Sage - The Barista Express Impress, Brushed Stainless Steel

Product Information

Putting the Sage Barista Touch Impress together was surprisingly simple, despite my initial surprise at how many attachments came with the machine. This is because plant-based milks, due to their different fat and protein contents and frothing characteristics, are easier to overheat than dairy milk. It always gets there after two or three goes, however, and still saves quite a bit of trouble (and time) each morning.

The Barista Express Impress is an update on the popular Sage Barista Express coffee machine, which we’ve reviewed previously here. I would often be left with grounds all over the kitchen counter when using it at my parents' house, as well as a lot of spills that would sit on top of the drip tray. We liked the easy-to-navigate interface, whose dose-level indicator flashes red when there isn’t enough coffee in the 54mm stainless steel portafilter. Of course, that's a big if, especially right now when you might not be in the perfect place to make this kind of investment.Initially, we were pretty intimidated by this machine and the super-thick instruction manual that it came with, but we needn’t have been as set-up was a total breeze. There are still two main buttons on the right-hand side to choose either a single or double shot of espresso, and a switch on this side to run hot water (great for turning your espresso into an americano) or set the steam wand running.

It lights up when you pull down on the tamping arm, which then gauges the amount of pressure it's meeting to assess how full the filter is. Cleaning is easy as the innovative dosing system is very clean to use, and the drip tray has a neat little flag that appears once it needs emptying. In the box, the Sage Barista Touch Impress arrives put together with the 2-litre water tank, steam wand and 340g bean hopper attached.There's a removable water container at the back of the machine, which comes with a water filter that needs replacing every few months.

Though very well packaged to protect the machine, it was disappointing to see so much polystyrene and plastic. If it's something that goes in your house, chances are Beth knows about it and has the latest reviews and recommendations! For one, there’s the intelligent dosing, which calculates and adjusts the grind time based on the outcome of each previous tamp.With dietary requirements and restrictions in mind, the Sage Barista Touch Impress has Auto MilQ settings so you can choose between dairy, almond, oat and soy milk. The first step is to decide which type of drink you want – you can choose from an espresso, latte, flat white, cappuccino, cafe crema or long black, as well as a few non-coffee drinks like tea, babyccino or hot chocolate, all of which are represented by full-colour images. The same can be said for every drink we tried, all of which were made with very little fuss yet left us feeling as though we had become a seasoned barista overnight, when really the machine did all the work for us.