Breville Barista Express Impress BES876 vs Breville Barista Touch BES880BSS

The Barista Express with the tamping done for you, so the shot is repeatable from day one

Scores higher on shot quality & extraction, workflow & ergonomics, value for money.

A household where more than one person makes milk drinks and nobody wants to learn to steam

Scores higher on steam power & milk texturing, build quality & durability, ease of use & learning curve.

• +Assisted tamping at a fixed pressure removes the step most beginners get wrong.
• +The machine reads each tamp and adjusts the next dose, so the puck is repeatable.
• +A built-in 25-setting conical burr grinder, so there is nothing else to buy.
• +A pressure gauge on the front, which shows whether a shot ran fast or slow.
• +Both pressurised and unpressurised baskets in the box.

• −Breville publishes no warranty term or weight for it, on the page or in the manual.
• −The manual allows up to 55 seconds to heat, against 3 seconds on the ThermoJet Breville machines.
• −The steam wand is manual, so milk is still a skill to learn.
• −A 54 mm basket, not the 58 mm most café accessories are made for.

• +Hands-free milk texturing with 8 texture levels and a temperature you choose between 104F and 167F.
• +A 30-setting hardened steel conical grinder built in, dosing to Breville's stated 18g.
• +ThermoJet heating that Breville publishes as reaching extraction temperature in 3 seconds.
• +Two-year warranty, double the one year Breville gives the Barista Express and the Infuser.
• +Five preset drinks plus eight you can create, name and save.

• −$999.95, which buys a super-automatic that also pulls the shot for you.
• −A 54mm portafilter, not the 58mm commercial size, so accessories are less interchangeable.
• −The tamp is still manual, so the one step most likely to ruin a shot is left to you.
• −Breville publishes no pre-infusion pressure and no shot volumes, only the 9 bar extraction.