Admittedly, the title is a bit sensationalist. But the Sage Barista Express Impress aims to bridge the sometimes somewhat complicated world of portafilter machines with the simple and clean world of fully automatic coffee machines. It wants to combine the convenience of automatic with the precision of a barista and promises delicious espresso – with almost no effort. But is that even possible? Is the machine a jack-of-all-trades or a poor compromise that doesn't really make anyone happy?
What's New About the Barista Express Impress?
Sage markets the Barista Express Impress as a semi-automatic coffee machine. "No stress. No effort." This makes the target audience of the machine pretty clear. Sage is targeting people who want a stylish and high-quality coffee machine with portafilter feel, but don't want to spend too much time with the work of a barista. Brew recipe, flow temperature, ground distribution, leveling, tamping, channeling? The buyer of an Express Impress hardly needs to think about these things.
On the other hand, the machine is far from being a fully automatic. If you have it at home, you can't just press a button and have a clean cup of coffee in a few seconds. The Sage Barista Express Impress doesn't do all the work for you, just some of it. It tries to position itself between the worlds of a portafilter machine and a fully automatic machine – and it only manages that mediocrely.
You can make really delicious espresso with the machine, but to be honest, you often have to put in even more effort than with a classic portafilter machine like the Barista Express, the predecessor to the Impress. You have to work with the machine's fixed automatic settings or even bypass them – and that's not easy.
If, on the other hand, you use the machine without thinking too much about it – that is, in the spirit of "no stress, no effort" – you'll hardly enjoy a truly delicious espresso.
That's why we decided to write not only a normal review of the machine but also a section with tips and tricks. Furthermore, we're currently developing an online course that will guide you step by step to get the absolute most out of this machine. So if the Barista Express Impress is already sitting on your kitchen counter and your espresso doesn't taste good, be sure to sign up for our online course.
The Exterior of the Sage Barista Express Impress
The Barista Express Impress comes in typical Sage design and is available in silver stainless steel and black. It features a built-in grinder based on the solid Sage Smart Grinder Pro entry-level grinder and holds 250 g of beans in the hopper. The water tank has a capacity of 2 liters, while the drip tray holds about 1 liter. The package includes a water filter system that allows you to use regular tap water without having to run it through separate filters. That works well!
The machine is a thermoblock machine. It doesn't heat one or two separate boilers, but uses a thermocoil. This type of flow heater allows the machine to reach operating temperature in a short time. Unfortunately, this doesn't work quite as well as with other thermoblock machines – more on that later.
Sage also uses a 54mm portafilter system on the Barista Express Impress. So if you want to buy standard accessories for 58mm portafilters, they won't fit the Sage machine. While that's a shame, we've gotten used to it with Sage machines by now.
On the front of the machine, next to the power button, there are buttons for single and double shots and a button and rotary knob for adjusting the grinder. The machine features a so-called volumetric system, which allows you to set the amount of water running through for your espresso, so you don't have to measure with a scale on every shot. The volumetric system isn't quite exact, but it works reasonably well. The pressure gauge is a nice gimmick, but the pressure shown is no guarantee for a delicious espresso.
On the left side of the machine is the "tamper lever", arguably the machine's biggest innovation. This is where the ground coffee gets compressed after grinding. At the same time, it analyzes whether the portafilter is full enough or too full.
The grinder in the Barista Express Impress is essentially based on Sage's Smart Grinder Pro. The grind size can be adjusted finely and precisely, and it can definitely grind fine for espresso. If the preset range on the side wheel isn't enough for your coffee, you can also make a coarse adjustment in the grinder itself. We made a video about that.
The package contents are quite satisfactory. There's a milk pitcher, baskets, a water filter, and all sorts of other useful accessories. Even a cleaning program has been built into the device, which is absolutely rare for machines in this price range. Overall, the build quality and package contents are at a normal and very good Sage level. How do I prepare an espresso with the Barista Express Impress?
