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Tom's Guide
02-08-2025
- General
- Tom's Guide
I've reviewed countless espresso machines this year — but there's only one you need to buy
I'm on a mission to try out every single one of the best espresso machines. I don't think I'm a crazy coffee lover until I start going through my list of dream espresso machines: like the more traditional Rocket espresso machines or Lelit espresso machines, the Breville Oracle Jet, or the as-prosumer-as-prosumer-gets Slayer espresso machines. But to get great coffee you need a great grinder, whether that's a Baratza Encore, Comandante hand grinder, or a budget Breville option. Thankfully, I've tested loads of 'em, too. But even though I review countless espresso machines, my heart always yearns for one. One small, unassuming, special little machine: the Breville Bambino Plus. Before I tell you exactly what machine I recommend for most people, there's a few details you should know about. Don't buy a budget espresso machine without checking for important features first. These features are integral to a good machine. You'll want a PID controller, which prevents your coffee from burning or tasting weak, a powerful steam wand, and single-walled portafilters (not dual). Thankfully, the machine I'm about to recommend has all three of these, and is under $500. Of course it's the Breville Bambino Plus. Every coffee I make on this machine is delectable, delicious, decadent. It steams milk like a pro. And it's just so easy to use. But I know espresso machines are a big purchase, which is why there are a few more things you should probably take into account before you buy one. Firstly, you'll need to come up with a budget. While some machines are as cheap as $150, they won't perform well without a good grinder — which start from about $150. Secondly, you'll need to think about your home. Do you have a small kitchen? Do you have a dedicated countertop for the espresso machine + coffee setup? Will the coffee machine be out all of the time? Thirdly, you'll need to figure out what you want in an espresso machine. Do you prioritize delicious espresso over milk texture? Or do you want to be able to pour Instagrammable lattes? Once you've got these figured out, you'll be able to choose an espresso machine with confidence. But, as I said in my headline, there's only one machine I would choose over and over again: the Breville Bambino Plus. If I spent the rest of my days waxing lyrical about this espresso machine, it wouldn't be enough. I need to praise this machine until I'm blue in the face — maybe that'll really get my point across. I adore the Breville Bambino Plus. This is my favorite espresso machine. Thanks to its built-in PID controller (that I talked about above), the compact size, 4-hole powerful steam wand, and attractive design, this is everything I could ask for in an espresso machine and more. Everything about this machine is perfect for me. Obviously, you may have different requirements, but for most people, I'll always recommend the Bambino Plus. The PID controller means every single shot is perfect. The steam wand can turn milk into delightfully smooth foam in under a minute. It's compact enough to fit in most kitchens. And it's beyond easy to use. Perfect for beginners, casual coffee drinkers, and enthusiasts alike. There's no doubt in my mind: this is the espresso machine for most people. If you adore coffee to a slightly dramatic extent, but your family members just want homemade PSLs in no time? Bambino Plus. Small kitchen but want great coffee? Bambino Plus. Lower budget but need something pro-level? Bambino Plus. What do you think? Do you agree with me? Which machine would you recommend instead? Let me know in the comments. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Tom's Guide
19-06-2025
- General
- Tom's Guide
This $25 gadget makes any coffee iced in under a minute, and it couldn't be easier to use
It's iced coffee season. If a coffee doesn't clink when I stir it, I'm not interested. But making iced coffee with your home espresso setup can be tricky. For one, you need a lot of ice to keep your espresso and milk at that refreshing temperature, and if you're working with hot espresso, your ice will immediately melt on impact. That will leave you with a watered-down espresso and a lukewarm iced coffee. No, thank you. A lot of modern espresso machines come with fancy cold brew settings that will extract a colder espresso to prevent your ice from melting. Note, it's not cold when it's extracted, just the temperature of the water in your tank. I've tested a lot of these machines, and the good news is, you don't need one. All you need is this $25 gadget that can turn espresso, Americano, and even hot tea into an iced drink in an instant. The HyperChiller claims to be the easiest, most cost effective way to chill your favorite beverages. And it can chill more than coffee, too. Think tea, juice, even wine! The HyperChiller is simple. You add water to an outer and an inner chamber, which sandwiches a middle basket in ice. So when you pour your drink in through the lid, it immediately chills it from all sides, bringing it to ice-cold levels in under a minute. When you're done, simply pop the gadget back in the freezer to re-freeze your ice chambers. My favorite way to use the HyperChiller is to immediately bring down the temperature of my double espresso before I pour it over some iced milk. But if you're partial to an iced Americano or even an iced tea, it will give your drink the same treatment, and it won't water it down. Not only does this prevent your drink from becoming watery, the HyperChiller also allows you to extract espresso the way it's meant to be brewed. There's nothing wrong with the cold brew coffee you'll get from machines like the Ninja Luxe Café or the Breville Oracle Jet, but the flavor will never compete with an espresso that's been extracted at high pressure and temperatures. That's where you get the dark, rich notes and gorgeous crema you're looking for in a great brew. So when you extract a hot coffee the way it's meant to be brewed and then chill it, you'll get all the great flavors, but none of the hot temperatures that can hamper the taste of your iced coffee. I exclusively use my HyperChiller for coffee, but the brand claims that it can chill any drink in a pinch. Whether it's a peach tea or a glass of chardonnay, you just need to pour in your drink through the lid, leave it to chill, and pour.
