more like an engineer's folly that somehow made it to production rather than a practical system designed for users. In fact, the whole machine feels a little Frankenstein-ish - a fun and interesting project for the creator, but it leaves the customer wanting more... Does it make espresso? Yes. Is it pretty good? Yes. But Breville is an exceptional company, and I hold them to higher standards than this.

Expressing water will only work if Grind settings are coarse.