Lack patience and perseverance? You’re better off having coffee at a nearby cafe because this will only worsen your condition. Even the less expensive sibling in our opinion is meant for those who wish to get serious into the coffee game. It too is reliable from daily use and I hope this one will be just as dependable.
The main reason to move up to this flagship model is quite obviously for its double boilers, meaning it can extract espresso and froth milk at the same time. Cutting on wait times to craft the perfect cup of coffee is an aspect that’s actually more important than it sounds. A value proposition given a dual boiler from La Marzocco (although better in both looks and performance) costs thrice as much.
PRO
A class above single boilers
Ecosystem familiarity
Novice friendly
CON
Coarse pump noise
SPECIFICATION
Semi-automatic
2.5-litre water tank
1700 watts
RM 4,999
A$ 999
EDITOR'S PICK
REVIEW: Breville Home Barista
REVIEW: Leica Q (Typ 116)
REVIEW: Bowers & Wilkins PX
Unlike what many suggested on the Internet, our machine was ready to brew in five minutes. It comes with four 58-millimetre filter baskets but the double-shot single wall one is mostly used as keeping an extra shot in the refrigerator saves time and coffee ground in contrast to calibrating back and forth.
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An external grinder will be required to go with the BES920 and from two trials, we got it to 9 bars of pressure which was sooner than expected. Extraction is set to 30 seconds by default but can be altered to preference so as pre-infusion times, extraction temperature and autostart via a user-friendly (although small) LCD. Also, it has swivel wheels that makes it easy to manoeuvre when it comes to cleaning and positioning.
Coming from BES870, steaming is considerably more powerful where less time is required to lather milk at around 25 seconds which is still slower than commercial grade machines of under 10. The tamper should be weightier for a more ergonomic tamp and a quieter pump will be greatly appreciated. Also a bespoke group head takes the fun away from owning more or whackier portafilter.
The low-down is Breville have cracked their heads simplifying what essentially is filled with complication to a price point accessible to many caffeine loving individuals. Should it be the first time owning an espresso machine, there’ll be a learning curve but once you get the drift, living without one will be quite impossible. What’s more, it costs less than a year’s worth of daily joe and you get to master latte art.