Sage - The Oracle Touch, Brushed Stainless Steel

Product Information

A bean to cup machine by definition, is a coffee machine which has replaced the portafilter and the requirement for barista involvement, with a brewing unit. I think my wife (who works with me full-time in the studio) probably got fed up of waxing lyrical about the Oracle every time I used it ;-), it's just very impressive given the amazing convenience and the level of cup quality it's capable of. At the time of writing, all machines in the Sage range except the Barista Express, have the European Etzinger burrs, so the Oracle has better-shot potential due to the superior temperature stability and precision, but mainly via bypassing the integrated grinder and pairing with a premium espresso specialist grinder. To me, it makes perfect sense that someone who would want a touch screen and on screen guidance would want that assistance and guidance from start to finish, but now there is the Barista Touch and the Barista Touch Impress, there's more choice, and I'm sure there are some people out there who do only want assistance with steaming milk and are happy to be unaided where espresso is concerned, and if that's you, then the Barista Touch may be the machine for you.

If you're looking for the best value for money Sage espresso machine, this is probably it, in the short term at least. The Duo Temp Pro costs a bit more, so in the short term that isn't quite as good value for money, but that's such a basic machine internally that I think most people will end up getting more years out of the Duo Temp Pro, so that machine may produce more value or money in the long term.

What do they make? Espresso and all the espresso-based coffee shop favourites, including cappuccino, latte, flat white & americano. What's the catch? The price and the potential maintenance cost outside of the warranty period (see below). There are people who buy Sage coffee machines because they've heard that they make better espresso than other bean to cup machines, but the point is, they're not bean to cup machines.

If you're the only user, it won't matter all that much, especially if you only tend to drink mainly the same drink each time. For example, if you're just making a few flat whites each day, the Touch isn't going to add that much in terms of usable features, for you. In fact, when I used the Touch for a while before reviewing it, I found it slowed me down, simply because I usually drink the same thing (flat white) and with the Oracle, I can just slap the portafilter into the grinds cradle and get that started, then pour the milk into the jug and get the milk side of things started.When I say “almost fully automated”, it's automated where it really matters, which is dose, tamp, and milk texturing (you can steam manually but it does a brilliant job of texturing on auto).

If you currently have a bean to cup coffee machine, and you're replacing it because it's stopped working, then the question to ask yourself is, was there anything wrong with using a bean to cup machine, do you need to upgrade or would you be happy with another bean to cup machine? If you would, see: There are five factory pre-set coffees, which you can fully adjust, and 8 spaces for your own completely custom coffees. Who are they for? I would be sarcastic & say “people who want to drink filter coffee” ;-), but there's more to it than that. Sage only make one filter coffee machine, and it's really quite a special filter coffee machine. These are for people who are really particular about their filter coffee.A very common question I'm asked is, is it worth splurging the extra money on the touch version, or is the Oracle just as good as the Oracle Touch? The Uno is the cheapest in the range (and yes I agree, it's still not cheap for a Nespresso machine), and it only has pre-sets for coffee (espresso, ristretto, lungo), you have to also select the milk texture and temperature, and press the steam button, and then the wand auto froths the milk for you. When it comes to shot quality, and flexibility (in terms of what the machine allows to to do in terms of adjusting temperature and preinfusion pressure and time) the Dual Boiler punches way above its weight. The only real issue that I can see when it comes to the suitability of the Express Impress for people who were considering the Oracle, is that most people considering the Oracle are partly considering it for its ability to auto steam milk. The Oracle and Oracle Touch are capable of true microfoam automatically, which really is something. It's very uncommon for a bean to cup coffee machine, for example, to be able to deliver true flat white quality microfoam. Ultimately if we're asking if the Oracle is worth it, meaning is it worth spending the additional money on vs a more affordable coffee machine, then we have to focus on cup quality.

The Oracle was basically the world's first (that I'm aware of) almost fully automated home barista espresso machine, meaning that it'll deliver true barista-quality espresso and espresso-based coffees with the convenience of a bean to cup machine. You think you might enjoy the home barista hobby but you're just not sure, so you want a machine you can use either fully manually, in what I call “geek mode” or with assistance.The Oracle touch does have more grind settings, 45 vs 30, which gives you a bit more ability to finely tune the grind size, in reality though I've found the touch impress does a really good job of dialing in, and the fact that it tells you what to change the grind size too is a big plus for the Touch Impress.