Breville Barista Pro review
Making an amazing cup of coffee is easy with the Breville Barista Pro. When you fully master the settings you can make coffee that outshines any local cafe and all within the comforts of your own home.
GIFTED PRODUCT This coffee machine was gifted to me by Betta. All opinions are my own.
What initially attracted us to this machine is the design aesthetic. The Breville ‘Barista Pro’ sits nicely in our kitchen and blends in with the surroundings. We opted for ‘Sea Salt’ (white) as our kitchen is predominantly white. It is also available in black or chrome. It’s a substantial size, but doesn’t take up all of the back bench space – there’s still room to have a smaller appliance sit next to it, but for the time being – our new coffee machine is the star of the show back here!
COFFEE MAKING TIPS
Firstly find yourself a really good local coffee bean. It all comes down to personal preference so do your research on what flavour you are after and always buy premium-quality, ethically-sourced blends. We went with our favourite bean called ‘The Doctor’ from Tim Adams Specialty Coffee, based on the Sunshine Coast. You definitely don’t want to buy your beans from the supermarket! It’s all about freshness so buy from your local roaster. For optimal flavour and freshness make sure the roasting date on the packet is within 20 - 30 days, this will ensure your pour is the best it can be.
EXPLAINING THE PROCESS
When you first get your machine follow the manual for putting it together and setting it up. The hardest part of the process is getting your grind right as all beans are different, some might need a finer or coarser grind.
It’s all about finding the sweet spot when making an espresso. Getting the settings right is as easy as counting the seconds on the digital screen of the Barista Pro. A helpful tip is to buy at least a 1kg bag of beans before you start as you will most likely waste around 500 grams of beans getting your extraction right. Once you have it all set up, you can go back and buy the same bean from your roaster without having any problems. Just note if you purchase a different brand or blend of bean you will most likely have to redo the process again.
To start the process: grind your beans at the custom settings that first comes up on the screen of the Barista Pro. You have a choice of a single shot or a double shot. The custom setting on the Barista Pro for amount of seconds that your grind takes to come out for a double or single shot should be pretty spot on. You can adjust this later if need be.
Once ground, you must tamper your portafilter using around 15 - 20kgs of pressure ensuring the grind is level and flat. Lock the portafilter into the machine and press the double shot or single shot button. To have a correct extraction you are looking at the flow of coffee to come out between 8 - 12 seconds. You can check this by looking at the digital screen on the machine. The crema should be golden brown with a fine mousse texture and flow slow like warm honey.
If the flow starts after 13 seconds your extraction will be over extracted and taste burnt. It may also slightly drip or not drip at all. To correct this you can decrease your grind amount or turn the grind dial up one notch for a faster extraction. You repeat this process turning the grind dial only one notch at a time until your coffee flow comes out in between 8-12 seconds. The process may waste a lot of coffee beans and take some time to fine tune but don’t give up!
Now on the other hand if your flow starts really quickly between 1-7 seconds your coffee will be under extracted. This will make the espresso pale brown, flow fast like water and taste very weak and watery. The solution for this is the complete opposite to what we do for an over extracted coffee. Dial the knob down to a lower number for a slower extraction or slightly increase the grind amount by adding a second or two when grinding your beans.
You can see this is a bit like a science experiment and by the end of it you will be so awake! So just have fun with it and treat the initial process of grinding like a trial in making the perfect coffee.
THE VERDICT
It will take some time to get the hang of using the machine (in particular finding the perfect grind size and timing), but when you have finally mastered that part – you’ll reap the rewards – a cup of delicious, cafe-quality coffee. Honestly – ours tastes even better than our local cafe that uses the exact same beans! I would 100% recommend this machine to anyone wanting to try their hand at making coffees at home, and who is fairly discerning when it comes to the taste of their coffee.
