(This video was sponsored by Breville) I extracted the espresso from the machine without using anything else,
And it turned out quite well, didn't it?
This is how you should extract it
Easy, right?
You don't need anything else
You can do everything with this machine at once
AHNSTAR
Now, the product I will be unboxing today is
The BES 876 Barista Express Impress model,
And I'm really excited,
So let's start with the unboxing right away
[1. Unboxing]
54mm portafilter
There are 54mm filter single and dual wall baskets
(Single & double shot single wall filter / Single & double shot dual wall filter) A total of 4 baskets are included
(Double shot single wall filter basket) One is pre-installed in the portafilter
Blank basket, cleaning brush, cleaning detergent, water filter
I will try the machine diligently for a few days and
Come back with my review
[2. Product Specifications] I have tried it out a lot,
Ground a lot of coffee beans,
And tried various kinds of coffee beans
It was quite a process
Today, I will not only
Provide a brief review of this machine
But also share tips
On how to use it effectively,
So be sure to follow along until the end
The product I will be reviewing today is
(With over 20,000 Amazon reviews) The upgraded version of Breville's best-selling model, BES 870 machine
BES 876 Barista Express Impress
First of all, the main difference from BES 870 is
Smart Dosing and Tamping Assist (*Smart Dosing in Korea, Intelligent Dosing globally)
With Smart Dosing, when you are dosing,
If you press the dosing button, it automatically sets
the appropriate amount of coffee grounds
And if the right amount of coffee is in place,
The machine remembers it and doses the same amount next time
Another interesting feature is
Tamping Assist,
Where if you lower the lever on the right,
It tamps with a pressure of about 10kg
It says that the machine finishes at about 7-degree angle
The lever lowers quite smoothly,
and it goes back up effortlessly
With minimal impact
So the tamped puck is less likely to move
Which made me feel that it is designed very well
Also for the boiler,
Thermocoil boiler has been used
(*PID control: digital temperature control) And there is also a PID control function as well
The temperature of the brew is set to 93 degrees
Thermocoil boilers have a relatively larger heating area than thermoblocks
The advantage is that the brew heating time is relatively fast
So with this model, you turn on the power button
And wait from 30 to 40 seconds,
Then you get your espresso done
With a brew of around 93 degrees
The use of thermocoil boiler allows faster preheating
But in case of continuous extraction,
The temperature of the brew can easily drop
One disadvantage is that the brew temperature gets lower in case of consecutive extraction
And the pump is a vibration pump
Then there is a low-pressure pre-infusion function
For the grinder, this machine features the stainless steel conical burr
(Higher numbers indicate coarser grinds, lower numbers indicate finer grinds) The fineness can be adjusted in 25 levels
It is a stepped grinder instead of a stepless one
It is a grinder version in which the user can adjust the one level at a time
First, let us talk about the buttons on the machine
The left button is the Smart Dosing button
This machine features a Smart Dosing system, so if you just press it
It automatically doses to match the capacity of the basket I installed
You can also manually dose by pressing and releasing
And if you look at the gauge on the right, this is the tamping gauge
If you pull down the tamping assist while tamping,
This gauge shows you if you placed the right amount of coffee
Or if you put in more than you should have
Or less than you should have
This, I think, for beginners
Is a very intuitive and useful feature
You can also select the filter
Filters are divided into single filters and dual filters
(*In manual mode) The further to the left you turn it, the less you dose
The further to the right, the more the dose
Push the button once to switch to manual mode,
and once again to switch it back to auto
The pressure gauge is shown on the front
Then there are the 1 shot button, the 2 shots button, and the power button
On the right, you will find the steam nozzle and the steam lever
Now, let me turn on the machine
It starts warming up as soon as you press the power button
All of the buttons are now lit up like this
It takes about 30 seconds to warm up
When you receive your Breville BES 876,