How Do I Prepare an Espresso with the Barista Express Impress?
You take the warm, clean, and dry portafilter and lock it under the grinder. The portafilter is automatically pulled to the correct position so little ground coffee spills.
Then you press the grinder button and wait about 10 seconds until the ground coffee is in the portafilter. The machine now indicates that you should use the "tamper lever" on the left side. When you press the lever down, the machine shows how full the portafilter is. Ideally, a smiley lights up – then you have the right amount of ground coffee in the portafilter. If the display shows too little or too much, you need to adjust the grinding time with the rotary knob in manual mode to optimize the amount of ground coffee in the portafilter. This display can be useful and helpful for beginners.
More ground coffee doesn't automatically mean "better coffee". The coffee swells when it comes into contact with water. This presses it against the shower head, which depending on the shower head and other factors can cause uneven extraction. That's why you should always make sure not to fill the portafilter too full! By the way, there's also always a minimum fill level so the ground coffee can provide enough resistance.
Now you rinse the brew group once without the portafilter to clean the shower head and bring it to temperature. After that, you lock in the portafilter, put your cups underneath, and press the button.
For a cappuccino, you froth the cold milk with the steam wand. With the Sage Barista Express Impress, this is a bit slow, but the steam power is sufficient to produce fine microfoam. Thanks to the thermoblock principle, the temperature switch from brewing and steaming and back happens quite quickly, which we also liked.
All in all, it's relatively simple and straightforward to make your daily coffee with the machine's automatic functions.
But the question remains: does automatic tamping right after grinding really ensure good espresso extraction? We come to the problems with the Express Impress:
Problem 1: Coffee Puck Preparation
The process with a traditional portafilter machine is to knock the portafilter after grinding to distribute the ground coffee evenly. There are even levelers that create a level surface, or espresso distributors that fluff up the ground coffee before tamping.
Why is that important? Ideally, the ground coffee should be evenly distributed in the portafilter without clumps. The ground coffee is then evenly compressed by tamping. If everything is done correctly, the espresso will extract evenly across the entire portafilter area.
However, if the ground coffee was not evenly distributed, there will be areas in the portafilter where espresso water flows faster and others where it flows slower. This causes the coffee to be partially over-extracted (too long extraction) and partially under-extracted (too short extraction). Under-extracted espresso tastes sour, over-extracted espresso tastes bitter.
Poor puck preparation in the portafilter results in an imbalanced espresso in the cup. You can recognize a good barista especially by how much time they spend preparing the puck in the portafilter. What does this mean for the Barista Express Impress?
Since the grinding and tamping process is automated, we have no influence on the result. The ground coffee doesn't fall evenly into the portafilter, but due to the process, forms a small mound. If we don't shake the portafilter and distribute the grounds, but just pull the lever, the machine tamps an uneven mound. The result is an uneven coffee puck. Added to this is the fact that the tamper doesn't flush with the portafilter, leaving a rim on the outside that is barely or not compressed at all.
Here's another word on the dosing automatic mode: If you have too little powder in the portafilter, the smiley doesn't light up during tamping and the machine prompts you to press the grind button again. The machine then grinds for another second and creates a mound on the already tamped coffee cake when tamping again. This surface is so inhomogeneous that the espresso can never taste good. The dosing automatic actually prevents a satisfying coffee experience.
So the espresso you prepare with all this imprecision is always a compromise between "too sour" and "too bitter" and never tastes truly round and balanced. However, there are coffees that forgive a lot and taste good despite the imprecise preparation, such as our Apas Bio coffee
At the end of the article you'll find a little trick to better distribute the ground coffee.
Problem 2: The Temperature
Sage already has several thermoblock machines on the market, including the Sage Bambino and the Barista Pro, both equipped with a thick-film heater. The great thing about these devices is that after only a few seconds of heat-up time and purging the portafilter, the brew temperature for espresso remains constant and at a good level of about 90°C or better 92°C.