Business Insider
13-06-2025
- Business Insider
Oracle Jet review: The best Breville espresso machine our coffee expert has ever tested
There's nothing quite as satisfying as enjoying a homemade shot of espresso, but pulling a shot can be a daunting feat if you don't know where to start. It can take hours to research the best espresso machine and learn how to dial in your beans. If you just want to enjoy quality espresso at home without plunging down this rabbit hole, then the Breville Oracle Jet is a great option. With a built-in grinder and automatic dosing, tamping, and steaming, the Oracle Jet comes with everything you need to brew your favorite espresso-based drink at home. It also has a nifty digital user interface that walks you through the entire brewing process, from helping you tune the grinder settings for the perfect shot to steaming milk for your cappuccino or latte. As someone who's worked many busy café shifts behind the bar and has a manual espresso setup at home, I was a little skeptical about testing out a machine that automates so much of the process. But, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy and fun the Oracle was to use, and by the quality of espresso it produced. The Oracle Jet provides a great set of automatic features that make the brewing process approachable for absolute beginners, without taking away the hands-on aspect that makes brewing at home so satisfying. Getting started Setting up the Breville Oracle is quick and simple, and there's a thorough walk-through mode that takes you through each step. Just install the water filter in the water tank and fill it up, run a quick initial rinse cycle, and place the bean hopper on top of the machine. It even comes with a testing strip so you can calibrate your water hardness. This is used to determine how often the machine prompts you to run a descale cycle and change the water filter, which is essential maintenance for your machine's longevity. Brewing espresso Brewing a shot of espresso with the Oracle is as easy as it gets without going fully automatic. You don't even need to worry about how much coffee to grind — the Oracle will dose it for you. First, you insert the portafilter into the grinder. Once you lock it into place, it will grind the coffee and automatically tamp the grounds down. Then, all you have to do is unlock the portafilter from the grinder, lock it into the grouphead, and press a button to brew your shot. The brewing automatically stops once a set amount of water has passed. There are preset single- and double-shot options, but you can also adjust how much water you want in your shot if you prefer. Dialing in As mentioned above, brewing a shot on the Oracle is easy. But really, brewing a shot on any machine is easy, and the general workflow is pretty standard: you grind the coffee into the portafilter and pull the shot. The hard part is getting that shot of espresso to actually taste good. The process of adjusting your brewing parameters to achieve your ideal espresso shot is called "dialing in," and this is probably the greatest learning curve when it comes to brewing espresso. You can picture water flowing through a jar of sand. It will pass quickly through coarse, rocky sand, and slowly through very fine sand. Similarly, if the water passes too quickly through the coffee grounds, then it won't have enough time to extract all the stuff that makes your espresso taste round and full-bodied, and it will end up tasting too sour. This is called under-extraction. Conversely, if the water passes through too slowly, then too much coffee will get extracted, resulting in a shot that is bitter. This is called over-extraction. Dialing in is the process of finding the elusive sweet spot between under- and over-extraction and the focus of many espresso aficionado's obsession (including mine). I was pleasantly surprised by how simple and straightforward the Oracle makes this process. It gives a digestible overview of the concepts of coffee extraction and helps you adjust your grind setting to get within the recommended brewing range. Compare that to dialing in on a manual setup, where you'd have to adjust the grind setting (how fine or coarse you go), coffee dose (how much ground coffee goes into your espresso puck), and the amount of water used to brew the shot. While the Oracle removes much control from the dialing-in process, it also greatly simplifies it, and it's certainly good enough to achieve a solid shot of espresso. Consistency To see how consistent the Oracle is, I measured results across 10 double shots brewed on the same grind setting using medium-roasted espresso beans. Across my tests, the grinder dosed out about 20-22 grams of coffee, the shots took 24-29 seconds to brew, and they yielded 45-50 grams of coffee. All in all, I think this level of consistency is great considering that the dosing process is completely automatic. The difference between shots is pretty negligible, especially if you're adding milk to your espresso. Cold extraction The Oracle Jet offers several different espresso brewing methods — regular espresso, "cold espresso," and "cold brew." The espresso pucks are prepared the same way, but the cold extraction methods use room-temperature water. The cold espresso takes about 1 minute and 10 seconds to brew, and yields about the same amount of water as a hot shot of espresso. The cold brew takes around 2.5 to 3 minutes and yields enough water for a ready-to-drink glass of cold brew — you only need to add ice. I didn't love how the cold espresso turned