By default, the dual basket is installed like this
Single and dual baskets have a higher number of holes
It has the advantage of having a faster coffee extraction speed
Single and dual wall baskets have fewer holes
This allows the coffee to be extracted more slowly
These dual baskets can hold more coffee, so
we introduce them as used for 2 shots or for two servings
When you go to a cafe and order coffee these days
2 shots are now the standard
For that reason, you would want to use dual baskets as default
If you change the basket often,
You must also alter the settings each time
So if you stick to one basket, you don't have to adjust the settings often
[3. Pre-Infusion]
Having the pre-infusion function is one of the great news
The pre-infusion function makes espresso extraction much smoother
[The pre-infusion method of BES 876] It gradually wet the coffee puck
The flow increases after 8 seconds
It extract the ingredients in the coffee at a high pressure
(This video was sponsored by Breville) This is a machine that has this kind of basic pre-infusion function
But if you feel like the pre-infusion is too long or too short,
As I told you, you can also do it manually
If you press and hold the button for a while
The pre-infusion happens while you're pressing it
From the moment of release, the sound gets louder and the flow increases
Now, it is in the normal extraction phase
And you can turn it off at the desired time
[4. How to Use the Machine and Extract] I will perform a simple extraction while explaining
After this extraction
I will explain to you
How you can use this machine more effectively
For the coffee, we will be using the Kitsch Blend from Identity Coffee Lab
The manual button is activated right now
I will switch it to auto mode
Insert the portafilter and press the dosing button
Then it will recognize the size of the portafilter basket
And grind the right amount of the coffee
Now it is all ground up
Now it is time for tamping
After the tamping, the dosing level will light up
If the medium level lights up, it means that an appropriate amount of coffee are placed
Around this level is also okay
Let it back up,
And pull it out
Clean up the outside like this
And install it right in
Press the 2 shots button
I just extracted it without using anything else but the machine
The espresso came out pretty nicely
This is pretty great
You can extract it like this
Easy, right?
Nothing else is needed
You can just do it all on this machine
It would be nice to have it extract like this,
But when you buy and use the BES 876,
There will be moments where you feel
Huh? Why doesn't it work? Why is this weird?
I will provide a bit more detail through this video
To help you prevent such things
[5. Detailed Extraction Tips] If you want to extract espresso
more precisely and consistently,
I recommend water purging for consistent extractions
I'll check how much water the BES 876 emits per second
[BES 876 Flow Rate Check] First, I'll let water flow by pressing the 2 shots button
I told you that the machine performs pre-infusion by default
After about 3 seconds, the water starts to come out
it emitted about 4 grams of water per second,
And after 8 seconds,
The sound gets louder,
And you can see it's flowing about 8-9grams per second, right?
About 4grams of water drips per second after pressing the extraction button,
Then about 8-9grams of water per second after 8 seconds
What would happen if you purge water assuming you are extracting consecutively?
Water does not run after 3 seconds, but runs right after you press the button
As you can see,
When you extract after water purging,
Water flows immediately after you press the extraction button,
But when you skip water purging
Or press the extraction button without previous extractions,
Water drips about 3 seconds later
The reason is that
When water enters
It passes through the boiler quickly, getting heated
And then it takes some time
For the water to come out through the passage,
Diffuser, and shower screen
If you do water purging,
Extraction happens while the space is already filled with water,
So the water drips quickly
However, if you press the extract button when the machine wasn't being used,
It takes some time to fill up water in the passage,
which delays about 3 seconds for the water to flow
If you don't know this water purging, the extraction time or taste can vary each time
You should set the initial amount of the water
How much water should you set?
