Admittedly, the title is a bit sensationalist. However, 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 an 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 bad 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 get too involved with the work of a barista. Brew recipe, flow-through temperature, grind distribution, leveling, tamping, channeling? The buyer of an Express Impress barely has to worry about these things.
On the other hand, the machine is by no means a fully automatic. If you have it at home, you can't simply press a button and have a clean cup of coffee in a few seconds. The Sage Barista Express Impress doesn't take away all the work from you, just part of it. It tries to position itself between the worlds of a portafilter machine and a fully automatic – and it only succeeds moderately.
You can make really delicious espresso with the machine, but to be honest, you often have to put in 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 circumvent them – and that's not easy.
If, on the other hand, you use the machine without giving it much thought – i.e., in the sense of "no stress, no effort" – you'll hardly enjoy a truly delicious espresso.
That's why we decided to write not only a normal test report of the machine but also a section with tips and tricks. In addition, we're currently developing an online course that will guide you step by step to get everything out of this machine. So if the Barista Express Impress is already on your kitchen countertop and your espresso doesn't taste good, you should definitely sign up for our online course.
The Exterior of the Sage Barista Express Impress
The Barista Express Impress presents itself in typical Sage design and is available in silver stainless steel and black. It features a built-in grinder based on the solid entry-level Sage Smart Grinder Pro, with a 250 g bean hopper. The water tank has a volume of 2 liters, while the drip tray holds about 1 liter. The package includes a water filter system so you can 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 makes it possible to bring the machine up to operating temperature in a short time. Unfortunately, this doesn't work as well as with other thermoblock machines – more on that later.
Sage also uses a 54mm portafilter system for the Barista Express Impress. So if you want to buy standard accessories for 58mm portafilters, they won't fit the Sage machine. That's a shame, but we're used to it at Sage by now.
On the front of the machine, next to the power button, are buttons for single and double shots as well as a button and a rotary knob for adjusting the grinder. The machine has a so-called volumetric function with which you can set the amount of water flowing through for the espresso, so you don't have to measure with a scale for every shot. The volumetric function isn't completely accurate, but it works quite well. The pressure gauge is a nice gimmick, but the displayed pressure is no guarantee for a delicious espresso.
On the left side of the machine is the "tamper lever", probably the biggest innovation of the machine. This is where the ground coffee is 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 enough for espresso. If the pre-set range on the side wheel isn't enough for your coffee, you can also make a coarser adjustment in the grind mechanism. We made a video about this.
The package contents are quite satisfactory. There's a milk pitcher, screens, a water filter, and all sorts of other useful accessories. Even a cleaning program is built into the machine, which is absolutely rare in machines in this price range. Overall, the build quality and package contents are at a normal and very good Sage level. How do I make an espresso with the Barista Express Impress?
How Do I Make 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 right position so that little ground coffee spills.
Then you press the grind button and wait about 10 seconds until the ground coffee is in the portafilter. The machine now indicates that you should operate the "tamper lever" on the left side. When you press the lever down, the machine indicates 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 in manual mode using the rotary dial to optimize the amount of grounds 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 pushes it against the shower head, which depending on the shower head and properties can cause uneven extraction. That's why you should always make sure not to overfill the portafilter! By the way, there's also always a minimum fill amount so the ground coffee can provide enough resistance.
Now flush the brew group once without the portafilter to clean the shower head and bring it up to temperature. Then lock in the portafilter, place your cups underneath, and press the button.
For a cappuccino, you froth 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 change from brewing to steaming and back is quite fast, which we also liked.
Overall, it's relatively easy and uncomplicated to make your daily coffee with the machine's automatic functions.
But the question remains: Does automatic tamping right after grinding really guarantee good espresso extraction? We come to the problems with the Express Impress:
Problem 1: Coffee Puck Preparation
The process with a traditional portafilter machine involves tapping the portafilter against the counter after grinding to evenly distribute the ground coffee. There are even levelers that create a flat surface, or espresso distributors that loosen the grounds before tamping.
Why is this important? Ideally, the ground coffee should be evenly distributed in the portafilter without clumps. Then the grounds are evenly compressed through tamping. If everything is done correctly, the espresso is extracted evenly across the entire area of the portafilter.