out. It was really acidic and didn't have much body to balance it out. However, Breville's website recommends this feature for darker roasted coffees, which have less acidity to begin with, and I used a medium roast, so this may explain my results. I was pleasantly surprised with the Oracle's cold brew though. It was crisp, bright, and much less bitter than a regular espresso. It didn't have nearly as much smoothness and body as traditional cold brew, which is brewed with coarsely ground coffee over 12 to 24 hours, but it still produced a refreshing drink that I'd happily enjoy in a pinch. Plus, I think it's an innovative way to make use of the dynamic heating capabilities of the thermojet heating system. AutoMilQ milk steaming The Oracle Jet comes with an automatic milk steaming function, achieving the ideal temperature and foam level based on your selected drink and dairy option. That's right — the milk steaming even accounts for dairy alternatives. You can choose from traditional dairy, oat milk, almond milk, or soy milk, and the steamer will adjust the end temperature accordingly. If you're going for latte art, you'll want to give your steamed milk a good couple of swirls in the pitcher just to help mix the foam in with the rest of your milk, which is essential for pouring art. You can also bypass the automatic milk steaming and pull the wand outward to steam manually. Having more control over the angle of the pitcher and steam wand will allow you to better aerate the milk, resulting in a more even microfoam. Overall experience One thing that really struck me when using this machine is the well-thought-out design and ease of use. The digital interface is easy to navigate, with a slick touchscreen that intuitively breaks down the coffee brewing process. As someone who used to work as a front-end software developer, I have a soft spot for really well-designed user interfaces, and navigating the features of this machine was seamless and intuitive. The machine even has a dark mode — so slick! There are plenty of other small details that make it really easy to use, like a hatch to easily refill the water tank from the front of the machine and a wheel that helps rotate the machine so you can easily turn it around when you need to remove the water tank. I really enjoyed the Oracle's smooth combination of tech and coffee brewing. Cons to consider If you're like me and you want full control over your dialing-in process, you'll definitely hit a wall with the automatic dosing feature. There's no way to dose a specific weight of coffee. Instead, the Breville's built-in grinder fills the portafilter basket until a sensor detects that the grounds have reached a set height. My test doses varied by 1-3 grams, which is pretty consistent, especially when adding milk. However, controlling the exact weight of coffee in the basket is important for a precise dialing-in process, and these small differences are more pronounced if you're brewing lighter roasted coffees (as I like to do). If this is important to you, it's best to go for a setup with a separate grinder so you can control how much coffee you're grinding. You can check out our Breville Bambino review if you're interested in a Breville stand-alone machine. Also, because the auto dosing is based on reading the height of ground coffee, and lighter roasted coffees have higher bean density, significantly more coffee ends up getting dosed when grinding lighter roasts. When I tested pulling shots with lighter roasted coffee, the doses ended up between 23-25 grams. For reference, I typically brew 18-20 grams of coffee for a shot, so 25 grams is significantly higher. When I tested with a darker roast, however, the dose ended up at 20-22 grams of coffee which is more in range for a standard double shot. So, if you prefer to brew lighter roasted coffees then finding the perfect dial will be more challenging. What are your alternatives? If you're looking for a more automatic coffee solution in a similar price range, check out the Terra-Kaffe TK-02. You can adjust the dosage, water, and even brew temperature of your shot, but the grind size control is much more limited with only five coarseness settings. Read our full Terra-Kaffe TK-02 review. For a more affordable all-in-one, you can also look into the Breville Barista Express Impress. This machine comes with a Breville Smart Grinder Pro, which isn't quite as strong as the Baratza grinder on the Oracle, but if fine-tuning your shot isn't as important, then this is a great option to consider. Read our full Breville Barista Express Impress review. The Breville Barista Pro sits somewhere in between the Impress and the Oracle Jet, but doesn't provide as many automatic features (tamping is still manual on this machine), and the Baratza grinder has 30 instead of 45 adjustment steps. Read our full Breville Barista Pro review. For more options, check out our guides to the best espresso machines and best budget espresso machines. The bottom line The Oracle Jet is a great espresso machine that gives you everything you need to craft a high-quality espresso drink at home. It's beautifully designed and easy to use, both in its physical and digital features, and it really simplifies the dialing-in and brewing process, helping anyone get over the intimidating learning curve of pulling a good shot of espresso. This machine prioritizes ease of use over precision, so it's not the best option for espresso nerds like me, but it's a great all-in-one machine that brews great coffee with ease, speed, and consistency.
