So, as you should by now know, we love Coffee! Well, love is probably an understatement, but nevertheless, over the course of this blog we have become somewhat coffee aficionados, Connoisseurs, coffeeholics, and a million other ways to say Coffee Addicted. Since we have been going all over London to get a good cup, we decided, why not take the trip? So we bought a bean-to-cup maker – this is the scoop….
As always, I did my research – weeks and weeks of reading, letting it brew, and thinking over it a latte. Eventually, after looking over many different machines (trust me, there are A LOT), the same machine kept popping up – The Sage Barista Express Espresso Machine.
High reviews. It comes in Black, can do 2 Cups at the same time, and it was also the best machine for beginners (such as myself), so we stopped pro-caffeinating and bought it as a Birthday present.
Now, first things first, this isn’t a one-button-and-it’s-done machine you do have to do some work and it may take a couple of goes in order to get the handle on things. That being said, for the most part the machine does all the work.
You fill the back tank up with filtered water (there is a filter that you must change now and then) to the max line.
You switch the machine on – whilst the water heats up, you can measure your coffee beans – it only takes a minute.
Then pour some beans into the grinder, set the serving size, and let it grind into the filter – which has a auto stop detection when it reaches the exact amount that you need (I say exact however its more like in the ball park of where you need it – sometimes it overflows sometimes it underproduces) During this process you have to pay attention to the lit up buttons and sensors as they will prompt you into action when you are needed. (Tip – Make sure you get good fresh beans for a better taste) Make sure to also grind and use fresh, as the beans lose 50% of flavor in the first few minutes of being ground.
You can skip this step if you are going for pre-ground coffee – just remember to change the filter.
There was a manual – which was rather vague, but who reads manuals anyway? I do things through trial and error, and no matter what, I will get my cup of coffee through whatever beans are necessary.
Now at this point you need to pay attention to the leveling- it isn’t all that precise, and sometimes what looks like a lot can be very little once tamped down. The exact amount of pressure that you use to tamp down will also have a big impact on the machine’s pressure dial.
Then you place a cup under the pipe? Stem? Dripper thingy? As the water has already been heated due to the temperature control, all you have to worry about is moving the cup once it has done its 1 shot or 2. Now this is when I complain because all of these machines seem to cater to people who have a small 300ml cup instead of my Mega Pint cup. This normally results in very weak coffee for me, so I tend to do 2 sets of double shots. So I guess I am having 4 shots for my cup? During this time, you can watch the pressure gauge showing you exactly what is going on – if it’s over the green area into the red, it means your coffee will end up burnt – much like Tina, we salute you. Too low and you will end up with a very watery coffee – like Look Mum No Hands.
So the gauge needs to stay in the green zone – in all the times I have used this machine, it has never gone out of the correct zone – so it’s pretty hard to get it wrong (How does most of Clerkenwell/Hackney manage it every single time?)
Now I have my Coffee Black – Like my heart – so all I have to do is fill the rest of my cup up with the boiling water that comes from a small hose on the right side of the machine.
However, almost everyone else I know has milky coffee and this is where the milk frother comes in. The machine came with a heat-sensor milk jug (only for right-handed users) which shows you the exact temperature of the milk. You pour however much milk you want into this jug and then make sure the steaming wand is situated in the milk and turn it on. The steam creates a textured, foamy milk – you can control the consistency. Once at the perfect temperature and frothiness, you can make your attempts at Latte art, which is so ridiculously hard!
The baristas that make your daily coffee make it look easy, but even after my 11th time attempting, I have only made a melted, blobby smiley face when trying to do a heart.
There have been some weak coffees, but for the most part every cup has been good – this, as stated, is greatly influenced by the beans that you use.
There is a small issue with the drip tray filling up pretty quickly and the fact that all coffee machines seem to be made specifically for a right-handed person.
My small gripe with Sage is that when ordering the machine, there was an offer to receive a year’s worth of filters upon registering – this was not fulfilled and Sage claimed complete ignorance and since then have removed this offer from all websites. I guess you win some, you lose some.
So as an overall summary, if you want a user friendly bean to cup machine this one is worth a Shot, with a Press of a button you can rest assured this machine will leave you saying ‘You mocha me very happy.’
Ok enough with the puns – stay tuned next week for something different, probably not coffee, but the perfect blend of something else.
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