Breville the Barista Touch Impress Espresso Machine with Grinder & Auto Milk Frother, Espresso Maker with Assisted Tamping & Touchscreen, Cappuccino & Latte Machine for Home, BES881BTR, Black Truffle

What an Upgrade!
I have had, used, and loved my Breville Creatista Plus using Nespresso pods for about 7 years. The machine still functioned well, but it was just starting to slow down. I had been waiting for an excuse to upgrade, got a raise at work, and decided to treat myself to a new machine. Boy, am I glad I did. I was deciding between the regular Impress and the Touch Impress. The Touch seemed to have a few upgrade, grinder, milkIQ thing, ease of use, better heating system, that I decided to pay the higher price. I am sure the Impress is an awesome machine, based on my Touch. The Touch, however, it out of this world. It took two times to get dialed in, and in less than 10 minutes, I tasted a better flat white than anything I had ever had. Sure, a lot had to do with the beans, but this machine is AMAZING. Easy set up, like super easy. Put beans in, figure out your grind size, hit the button, tamp it, put the portofiler in, push. the button, put the pitcher with milk under the frother, and done. Next day, made my normal morning mocha. first time, used half the mocha I did with my Nespresso, and it was a top 5 mocha I have ever had. For context, any city I visit, I search for the best rated coffee house. Starbucks is a last resort. I have had great coffee in many places. This machine matches any of them. The only one I know was better was at Palo on a Disney Cruise. My daughter came home from college. Made her a vanilla latte. Said it was the best she has ever had. The level this machine produces espresso and other beverages is so far above most chain coffee shops, and equals the smaller mom and pop boutique coffee shops I love. Even now, I am sitter here drinking the best salted caramel mocha, it is fall after all, I have ever had. Made my wife an americano, her favorite drink. She LOVED it. Easy to use, makes you look like a coffee genius, and looks pretty good in the kitchen. Not even worth mentioning how much of an upgrade it is over my Nespresso, which was a great machine. This machine is everything I hoped and more. For context, I used Koffee Kult beans, which can be found on Amazon. Best beans you will find.Update-It has been 6 weeks and wanted to give a quick update. First, this machine only gets better. I have heard people downplay the milk technology. To me, this is a great feature. Who knew, I didn’t, that oat milk gets bitter at 150 degrees? Well Breville did. As you learn more, like using the tap lever twice as some online reviews suggest, produces a cleaner puck. Their different temps make a difference in the quality of the milk, regardless of kind. The machine is pretty clean, but you will find grinds slipping out every now and then. Not a big deal, but trying to keep it real. Something that might frustrate people, but it is the result of fresh beans, not the machine, is dialing in the grind and length of the shot does fluctuate a little. A 12 grind produces 26 second pulls one time, and maybe 23 seconds the next day. Not a big deal to me, but to perfectionists, might be a worry. Again, not the machine, but I believe it is the natural variance of fresh beans. I read a lot of complaints about the grinder. I don’t know act people are expecting, but it is a grinder. I think it is surprisingly quiet. Maybe it is because I saw people write about it, but I was quite pleased with the grinder. The machine heats up quickly. It takes about 25-30 seconds to pull a shot. The milk frothing is fairly quick.My daughter went to breakfast the other day. She got a dunkin with her friends. She came home and asked me to make her something, the dunkin didn’t taste good. That is my one warning, you can make amazing espresso drinks with this machine. It will change your palette. When I have meetings at Starbucks now, instead of something I look forward to, it is more ok, I will deal with spending $6 on a very average cup of coffee. This machine is expensive, but much less than some. I am not sure you can produce a better espresso shot. I know I haven’t found better in even the best coffee shops.

Terrible quality and value. Do yourself a favor and stay away!
I purchased this Breville Barista Touch Impress twice. The first one I had kept getting a ER09 Error Code, so I returned it since it was still within the return period. I read horror stories regarding Breville Customer Support when looking up ER09 error code online and didn’t want to go through that trouble.The return by the way was still a hassle – Amazon doesn’t make it easy to return large appliances. I returned it and never received my refund. I had to contact customer service multiple times – who then told me to “just wait another week” 3 times – very annoying. They took many weeks to give me a refund and eventually had to get an exec to override and issue a refund because “the return was stuck in processing” – whatever that means.Due to the fact that my wife and I both enjoyed the first one when it worked, I gave it another chance and ordered a replacement.The second one has now stopped working after 7 months.Breville customer service is terrible. In order to honor their own warranty, they need to see video proof, have a video call with you, watch you use the machine, make you sing a song and dance like a circus clown. Last two are a joke by the way lolThe point is… Breville makes you run around and jump through hoops for them to honor their own warranty on a well-known defective machine. There are countless sites and threads online where people complain about this exact model having so many issues. I honestly don’t even know why Amazon sells this model.Please do yourself, your family and your wallet a favor and skip this model. It is nice while it works but it breaks down extremely easily. Then you are out of $1500+ and your only solution is to pay money to return the product to Breville after they make you jump through hoops – only to get another one that will break again.Rinse, wash, repeat. Heed the warnings of myself and many others – STAY FAR AWAY FROM THIS DEFECTIVE MACHINE.I would give this product ZERO STARS if I could. Never going to purchase another Breville product again.

Great if you’re not a coffee geek
I’m not looking for a new hobby. I just want good espresso, Americanos and the occasional late. Wanted something easy enough for friends and family to use. Overall we are very satisfied. Keep in mind that the beans you use make a HUGE difference. Good espresso requires very freshly roasted beans. You’ll get decent coffee from grocery store beans, but a really good pull requires beans roasted within a month of use.

Purchased this machine to replace my older Breville barista – new technology and innovation in design and features is truly remarkable. Still nervous about how this machine will stand to the test of time, given the smart technology, but so far it’s been incredible. Milk and froth texture is spot on and espresso shots can be customized or set based on preference. Super easy for everyone including our kids to tailor and save their speciality drinks. We use this 4-5 times a day!

We love this machine. High quality for a reasonable price It’s user friendly and make delicious espresso and cappuccino. Haven’t tried anything else yet.