Breville Barista Touch Impress - Stainless Steel

The Breville Barista Touch Impress grinds, doses and tamps the puck for you, textures the milk hands-free, and pulls cold brew in under three minutes. It is built around the part of espresso that goes wrong most often, what happens in the basket before the water touches the coffee, and it makes the iced side of the menu just as easy.

Almost every bad shot at home comes from the same place. Too much coffee or too little, tamped crooked or too soft, and the water finds a channel straight through. The Impress Puck System takes that away: it grinds a measured dose, applies an assisted 22 pound tamp, finishes with a 7 degree barista twist to seal the puck, then works out what happened and corrects the next dose on its own. An even puck every time, without learning to feel for one.

Highlights

• Impress Puck System: intelligent dosing, assisted 22 pound tamping, a 7 degree finishing twist and automatic correction of the next dose
• Cold Brew and Cold Espresso, extracted cold in under 3 minutes and just under 2, so iced coffee stops being something you plan the night before
• Baratza precision burrs with 30 grind settings and integrated dose control, grinding straight into the 54 mm portafilter
• Guided touchscreen with real-time feedback, 13 café favourites built in and up to 6 drinks you can name and save
• Auto MilQ hands-free texturing, 8 texture levels and 104 to 167 degrees Fahrenheit, with settings for almond, oat and soy that adjust air injection and temperature per milk
• ThermoJet heating, ready in about 3 seconds, using up to 32 percent less energy annually than a thermoblock
• Less mess, since dosing and tamping happen inside the machine and the grounds stay off the counter

Who it's for

• Anyone who wants espresso to be repeatable rather than a coin flip, without months of learning puck prep
• Households with different orders, since six named drinks means nobody adjusts anything
• Iced coffee drinkers, since cold brew here is a few minutes rather than an overnight steep
• Plant milk drinkers, because the almond, oat and soy settings are tuned per milk rather than treated as one setting

Two things worth knowing. This is a single boiler machine, so it brews and then steams rather than doing both at once, which suits most households. And like any machine that grinds fresh for every shot, it rewards freshly roasted beans: buy in smaller amounts more often and the difference in the cup is immediate.

Living with it

Daily, purge and wipe the steam wand and knock out the puck. Milk is the one job on a machine with a wand that will not wait.

Then periodically, the touchscreen prompts a cleaning cycle and a descale when due and walks you through both, and the cleaning kit and water filter are in the box. Fit the filter and set your water hardness on day one and descaling stays rare.

FAQs

• What does the Impress Puck System actually do?
  It grinds a measured dose into the basket, applies an assisted 22 pound tamp, and finishes with a 7 degree twist to seal the surface. It then works out whether the dose was right and adjusts the next one, so the puck gets more consistent as you go.
• Do I need to know how to steam milk?
  No. Auto MilQ textures it hands-free with 8 texture levels and temperatures from 104 to 167 degrees Fahrenheit, and there are separate settings for almond, oat and soy that change the air injection and temperature for each.
• Can it save drinks for different people?
  Yes. There are 13 café favourites built in and you can save up to 6 of your own, named, so each person selects theirs rather than resetting the machine.
• How does the cold brew work?
  It extracts cold rather than steeping overnight. Cold Brew comes through in under three minutes and Cold Espresso, with crema, in just under two. Extracting at low temperature cuts the acidity, so it tastes smoother and rounder than iced hot coffee, and it opens up the whole iced menu on a weekday.
• Can it brew and steam at the same time?
  No. It has a single heating system, so it brews and then steams in sequence. ThermoJet moves between the two quickly, but if you make several milk drinks back to back, ask us about dual boiler machines when you visit.
• Who handles warranty and service in Canada?
  Breville products are covered and serviced directly by Breville Canada, at 1-855-683-3535. We are here for setup, dialling in your first beans and questions about using the machine, before and after you buy.

Specifications

• Type: Espresso machine with integrated grinder and assisted dosing and tamping
• Puck system: Impress, assisted 22 lb tamp, 7 degree twist, automatic dose correction
• Grinder: Baratza precision burrs, 30 grind settings, integrated dose control
• Portafilter: 54 mm stainless steel
• Milk system: Auto MilQ hands-free, 8 texture levels, 104 to 167 degrees Fahrenheit, almond, oat and soy settings
• Cold extraction: Cold Brew and Cold Espresso modes
• Heating system: ThermoJet, ready in about 3 seconds
• Boiler: Single, so brewing and steaming happen in sequence
• Display: Touchscreen, 13 preset café drinks, up to 6 saved custom drinks
• Bean hopper: 12 oz
• Dimensions (W × D × H): 36 × 34 × 41.5 cm, 14.2 × 13.4 × 16.3 in
• In the box: 54 mm portafilter, single and dual wall 1-cup and 2-cup baskets, milk jug, water filter and holder, cleaning kit, instruction booklet

Why buy from Coffee Warehouse?

• Two Ontario showrooms, Markham and Richmond Hill, where we will run the Impress tamp and pull you a cold brew so you can taste both sides of the machine, plus live virtual demos if you are not nearby
• Help dialling it in, from beans to grind setting, so it performs at home the way it did in the showroom
• Free shipping and financing available
• Toll-free support at 1-888-742-1777, before you buy and long after