Sage The Barista Express review: can this bean-to-cup coffee machine make you an expert barista?

Price: currently £529.95 at Sage, £529 at AO and £529 at Amazon

Our rating: 7/10

We like: 

•  Professional look and feel 
•  Compact size
•  True barista experience

We don’t like: 

•  Quite complicated to operate
•  Makes a limited range of coffees
•  Milk frothing takes a while longer than fully-automated machines

What is the Sage The Barista Express?

Sage’s The Barista Express is designed to give you the true barista experience at home. That means it takes longer and requires a lot more input on your part to produce what is no question a great cup of coffee. All the processes you watch the barista do in the coffee shop, grinding the coffee into the correct dose, using a tamper to press the coffee into the portafilter and moving this under the hot water dispenser, you do yourself.

It’s main competitors in this price range are the De Longhi Specialista Prestigio, which doesn’t quite match The Barista Express on authentic barista machine looks, and the SMEG EGF03 Espresso Machine, which comes with that unique retro SMEG design. 

Aware that The Barista Express requires more hands-on effort than the fully-automated bean-to-cup coffee machines, we wanted to see how quickly we could learn the ropes and whether it delivers café-quality coffee.

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How we test coffee machines

We spend several days with each machine, working out exactly what it can do. We assess everything from how easy it is to set up out of the box, to how quickly we can learn how to use it and make the most of everything it offers. We rate coffee machines on design, ease of operation, speed, quietness and most importantly, the quality of the coffee.

Design: 9 out of 10

If you’re going to use a bean-to-cup coffee machine regularly, you want it to look good and not take up too much space on your kitchen worktop. The Sage The Barista Express has a relatively small footprint compared to some other machines we tried, which means it will work in a compact kitchen. 

It’s pretty square, 33cm wide and 31cm deep, so you still have room in front of it to rest your bag of coffee beans when it needs a refill. It’s 40cm high, so if you have kitchen wall units above your worktop it won’t fill them with steam. You can also store the milk jug on top of the drip tray when not in use and, at the back of the drip tray, there is a section to store the machine’s tools, which adds to its neatness.

The sleek, stainless-steel facia and swing dial give it a nice traditional feel and with its portafilter and tamper, it wouldn’t look out of place in your local coffee shop. It has a warming plate up top where you can store your espresso cups too, making it a real feature of your kitchen. 

Unlike some of the more automated machines with their touch screens that give them the appearance of a vending machine, the Sage The Barista Express has a nice retro professional look and feel that most people would be happy to show off on their counter top. 

Ease of operation: 5/10

This is not a fully-automated coffee machine. It gives you the tools to become an at-home barista and that means learning how to do just that. It does take a while to set up and when you’re ready to make a cup of coffee you have to be prepared to get involved in the whole process. 

Once the hopper on top is filled with your chosen beans and the water tank is topped up, you slot the portafilter into the dosing funnel and then slip this into the grinding cradle. You then choose either a single or double dose, according to how strong you want your coffee and wait for the machine to grind your chosen amount of beans into the portafilter. 

Next, you use the included razor to smooth off the dose of coffee and push the tamper on to it to compact the grounds. With this done, you move the portafilter into the right-hand cradle, pop a cup underneath, press the button for one or two shots and select how many cups of coffee you want. It can make up to two cups at a time. Within a minute, the cup or cups will have filled with delicious steaming coffee. 

For a cappuccino, you fill the jug with milk, switch the nozzle to steam and wait for the milk to heat up to the correct temperature and turn to foam, this can take over a minute, but once you get it right you will be surprised how easy it is to create coffee froth art.

It takes a good few coffees to become comfortable using this machine and to understand how you can adjust it to make coffee the way you like it, but once you know it becomes second nature.

Quietness: 5/10

Contrary to what some manufacturers might say, there is no such thing as a super quiet bean-to-cup coffee machine. Grinding hard coffee beans is a noisy process. The Sage The Barista Express produces all the sounds that you would expect from grinding beans, heating up water and steaming milk, but it will bother you no more than your kettle and you can certainly hear yourself speak above its noise.

Speed: 8/10

The Sage The Barista Express is, as only to be expected, slower than a fully automated machine. If it takes you a while to get the right dose and to tamper and then to perfect your coffee foam art, the coffee-making process will take a few minutes, but once you become a semi-professional barista taking your time might be part of the enjoyment. When you get the hang of things and if you’re not such a perfectionist you can have a good strong cup of coffee made in a couple of minutes. 

Taste: 8/10

There is no doubt that this machine makes a great espresso, although it can take a few tries for you to perfect exactly how you like it. It also makes an enjoyable Americano, cappuccino, flat white and latte, but again, you may need to play around with the dosing, the water temperature and how you froth the milk before you can pronounce that what you’ve made tastes as good, if not better, than anything you can pick up from a good coffee shop.

Technical specifications 

Telegraph verdict

If you want a good-looking fairly compact machine that gives the full barista experience in your own home, the Sage The Barista Express bean-to-cup machine is definitely one worth considering. Yes, it takes a while to get the hang of how it all works to its best potential, but once you know you never have to consult the handbook again and you can produce one or two great cups of coffee within minutes. 

It’s fairly reasonably priced, well made and, as long as you replace the water filter regularly, it should last several years. Note that the De Longhi Specialista Prestigio is better value on price and the variety of drinks it can produce, however. It’s worth looking at both of them before making your choice. 

FAQs

What’s the difference between the Sage The Barista Pro and the Sage The Barista Express coffee machines?

The Sage The Barista Pro (£769) is slightly more expensive than the Sage The Barista Express (£529). The Barista Pro has 30 grind settings compared to the Barista Espresso’s 16, so it’s targeted at the more serious coffee drinker and it heats up faster.

What are the key features of the Sage Barista Express Machine?

The Barista Express makes a great espresso, Americano, cappuccino, flat white and latte. Each coffee can be tailored to different strengths by setting the grind level and whether you want a single or double shot of coffee.

Is the Sage Barista The Express Machine fully automatic?

No, it requires quite a bit of manual input from the user.

How does the assisted tamping system on the Sage The Barista Express work?

The tamper is held with a magnet onto the machine. Grab it when you need it and press it into the portafilter to compress the newly ground beans, so that the water flows equally over the coffee.