However, if the ground coffee wasn't evenly distributed, there will be areas in the portafilter where espresso water flows faster and others where it flows more slowly. 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 therefore leads to an unbalanced espresso in the cup. You can recognize a good barista above all by the fact that they take a lot of time preparing the puck in the portafilter. What does this mean for the Barista Express Impress?
Since the process of grinding and tamping is automated, we have no influence on the result. The ground coffee doesn't fall evenly into the portafilter, but due to the process creates a small mound. If we don't shake the portafilter and distribute the grounds, but simply pull the lever, the machine tamps an uneven mound. The result is an uneven coffee puck. In addition, the tamper doesn't flush with the portafilter and leaves a rim on the outside that is barely or not compressed at all.
Here's another word about the dosing automatic mode: If you have too little powder in the portafilter, the smiley doesn't light up when you tamp and the machine prompts you to press the grind button again. Then the machine grinds for another second and creates a mound on top of the already tamped coffee puck when you tamp again. This surface is then so inhomogeneous that the espresso can never taste good. The dosing automatic actually prevents a satisfying coffee experience.
The espresso you make with all this imprecision is therefore always a compromise between "too sour" and "too bitter" and never tastes really round and balanced. However, there are coffees that are very forgiving and taste good despite the imprecise preparation, such as our Apas Organic Coffee
At the end of the article you'll find a little trick to better distribute the ground coffee.
Problem 2: Temperature
Sage already has several thermoblock machines on the market, including the Sage Bambino and the Barista Pro, both equipped with thick-film heaters. The great thing about these devices is that after just a few seconds of heating time and a flush of the portafilter, the brew temperature for the 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 has argued in the past that they let the machines heat up too high after being switched on in order to also warm up the portafilter. With the Barista Express Impress, Sage is taking a different approach now. And heats up more carefully.
After switching on, the Impress does indicate after about 40 seconds that it's ready for operation. According to our measurements, however, the Barista Express Impress doesn't even reach a temperature of 90°C after 5 minutes. After a flush shot to preheat the portafilter, the brew temperature for the first preparation after 5 minutes is about 84°C. This espresso tastes sour and unpalatable. Only after 3-4 brews does the machine reach temperatures of 90-92°C. Even after 10 minutes, you still need 2-3 brews until the desired temperature is reached.
To really ensure that the first espresso can be prepared perfectly, a heat-up time of up to 25 minutes is required. No other thermoblock machine takes that long – only large dual boiler machines do.
We found a hack for how to shorten the heat-up time. You'll find it too at the end of the article.
Problem 3: Brew Ratio
To brew a consistently delicious espresso, you follow a so-called 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 for 2.5 grams of espresso in the cup (brew ratio 1:2.5). Because the machine controls the coffee amount automatically and manual control is also rather imprecise, we don't even know exactly what brew ratio we end up with. So it's a game of chance 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 deal very intensively with machines, measure them, and sometimes even take them apart, we often discover small hidden features or hacks. We're presenting you with two tricks that will definitely make your espresso from the Barista Express Impress taste better. To dive into every detail of the machine, though, you should sign up for our online course!
Fast Heat-Up
If you buy a thermoblock machine, you certainly don't want to wait 25 minutes for your first cup of espresso. With a so-called fast heat-up, you can bring 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 steaming milk requires a much higher temperature than brewing, this process causes the machine to get "too hot."
If you then lock in the empty portafilter and flush it once, you're at the ideal espresso temperature. Another big advantage of the method is that the temperature curve remains more stable during subsequent espresso brews than without it.
However, to be 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 it's not pretty!
Puck Preparation
To prepare the coffee puck better and more homogeneously, 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 54mm tamper.
This way the espresso is extracted much more evenly and you get a more balanced drink where sour and bitter taste 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 performs them much worse than you could do yourself. That's not automation, that's a downgrade.
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 the espresso as traditionally as possible. However, that's more cumbersome than with a normal portafilter machine.
If you already have the Express Impress at home, our tricks and online course can help you make good espresso. However, if you're just thinking about buying the machine, we advise against it!
