The Sage Barista Touch is a combination espresso machine with an integrated grinder. Very practical for beginners, if both components work. However, if one of the components fails, then a change or an upgrade is not so easy.
First off: the grinder of the espresso machine is solid and similar in construction to the Sage Smart Grinder Pro. We have already tested this grinder. It is a good recommendation for starting out in the world of espresso preparation.
In contrast, we find the espresso quality of the Sage Barista Touch difficult to achieve. On the other hand, frothing milk for cappuccino and other milk drinks is where the Sage Barista Touch shines.
You can find out how all of this works together and how we categorize the machine in the realm of thermoblock espresso machines in this review.
Semi-automatic with a super-automatic touch
We can only interpret what the company Sage, which operates under Breville in the English-speaking world, had in mind when assembling the machine. The machine takes several steps towards a fully automatic coffee machine and provides most of the buttons, which are physically present on the Pro, with a touch display. Only the grind size has to be adjusted by a dial. All other control units are integrated into the display.
An extensive menu also offers numerous beverages, from espresso to flat white, cappuccino, and americano. If you look closely, however, most of the beverages conceal the same settings. No wonder, the basis of most espresso machine drinks is espresso.
So, the coffee for espresso must be ground each time. In the touch display, the quantity can be adjusted by grinding time. The first drawback: the setting here is only possible in second increments. While the €200 Smart Grinder can be adjusted to within two-tenths of a second, and the Sage Barista Pro still allows 0.5-second increments, the Sage Barista Touch only jumps in whole seconds. One second corresponds to more than one gram of ground coffee. If you want to grind 18 grams of coffee, you might end up with 17.5 or 18.5 grams in extreme cases. It is inexplicable why the more expensive model offers less precision here.
How Sage recommends espresso extraction. And that's just plain wrong!
The portafilter is pressed against the grinder by hand, then tamped by hand and locked in. Then follows the extraction – all just like with the Sage Barista Pro. Only guided by the display. In addition, it also provides all sorts of tips and setting features, like a digital recipe book. Unfortunately, some of the information in this recipe book is completely wrong or causes more confusion than guidance. For example, an ideal extraction time is given as 10 – 12 seconds, whereas a time of 25 seconds would be correct. A 10 – 12 second espresso tastes sourer than a fresh lemon.
A display with touch and little more
The ability to set milk foam levels and milk temperature is practical. In general, Sage has truly delivered on milk foam, just like with the Sage Bambino Plus. But this display is not really essential for the machine's function. Furthermore, in the global cell phone era, we expect sensitive reactions from displays. The Touch's display reacts as if we had stuck three screen protectors on a mobile phone.
The Sage Barista Touch leaves us with the impression of a makeshift combination of the Sage Barista Pro and the Sage Oracle Touch. The machine functions just like the Sage Barista Pro, except for the auto-steam feature. However, it has the display from the Oracle Touch, but lacks the automatic tamper, and presumably, the Oracle Touch's boiler would have performed better than the thick film heater of the Barista Touch.
Temperature excesses – how far above 100 does it go?
This chapter is a bit painful. The Sage Barista Touch, with its built-in thick film heater, essentially incorporates future technology in terms of instantaneous water heaters. The espresso machine heats up super fast. In just 3 seconds, the machine reaches operating temperature. A gigantic energy transfer makes the Sage Barista Touch's power efficiency unbeatable. We measured 0.09 kW per hour. This is not only very efficient but also an absolute sustainable pointer for all other machine developers.
The heater transfers energy almost directly to the brewing water via the heating elements pressed onto the metal plate. Depending on the energy input, the water heats up very quickly. Just as quickly, the temperature can be lowered by reducing the energy. Unlike a thermoblock, which is much slower due to the static nature of the aluminum block, this thick-film heater could even run temperature profiles. Only one thing would be necessary for this: equally precise control of the unit and temperature monitoring. Unfortunately, this completely fails in our measurements of the Sage Barista Touch. The target temperature for good espresso is around 93 degrees Celsius.
9 temperature levels from Low 4 to High 4 and a medium "ideal" temperature don't help if the lowest one starts its swing through the highs at 98 degrees. The temperature curves show how far we are from an ideal temperature.
Temperature fluctuations in the Sage Barista Touch
How does espresso brewed at such a high temperature taste? Unpleasantly bitter, very, very bitter. It tastes dry and harsh. You can brew espresso with it, but especially darker, more classic espresso machines almost call for a good dose of sugar or milk to compensate for the bitterness with such hot extraction.
That the thick-film heater can be used well is shown, for example, by Tone Swiss as well as a manufacturer of higher-priced capsule machines, which we do not want to mention here.
