Breville Barista Express BES870XL Review: Still the One to Buy?

The short version: this is still the best single box in which to learn proper espresso, and the learning is the point. It asks for effort, its steam wand will humble you for a fortnight, and the price has drifted north lately. This review covers what it is like to actually live with.

The Verdict, Up Front

The Barista Express is still the best value route into real espresso, one machine that grinds, brews and steams while teaching you the craft, provided you actually want to learn it.

Buy it if the process appeals: weighing beans, nudging the grind one notch finer, earning the shot. It rewards that attention with cafe-grade drinks and a skill you keep. Skip it if you want good coffee to simply appear; a manual wand and a grind dial are chores to the uninterested, and De’Longhi’s La Specialista Arte or a straightforward drip machine will make you happier.

Pros

Grinds on demand straight into the portafilter, with sixteen listed grind settings for proper dial-in
Listed PID temperature control and low-pressure pre-infusion make shots even and forgiving
The manual wand textures true microfoam once learned, latte art included
Replaces a separates setup (grinder, machine, tamper, jug all in the box)

Cons

The steam wand has a genuine learning curve; the first fortnight of milk is a mess
Changing brew temperature means a detour through button-holding menus
Listed at just over 22 pounds and roughly 14 by 13 inches; it owns its stretch of counter

Breville BES870XL Barista Express Espresso Machine, Brushed Stainless Steel

Integrated conical burr grinder doses fresh grounds straight into the portafilter
Low-pressure pre-infusion and PID temperature control for even, balanced shots
Full starter kit included: portafilter, filter baskets, tamper, milk jug and cleaning tools

$684.94

Buy on Amazon

Build and Design: The Whole Cafe in One Box

The Barista Express is really three appliances wearing one brushed stainless jacket: a conical burr grinder under a listed half pound hopper up top, a rated 1,600 watt espresso machine in the middle, and a manual steam wand hanging off the side. The party trick is the grinding cradle, which doses fresh grounds straight into the portafilter (54 millimeters on the spec sheet) while you hold it there, feeling briefly professional. Everything you need to start is in the box: single and dual wall filter baskets, an integrated tamper, a stainless milk jug, a dose trimming tool and the cleaning kit. The listed 67 ounce water tank slides out the back, and the whole assembly is listed at just over 22 pounds, which is the polite way of saying it is not a machine you tidy away between uses.

Grinder, machine and wand in one footprint: the entire apprenticeship on one counter.

The Espresso It Makes

The reason this machine has outlived every trend is that the shots are genuinely good, and more importantly, repeatably good. The grinder’s sixteen listed settings offer the fine steps espresso actually needs; the difference between sour and syrupy is one or two notches, and the Barista Express lets you take them. Breville’s listed PID control holds the brew water at temperature, and the low-pressure pre-infusion soaks the puck gently before ramping up, which in daily use translates to a machine that forgives a slightly lazy tamp. Day to day, with the same beans and dose, the shots land where you left them.

Dial-in is a real stage, not a myth: expect to sacrifice a few muddy or gushing shots to the learning gods with each new bag of beans. That is the deal you are signing.

Living With It

The morning routine settles into a pleasant two minutes of ritual: grind, tamp, lock, pull, steam, and a quick wipe. Cleanup is honest rather than onerous; the drip tray fills faster than you expect, the supplied disc and tablets handle backflushing, and the water filter slows scale without abolishing it. Descaling remains a periodic chore in any espresso machine, and our guide to descaling a coffee maker covers the ritual and the vinegar question. The manual wand deserves its reputation as a teacher: the first fortnight produces bubble bath, then one morning it produces silk, and the skill stays with you. Be honest about the counter, though; at a listed 14 by 13 inches it claims territory and keeps it.

Downsides and What to Know Before Buying

The learning curve is the price of admission, and it is not paid in a weekend. Milk takes practice, dial-in takes patience, and adjusting the brew temperature means holding buttons in sequence like you are entering a cheat code; De’Longhi puts that dial on the front panel, as our comparison found. The grinder that makes the value case is also the ceiling: serious hobbyists eventually buy a standalone grinder and discover what the built-in was rounding off. And the price has wandered: listed just under $700 at our last check, after a recorded July sale near $550. At the sale price it is the obvious buy; at full freight, think harder. If what you actually want is an excellent morning potful rather than a project, the machines in our best coffee makers roundup cost a fraction of this and demand nothing of you at six in the morning.

How We Tested

No samples, no loan units; Breville has never sent us anything, and the machine reached the contributor’s kitchen the ordinary way. This is a daily-driver review: the Barista Express has made the household’s actual morning coffee, through multiple bags of beans, the full milk-wand apprenticeship, and the routine cleanup and descaling that ownership involves. We did not run instruments on it, so every figure quoted here (grind settings, wattage, capacities, dimensions, prices) is Breville’s listed spec or a dated price record, flagged as such; the judgments about consistency and the learning curve are first hand. The full methodology lives on our how we test page.

Should You Buy It?

If the idea of learning espresso appeals even slightly, yes. The Barista Express remains the most complete first machine you can buy: it grinds, it brews with real precision, it teaches, and it turns the morning coffee into a small craft you get better at. Buy it if you want that apprenticeship and one box on the counter instead of three. Skip it if you want excellent drinks without the homework; our Barista Express vs La Specialista Arte comparison explains what De’Longhi’s easier wand and front-panel temperatures buy you. And watch the price: near $550 in a sale it is the easiest recommendation in home espresso; just under $700 at full freight it is still good, merely less of a steal.