9.2/ 10
Check price on Amazon
Around $790
- Steam wand
- Manual
- Heater
- Thermocoil
- Temperature
- PID
- Stands out
- Assisted tamping
Why we love it
The Barista Express teaches espresso by making you do everything, and the two jobs beginners get wrong most are the dose and the tamp. The Impress takes over both. Its grinder doses on its own and reads how full the basket came out, then corrects the next dose, and the tamping lever presses at a steady 10kg and finishes with a 7° twist, so every puck starts level. The rest is the Express: a conical burr grinder with 25 settings, PID temperature control with an adjustable brew temperature, single and dual-wall baskets, and a manual steam wand. What you are buying at around $790 is the Express without the first month of sour, uneven shots.
Pros
- Doses itself and corrects the next dose, so the amount in the basket isn’t a guess
- Assisted tamping: 10kg of pressure and a 7° twist, level every time
- Conical burr grinder with 25 settings, straight into the portafilter
- PID temperature control, with a brew temperature you can adjust
- Single and dual-wall baskets, so pre-ground coffee works on day one
Cons
- $100 more than the Barista Express, for the dosing and tamping
- Thermocoil heating: Breville doesn’t state a heat-up time, and you wait between the shot and the steam
- Manual steam wand: milk texturing is still a skill to learn
- Built-in grinder can’t be upgraded or serviced separately
- 54mm portafilter, not the 58mm commercial size
