The Sage The Bambino Plus is the smallest espresso machine from Sage. Sage? Yes, the company that brings identically designed machines to market under the name Breville in other parts of the world. The Sage Bambino Plus belongs to the class of thermoblock espresso machines. And as it should be, the Bambino Plus is also relatively ready to operate in around 3 minutes. At around 330 euros and Swiss francs, the Sage Bambino Plus is in the field of more affordable thermoblocks in our test series.
As with all thermoblocks, some questions arise for the Sage Bambino Plus as well:
- How constant is the temperature in the espresso extraction?
- How does the machine perform in terms of milk foam? Especially here, the Bambino Plus offers more than other machines in the same price segment. But is it any good?
- How is the overall build quality and how does it stand in terms of energy consumption?
Energy Consumption
If you want to buy an espresso machine based on energy consumption, the Sage Bambino Plus is an excellent choice. Our approach when testing energy is always the same. We use an adapter from MyStrom.ch. After a five-minute warm-up time, we extracted 5 double espressos. After a waiting period of another two hours, we extracted another double espresso. The consumption at this point was 0.08 kWh. For comparison: the Ascaso Steel Duo PID, also a thermoblock, which has an eco mode, had a consumption of 0.28 kWh at this point.
Compared to the dual-boiler espresso machines, that's also very little. The lowest consumption was recorded by the Xenia Espresso with 0.48 kWh and the Bezzera BZ10 with 0.48 kWh. The worst performer was the Bezzera Magica S with 0.72 kWh.
Small, Compact, Light and Lots of Plastic
The Sage Bambino Plus is small and compact and at 7kg is a real lightweight. Light doesn't have to mean bad if a machine has suction cups or a floor fixing. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the Sage Bambino Plus. When trying to lock or unlock the portafilter, you have to hold the entire machine with your arm. Very impractical, especially since you can't use the surface on the machine that's actually intended as a cup tray. After all, you have to hold the device somewhere when locking it in.
At 31 cm in height, 32 cm in depth and 19.50 cm in width, the espresso machine fits into any kitchen niche. But beware! The machine requires an external grinder to make coffee. This should be taken into account when calculating space.
The drip tray is also more of a small dish. We strongly recommend flushing water after each espresso extraction to clean the shower screen. After two or three espresso extractions, the tray is already full. A small red float does show the water level. But if it always floats at the top, that's not very helpful.
The black parts of the Sage Bambino Plus are made of plastic. The plastic itself feels "high-quality", but it remains plastic. The advantage, unlike the stainless steel machines of the dual-boiler class, is that there are no sharp edges.
First-Class Milk Foam Performance
The Sage Bambino Plus has a real strength. The milk foam performance of this machine is unmatched in this price range. With plenty of power, the small machine even froths a large 0.6l jug. Some dual-boilers have failed at this!
That's a pleasure. Also very practical for beginners and espresso starters: the milk doesn't get heated too quickly. This gives you plenty of time to circulate (rolling phase) and to really break down the last bubbles.
Also great: the Sage Bambino Plus has an auto-steam function. A temperature sensor in the drip tray not only measures the temperature but also provides control signals to the intensity of the automatic steamer. The final temperature and milk foam density can also be preset. We recommend the middle setting for you. What milk foam is then produced really is something to see.
Here Sage demonstrates what is possible foam-wise with a thermoblock. If only they had worked just as carefully in terms of temperature consistency…
Espresso Disaster – When Brew Temperature Isn't Consistent
It's such a shame what comes out of the Sage Bambino Plus as espresso. Unfortunately, not much that's tasty. For one, the supplied double-walled basket prevents careful adjustment of a grinder. A double-walled basket is designed for preparing pre-ground old coffee and not for preparing freshly ground coffee. From the inside, such a basket looks "normal". Many openings allow the coffee to flow into an intermediate chamber. However, this chamber in turn has only a tiny outlet, a hole of about 0.3 mm. The espresso then squeezes through this hole, getting puffed up by the pressure (see also our blog post on crema). Precise grinder adjustment is just as impossible under these circumstances as even extraction.
Since we have other baskets in the coffee academy, we were able to test the extraction behavior of the machine with a single-walled basket as well. Unfortunately, this did not significantly improve the taste of the espresso. The reason for this lies primarily in the inconsistent temperature of the Sage Bambino Plus.
The average perfect brew temperature for espresso is 93 degrees. Good espresso machines maintain the brew temperature at this temperature over a long period. Not so the Sage Bambino Plus.
First, the temperature during extraction rises to at least 98 degrees. In some cases, we've also measured temperatures of 102 degrees. Then the temperature drops to below 85 degrees. That's intense and we haven't often seen it like this. Sensorially, this manifests itself in two extremes: the high temperatures contribute an unpleasantly harsh bitterness to the espresso and leave a dry mouthfeel. The low temperatures create sharp acidity. Overall, the espresso is not extracted evenly.
Really a shame, but we can't really recommend the machine for preparing espresso.
Export of CSV temperature measurement
Conclusion on the Sage Bambino Plus
The Sage Bambino Plus is a good milk foam machine. Unfortunately, it doesn't convince us as an espresso machine. Hard to understand what Sage was trying to design here. Perhaps the focus on the truly outstanding milk foam performance is also a statement: milk on the espresso neutralizes acidity and bitterness quite well and the milk sweetness brings a nice balance.
What we would wish for. The milk performance of the Sage Bambino Plus in the outstanding espresso machine of the Ascaso Steel Duo PID. That would be our dream thermoblock.