Set it to 40grams for a nice espresso extraction
[6. Recommended Coffee Beans and Extraction for BES 876] And for those using this machine,
The most important thing to keep in mind is
To choose your coffee beans wisely
50% of the result comes from there
We have tested various coffee beans according to their roasting
Super light ones don't grind well
This grinder struggles with them
So, I recommend using at least
Medium-light roasted coffee beans
For the people who use this machine,
The roasting tips I recommend is
[Beans to pair with BES 876] Bean Brothers Black Suit, Momos Coffee Es Chocolat,
and Identity Coffee Lab Chillin Blend
These are blend coffees that match best with a medium to medium dark roast
As I have tested on this a lot,
As for dosing, you add until you see a green light
[Dosing by Roast Intensity] Medium dark 18 grams / Medium 17 grams/ Light 16 grams
Now I will change the beans
into Identity Coffee Lab Mid Century Blend
Now, this coffee is medium-light-roasted
Pour in some coffee
Identity Coffee Lab Mid Century Blend - Floral, fruity scent with moderate acidity
I am going to discard this since I changed the beans
(This video was sponsored by Breville) Earlier, we had a very smooth grinding sound
But now it is grinding a bit slower
Since light roast coffee beans are harder,
It is more difficult to grind them
Then I tamped it right away
The center light is now lit
Oh I got it just right
If I weighed this here and
It was about 16 grams of coffee
What is the correct thing to do next?
With the manual mode, I would have increased the dosing a bit more
And then, if it was 19~20 grams
What would I do?
The next time I am dosing,
I would turn this manual mode dose to the left
and set it to hold a smaller amount
It is 18 grams, so let us extract this one
First, purge some water
Mount it, reset it
And start extracting
It will extract up to 36 grams
We got a little more and got 38 grams
It took about 28 seconds
It got extracted so well in one try
This should be good
The setting was done nicely in one try
This is a really great espresso already
[Brewing a Delicious Espresso] 1. Set the brew amount to 40 grams
2. Extract within 35 to 30 seconds
Then you can drink a cafe-quality espresso at home
Now, with the settings I just set
I will make a latte
Extract espresso
Now after extracting,
Turn the steam lever
When the temperature rises and it is heated, steam is ready
Once the steam has come out like this for about 20 seconds, turn it off.
Adjust the position of your jug,
Inject some air, and roll
Sufficient amount of steam for latte art
Since there is only one thermocoil, not two,
You have to choose between extracting espresso
Or steaming
You have to do one of the two at a time
Both cannot be done at the same time
So, I recommend extracting espresso first
And then steaming to make a latte
[7. Closing] As you have seen me extracting,
I didn't use any accessories
There's no need for them
Of course, you can use accessories if you prefer,
But as you've seen, the advantage of this machine is
That it doesn't require anything extra
With just one machine, you can extract really nice espressos,
So do you really need accessories? I wonder
If you aren't satisfied with automatic machines or coffee capsules
And want higher quality coffee
But don't want to spend too much time on it,
I highly recommend this for those people
Breville machine is in between automatic and semi-automatic
Automatic machines cannot perform this amount of dosing
But semi-automatic machines can cover a wider coffee spectrum,
Offer more flexibility, and extract better coffee
However, semi-automatic machines can be more cumbersome compared to automatic machines
Unless you're a real coffee enthusiast
It can be a hassle, and you might not even be able to begin
Therefore, for those who are in the middle,
Who want to enjoy coffee conveniently
But still want high-quality coffee
For those with similar thoughts,
This might be an excellent choice
As I tried using the BES 876,
Not because this was sponsored but
I genuinely thought this machine would be necessary
For those who find it a bit bothersome to extract coffee at home
This machine would be a good option to start enjoying coffee
There was a memorable conversation I had
with the CEO of Breville Korea
Q. Why does Breville strongly insist on automated semi-automatic machines?
and the CEO said something like,
The engineers at Breville believe
That automatic machines
Can't get excellent quality coffee to customers
However, we want our customers to
Enjoy coffee as conveniently as possible
So we've made as much automation as we can in parts we can compromise
And, that is the Breville machine of today
Yes, so today, I reviewed
Breville's new product,
The Barista Express Impress BES 876
And shared some tips on how to effectively use it
For those of you who are using this machine
Or want to purchase it in the future,
I hope you enjoy nice espressos using this machine
And I hope this content has been helpful
In your enjoyment of tasty espresso
I will look forward to bringing you
More useful coffee-related content in the future
Thank you