The information about the thick-film heater comes from Patrizio Frigeri, coffee engineer, who has also extensively reported on capsules here.
Milk foam of the dual boiler class
What the Sage Barista Touch delivers in terms of milk foam is truly noteworthy. The machine supports manual and automatic milk frothing. Manually, the Sage Barista Touch plays in the premier league of dual boiler espresso machines when it comes to milk foam. Although it cannot froth parallel to the espresso extraction, it can do so immediately after the extraction. Here again, the potential of the thick film heater is evident. Energy in, temperature up.
The Sage Barista Touch's auto-steam function is similar to a fully automatic machine, only better than most systems. A small sensor on the drip tray measures the temperature of the included Sage pitcher or any standard pitcher from Rhinoware or other manufacturers. The target temperature can be set via the display.
Setting the milk temperature on the Sage Barista Touch.
When frothing is activated, the auto-steam brings the temperature to the target with an accuracy of 1.5 degrees deviation. That's really good. The milk foam, of course, has a few bubbles, but it's even suitable for latte art.
However, the manual frothing function of the Sage Barista Touch is so good that we advise everyone to learn manual frothing. You will have a lot of fun with the Sage Barista Touch.
Scope of delivery, size and expansion
The Sage Barista Touch, like the Sage Barista Pro, comes with two single-walled, one double-walled sieve, as well as a milk jug and a tamper. Also included is a coffee powder scraper from Sage, the Razor™ Precision Dosing Tool. If too much powder is ground into the portafilter, it can be removed with the scraper. However, with careful grinder adjustment, this should not happen.
The Sage Barista Touch is 34 cm wide, 41 cm deep with the portafilter, and 40.6 cm high with the bean hopper. The 2-liter water tank is easy to remove and refill. The machine has a brushed stainless steel front and side panels. The cup warming tray, bean hopper, and water tank are made of plastic.
"Volumetric control" for espresso
Yes and no. We did not find a volumetric control for the water, unlike what Sage writes on its website. Instead of volumetrics, the water quantity is controlled by time. What's the difference?
Volumetric control delivers a specific amount of water, ignoring the resistance of the coffee puck, and presses, for example, 65 grams of water onto the coffee puck. Some of the water always remains in the coffee. The remaining amount ends up as espresso in the cup. This way, the home barista always has the chosen amount, e.g., 40 or 45 grams for a double basket, in the cups. This is practical, as you can now concentrate entirely on the grind size and adjust the resistance and extraction time accordingly. The barista's question then is: how long does my espresso machine need to deliver those 40 grams of espresso into the cup? We advise espresso beginners to aim for an extraction time of 25 seconds.
It's different with the Sage Barista Touch. Here, the flow time can be set and, for example, fixed at 25 or 30 seconds. However, 25 seconds no longer automatically mean an almost good result. If the grind size was chosen too fine, too few milliliters will flow through in these 25 seconds. If the grind size was chosen too coarse, the cup will be filled to the brim after 25 seconds.
The adjustment of the grinder and control of the extraction now takes place by weighing the espresso quantity. This is also possible, of course, but it requires a greater rethink and, above all, the consistent use of a scale. Almost all instructions available online assume volumetric control or explain the espresso setting using a Faema E61 brew group without control.
Why does volumetric control make more sense, especially for espresso beginners? A few seconds more or less extraction make less of a difference in taste than a completely different brewing or beverage ratio, i.e., the amount of coffee powder used in relation to water.
Conclusion on the Sage Barista Touch
We can recommend the Sage Barista Touch unreservedly for frothing milk. The Touch truly delivers outstanding results. It powerfully froths both manually and automatically, producing excellent foam for cappuccino and latte macchiato,
Unfortunately, the temperature on the Sage Barista Touch is too fluctuating and too high to brew good espresso. Espresso purists will therefore likely not be happy with this machine.
Compared to other Sage models, the Sage Bambino Plus does not perform worse in terms of espresso extraction than the Sage Barista Touch or Sage Barista Pro. With the auto-steam, the machine is even more developed compared to the Sage Barista Pro. However, the grinder of the Sage Barista Pro can be adjusted more finely. Whether the extra price for the Touch really makes sense, you have to decide. There are not too many arguments for it.
Perhaps the Bambino with the Smart Grinder is even the best choice, as a simple upgrade would then be possible one day. Just saying…
If you're looking for an entry-level espresso machine under 1000 Euros, you should take a look at our Thermoblock series and check out the Quick Mill Orione 3000 or the Gaggia New Classic (single circuit). The Ascaso Steel Duo PID and some dual boilers also cut a good figure, for just over 1000 Euros.
