If you haven’t noticed yet, we’re big fans of coffee around here. So when Breville reached out about looking at the Barista Pro, a part of the new Luxe Collection, we jumped at the opportunity. The Barista Pro has been out for a little while sitting between the beloved Barista Express and the Barista Touch. It’s intuitive controls make it a quick and easy way to get professional quality espresso and now it comes in five beautiful colors. Check out the video below.
At $900, the Barista Pro isn’t cheap. But that is because its build quality and features make it a system that will be sitting on your counter for as long as you want it. The Barista Pro will seamlessly take you from whole beans to cafe quality latte. Check out the video down below to see the entire process from start to finish.
Five available color options also help to make it a beautiful piece in your kitchen. We went with the matte white “Sea Salt” color. This beautiful white paint looks great matched with the polished metal accenting. Everything wipes down and cleans up easily, as well. I picked up some clear double walled cups on Amazon to show off the espresso pour.
Getting the Barista Pro setup takes a little bit, but what you get when it’s ready is coffee shop-quality espresso drinks made at home. It’s extremely fast and easy to get from whole beans to a fresh cup of espresso. I had never made a fresh cup of espresso like this but Breville provides some easy to understand insight into how to make a great tasting espresso. Both the manual and quick start guide have a chart with graphics to help you dial in the perfect cup.
Breville Barista Pro: Video
Features
To make the process fast and seamless, the Barista Pro features a three-second warm up time thanks to the ThermoJet heating system. This makes going from a fresh grind to cup of espresso very fast.
The major difference between Barista Express and Barista Pro is the LCD display. On here you can dial in the grind duration, grind size, and get alerts when the system needs cleaning. Beyond that, you can even dig into the menus and fully customize the temperature and amount of water being used in each extraction. I haven’t gotten that deep into it yet, as I’m still using standard settings for the temperatures and amount of water.
Dialing it in
Out of the box, the Barista Pro has some settings right in the middle for grind size and grind amount. Both of these are easily adjusted, though. On the side of the machine is the grind size dial. By default the Barista Pro is set to 15, but you can adjust the grind to be larger or smaller. I ended up setting mine at 11.
Just as easy to adjust, there is a dial on the front that lets you dial in the duration of the grind and thus change how much coffee is ground into the portafilter. I tried to dial it into exactly the amount needed without wasting any coffee and have mine set to 11.5 seconds. Another great feature is that you can pause mid grind and spread out the coffee to avoid any spillage and then resume.
Four different filter baskets, two single and two double, make it easy to use any type of coffee – pre-ground or fresh, to get a great cup. Breville suggests using the single walled filters for fresh ground and the double walled filters for pre-ground coffee.
Beyond just the espresso, the steam wand is a quick way to texture micro-foam milk and make a latte. Once again this was the first time I had used anything like it, but with Breville’s instructions it was pretty simple to get going. Making latte art is still lost on me, though.
Wrapping up
All in all, the Barista Pro is an incredibly fast and powerful way to make great espresso drinks at home. There are even more features and adjustments that we haven’t even touched on. With the new colors available in the Luxe Collection, it’ll fit in your kitchen even easier.
Check out the Barista Pro
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