Breville Oracle Jet BES985 vs La Marzocco Linea Micra

Cafe-standard espresso and hands-free milk without learning to grind, dose and tamp by hand

Scores higher on shot quality & extraction, build quality & durability, ease of use & learning curve.

Commercial-grade temperature stability from dual boilers and an integrated group, in a machine small enough for a home counter

Scores higher on steam power & milk texturing.

• +Auto grind, dose and tamp into a 58 mm portafilter holding 22 g, the size cafe machines use.
• +Auto MilQ steams microfoam hands-free with 8 texture levels, settings for alternative milks and a temperature range of 104 to 167 F.
• +Barista Guidance detects an over or under extracted shot and helps you correct the grind.
• +Cold Brew in under 3 minutes and Cold Espresso in just over a minute, which almost no home machine offers.
• +Six finishes, from Brushed Stainless Steel to Black Truffle and Damson Blue.

• −Breville's product page does not publish pump pressure, power rating or water tank size; the tank and warranty figures here come from an authorised dealer.
• −At $1,999.95 list it costs more than twice the Barista Touch, which also grinds and steams automatically.
• −Heating is a ThermoJet group head rather than a boiler, and no steam capacity figure is published, so back-to-back milk drinks cannot be compared on paper.
• −It is built to make decisions for you, so someone who wants to learn espresso by feel will get less out of it than out of a semi-automatic machine.

• +Two boilers, a 0.25 l coffee boiler and a 1.6 l steam boiler, so brewing and steaming never compete.
• +PID control with full temperature adjustment, and an integrated group that La Marzocco credits for commercial-grade temperature stability.
• +La Marzocco Home app for temperature, auto-backflush and a daily on and off schedule.
• +A convertible portafilter that changes between single spout, double spout and bottomless, plus a hot water spout and an insulated steam wand.
• +Nine finishes on La Marzocco's US page, from Stainless Steel and Black to Red, Light Blue and Crème.

• −$4,500.00 is the highest price of any espresso machine on this site, and it does not include a grinder.
• −La Marzocco's US page does not publish pump pressure or a warranty period.
• −Baskets are 14 g and 17 g only, so anyone dosing 18 g or more needs to buy a larger basket.
• −The 0.25 l coffee boiler is small, which suits a home but is not built for making drinks for a crowd back to back.