The problem with these machines was rather that they were preset too hot. Sage argued in the past that after switching on, they let the machines heat up high to also warm up the portafilter. With the Barista Express Impress, Sage is now taking a different approach. And heats up more cautiously.
After switching on, the Impress does show after about 40 seconds that it's ready to operate. However, according to our measurements, the Barista Express Impress doesn't even reach a temperature of 90°C after 5 minutes. After a purge shot to preheat the portafilter, the brew temperature on the first preparation after 5 minutes is about 84°C. This espresso tastes sour and undrinkable. Only after 3-4 brews does the machine reach temperatures of 90-92°C. Even after 10 minutes, you still need 2-3 brews to reach the desired temperature.
To really ensure that the first espresso can be prepared perfectly, a heat-up time of up to 25 minutes is required. Otherwise, only large dual-boiler machines need that long, not a thermoblock machine.
We found a hack on how to shorten the heat-up time. You'll find it too at the end of the article.
Problem 3: Brew Ratio
To brew consistently delicious espresso, you follow what's called a brew ratio or brew recipe. The amount of ground coffee is put in a ratio to the milliliters of drink in the cup. We often recommend 1 gram of ground coffee to 2.5 grams of espresso in the cup (brew ratio 1:2.5). Because the machine controls the amount of coffee automatically and manual control is also rather imprecise, we don't know exactly what brew ratio we ultimately have. So it's a gamble whether the semi-automatic espresso tastes good. Sometimes an espresso turns out well, sometimes it doesn't. That's not really satisfying.
Tips and Tricks
Since we work intensively with the machines, measure them, and sometimes take them apart, we often discover small, hidden functions or hacks. We'll show you two tricks that will definitely make your espresso from the Barista Express Impress taste better. But to dive into every detail of the machine, you should sign up for our online course!
Fast Heatup
If you buy a thermoblock machine, you probably don't want to wait 25 minutes for your first cup of espresso. With a so-called fast heatup, you can get the machine up to temperature faster.
To do this, turn on the machine normally. As soon as the machine has "heated up" after 40 seconds, place a milk pitcher under the steam wand and turn on the steam for about 2 minutes. Because milk steaming requires a much higher temperature than brewing, this process makes the machine "too hot".
When you then lock in the empty portafilter and purge once, you're at the ideal espresso temperature. Another major advantage of the method is that the temperature curve remains more stable during subsequent espresso brews than without it.
However, if we're being honest, it's not a really elegant solution. Who wants to let their fancy new espresso machine heat up loudly and steaming for minutes before it's even ready to go? This hack is useful, but elegant it's not!
Puck Preparation
To better and more homogeneously prepare the coffee puck, you can remove the portafilter from the machine after grinding. Then tap it with the palm of your hand ("karate chop") and gently tap it on the work surface. This closes air channels that formed during grinding and creates a homogeneous surface.
Now you can lock the portafilter back under the grinder and pull the tamper lever. Or you can tamp outside the machine with an external 54 mm tamper.
This way, the espresso extracts much more evenly and you get a more balanced drink where sour and bitter flavor notes are much more balanced.
Conclusion: Automation at Its Worst
Automation sounds good, progressive, and somehow sexy. We think of everyday conveniences, fewer production errors, and consistent quality. So the step Sage is taking with the Express Impress would be completely understandable: portafilter quality and yet little work.
In our opinion, however, the concept doesn't work at all. The automation takes away the most important processes in espresso preparation from you as a home barista and does them much worse than you could yourself. That's not automation, that's deterioration.
After extensive testing, we conclude that you can only make delicious espresso with the machine if you bypass a large part of the "innovations" and brew espresso as traditionally as possible. However, this is more cumbersome than with a normal portafilter machine.
If you already have the Express Impress at home, our tricks and online course will allow you to make good espresso. However, if you're just thinking about buying the machine, we advise against it!
