Breville Oracle Touch espresso machine review

I’ve always wanted to take a barista course so I would know the ins and outs of the perfect espresso shot, how to perfectly froth milk, and maybe even branch out into making patterns in milk foam. I’m not sure I’ll ever be an expert in making patterns in froth, but I’ve definitely upped my espresso skills over the past few weeks and I didn’t have to take a course at all; all I had to do was review the Breville Oracle Touch Espresso Machine.

The Breville Oracle Touch Espresso Machine is a super automatic espresso machine with a touchscreen. You can choose any kind of coffee creation you’d like and make it with a few taps. I own a Breville manual espresso machine I’ve always liked, but the Breville Oracle Touch blew my doors off with how it grinds the beans, dispenses and tamps them in the portafilter, and pours the perfect shot based on what you’ve tapped on the touchscreen menu.

There is no learning curve with the Breville Oracle Touch Espresso Machine. It turns your kitchen into a coffee house, and I’ve honestly never had so much fun making coffee at home.

Appearance and features of the Breville Oracle Touch espresso machine

The Breville Oracle Touch Espresso Machine is a fully automatic espresso machine. It has dual stainless steel boilers, 58 mm stainless steel portafilter, an actively heated group head, and is available in stainless steel or the colour I tested, Black Truffle.

• 280g bean hopper and grind dial. The grind control dial lets you choose between fine or coarse grind depending on your preference
• 2.5L water tank capacity
• Set up pre-checks including testing the hardness of your water so your espresso machine can adjust to your water supply
• Doses and tamps coffee into the portafilter, and you can choose between a single shot or double shot right on the screen
• 15-bar Italian pump provides even pressure when extracting coffee, and uses low-pressure pre-infusion to gradually increase pressure
• Advanced triple heat system has innovative PID temperature control technology to deliver water at the exact temperature you’d like
• The touchscreen makes it easy to choose different custom coffee including espresso, latte, flat white, and cappuccino
• Customize your own coffee and save it as a personalized coffee on the menu
• Make creamy milk foam automatically with the self-cleaning steam wand and included stainless steel milk jug
• Tray lights illuminate your glass as espresso is extracting

Setting up the Breville Oracle Touch

There are a series of steps you’ll be walked through when you set up the Breville Oracle Touch. You’ll be directed through them via the touchscreen so it’s an easy process, and it will show you how to fill the water reservoir and insert the water filter if you need it.

The step that impressed me most during set up was how Breville includes a test strip to find out how hard your water is. You compare your test strip to the test strip on the touchscreen to assess it, and the machine will recommend whether or not you should use the filter.

I use filtered water on my machine so I didn’t need the filter. I did place it inside the water reservoir anyway.

Testing the Breville Oracle Touch espresso machine

I’ve never used an espresso machine like the Breville Oracle Touch. It’s honestly like having your own coffee shop right in your kitchen, and there is nothing you can’t do quickly and easily with this espresso machine.

If you’ve never taken a look at the difference between manual and super automatic espresso machines, click over to the espresso machine buying guide. It makes it easy to figure out which espresso maker is for you.

As I mentioned before, I own the Breville Duo-Temp espresso machine, so I’m familiar with the brand and I’ve always loved my espresso machine. I’ve heard the argument for manual vs automatic espresso machines, and how coffee enthusiasts occasionally feel as though a fully automatic espresso machine may limit their coffee creativity. I didn’t have that feeling at all, especially once you get into making your own perfect cup of coffee and use the touchscreen to save your custom creations.

Adding beans to the hopper

Before you can extract a shot you need to add beans to the hopper. I had a bag of amazing Timbertrain coffee beans, so I added them to the hopper. The hopper holds a decent amount of beans, and if you ever need to, you can remove it by twisting the dial to unlock.

Grinding, dosing, and tamping

With a manual espresso machine, you’ll need to add your coffee grinds to the portafilter and tamp the grinds yourself. With the Breville Oracle Touch, all of that is done for you when you lock the portafilter into the grinder.

You know how coffee enthusiasts will say that the freshest beans make the best shot? It’s so true, and you can’t get fresher than extracting them right into the portafilter. It makes such a huge difference to the taste of the shot, and I was so impressed with the automatic process of grinding, dosing, and tamping. It made a perfect puck of espresso.

Choose your coffee

The Breville Oracle Touch Espresso Machine will create different kinds of custom coffee for you. From just a shot of espresso to an Americano, Latte, or Flat White, you can make it with the Breville Oracle Touch. I ran through all of the coffee as I tested his machine, and  every cup turned out great.

Once I slid in the portafilter and hit the extract button it took about 30 seconds for the double shot to fully pour. There is a countdown right on the screen, and after it was finished you could see the perfect skim of crema on the top of the shot.

I never pulled a bad shot the entire time I tested the Breville Oracle Touch. That’s the beauty of a super automatic espresso machine. It’s really hard to make a mistake, and I don’t want to make mistakes when it comes to coffee.

If you want to tweak your espresso…

While the Breville Oracle Touch Espresso Machine takes care of everything, you can still customize your coffee by tweaking the water temperature, how fine or coarse your grind is, how long you extract a shot, and how hot the milk is. It’s easy to customize your coffee, and you can save it to a profile so you can go back to your style anytime.

Frothing milk with the Breville Oracle Touch 

One of the best parts of the Breville Oracle Touch Espresso Machine is how it froths milk all on its own. I’ve stood by the steam wand on my manual espresso machine many a time and turned the milk jug around and around to make sure it was evenly steamed, but there was no way to control how dense the foam is.

With the Breville Oracle Touch, you can choose how dense the foam is by sliding the scale up and down under milk options. I love dense foam so I turned it up a bit, and then all I had to do was leave the bucket under the steam wand and it kept steaming until the temperature reached 150 degrees.

When you remove the milk bucket and put the steam wand back in position it will automatically clean itself. The screen will warn you that it’s about to clean itself, and it will eject a few short bursts of steam to remove any built-up milk. There are also tablets you can use to clean the milk off the wand itself.

The foam the Breville Oracle Touch made was beautiful. I didn’t make designs with it, but I dispersed it across the top of my latte and really enjoyed drinking it.

Unique features on Breville Oracle Touch

There are a few unique features on the Breville Oracle Touch Espresso Machine that make it easier to use. I love how there is an unlock button on the bottom of the machine that lets you swivel it around. It’s a pretty heavy machine, so being able to swivel the machine from side to side to access the water reservoir is a huge plus.

There is a small tool slot under the tray you can use to store your cleaning tools so you never lose them. I also absolutely love the lights on the Breville Oracle Touch. They light up the tray and reflect brilliantly off the metal. I liked to leave them on for a bit when I wasn’t even using the espresso machine because it added a really luxe feel to the counter.

Should you choose the Breville Oracle Touch Espresso Machine?

If you want to make barista-style coffee without having to take a course or struggle through a steep learning curve, the Breville Oracle Touch Espresso Machine is for you. It’s also for you if you just love great coffee, because even if you are an espresso tweaker and you have your own way of grinding, dosing, tamping, and extracting, you will still love this machine.

As a huge coffee fan, I loved using the Breville Oracle Touch Espresso Machine. I’m positive you will too, and you can find your own right now on Best Buy.