Around $1,000
- Steam wand
- Automatic
- Heat-up
- 3 seconds
- Temperature
- PID
- Stands out
- Touchscreen, 8 saved drinks
Why we love it
The Barista Touch is for someone who wants the Barista machines’ espresso without learning a steam wand. You choose a drink on the touchscreen, and it walks you through grind, brew and milk, with the automatic wand texturing the milk to the temperature and texture you set, so a flat white comes out the same every morning, and up to eight of your own drinks save to the menu. Underneath it’s the fast Breville: ThermoJet heating reaches extraction temperature in three seconds, PID holds it there, low-pressure pre-infusion starts the shot gently, and a conical burr grinder with 30 settings doses on demand. You still tamp by hand, and the grinder lives and dies with the machine. What you are buying at around $1,000 is café milk drinks with nothing left to practice but the tamp.
Pros
- Automatic steam wand with milk temperature and texture you set
- ThermoJet: extraction temperature in 3 seconds, and no wait between shot and milk
- Touchscreen walks you through grind, brew and milk, and saves 8 drinks of your own
- Conical burr grinder with 30 settings doses on demand
- PID temperature control and low-pressure pre-infusion
Cons
- $150 more than the Barista Pro, for the touchscreen and the automatic wand
- You still tamp by hand: it doesn’t weigh or level the dose
- Built-in grinder can’t be upgraded or serviced separately
- A touchscreen is one more part to fail than buttons and a dial
- 54mm portafilter, not the 58mm commercial size
