Sage Bambino coffee machine

[NalPolishRemover]

I'm looking at coffee machines at the moment as a Christmas present for dh.

We don't have huge space in the kitchen so the Sage Bambino espresso machine caught my eye. Does anyone here have one? Are they good? Would you recommend?

I personally like the look of the Smeg coffee machines but not sure if they're as good?

All pointers v gratefully received!

I’ve had my eye on the Sage Bambino Plus for a while, and since we have some John Lewis vouchers to use I plan to order it soon. So no personal experience, but a lot of online research! The Bambino is similar to the Plus but there are a few differences. The Plus had an option to automatically steam milk, but on the Bambino it is all manual. The Plus has a larger water tank, and comes with a few extra items (leveller, metal tamper rather than plastic). The Bambino dispenses hot water whereas the Plus doesn’t.

I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos by UKCoffeeblog and he has a very comprehensive series about many coffee machines, including the Sage ones. James Hoffman also has a few videos for machines under £XX which might also be worth a watch.

We’ve got one and I’d definitely recommend. Just two things - you’ll need a separate grinder as if you’re using ready ground coffee it won’t be any where near as good. Secondly, when we got ours a couple of years ago they only came with pressurised baskets - you definitely need to change it for a non pressurised one - costs about £10 on Amazon.

It is really good!! Definitely worth investing in a good coffee grinder as well.

@jaundicedoutlook

We’ve got one and I’d definitely recommend. Just two things - you’ll need a separate grinder as if you’re using ready ground coffee it won’t be any where near as good. Secondly, when we got ours a couple of years ago they only came with pressurised baskets - you definitely need to change it for a non pressurised one - costs about £10 on Amazon.

Tell me more about the baskets?! Have I been using my bambino all wrong 🥺🥺🥺

Thank you both so much!
So it looks like I should look at the Bambino plus as we like frothed milk, dh loves a latte or cappuccino.
I don't know anything about baskets but guess this will be evident? Why do the baskets it comes with not work?
I will take a look at grinders too so

The normal bambino can froth milk, you just get more control over it I think. I.e. you have to press the button to turn the steam wand on yourself. It creates proper foam, much better than the nespresso aeroccino contraption I used to use.

I'm hoping the basket thing is something related to espresso output. Sometimes I don't get as much coffee as I expect and I chalk it up to behind in a hard water area and needing to clean the basket but if it's a pressure thing this will change my mornings 😂

The Bambino and Bambino Plus should both come with single and dual walled baskets these days. I believe when it was first released they only came with the dual walled (pressurised) baskets and you had to purchase the unpressurised version separately, but now both are included.

Basically the dual walled baskets will allow you to turn almost any ground coffee into espresso, without needing to dial in or invest in a grinder though the results won’t be as good. If you exclusively drink milky drinks this might be less of a problem, . Single wall or unpressurised baskets require a good quality grinder to grind beans finely enough for espresso, but will need to dial in for each new bean you buy, as different beans will behave differently. The espresso is superior using the unpressurised baskets though.

I might not have been super clear earlier, but both the Bambino and the Bambino Plus will steam milk, but the Plus has a setting where you can select your temperature and foam level and it will steam it for you, but the Bambino works like most other coffee machines where you have to steam it yourself (manual steaming is also an option on the Plus if you want to learn). So both suitable for milk drinks, it just depends if you’d rather spend more money for an automated milk frothing function.

Thanks
To those recommending a coffee grinder do you have any thoughts on which one is good? Does sage do one?
Thanks for all your advice

Sage do two grinders, the Dose Control Pro and the Smart Grinder Pro. I believe the prices are about £160 and £200 respectively. Both are capable of grinding espresso and are decent grinders. You can really put what you want for a grinder though, two of the more recommended models I see for home baristas are the Niche Zero and the Eureka Mignon but they are around £500 which is another price jump again. Personally for me, I’d stick with the cheaper Sage one because I rarely drink espresso alone so don’t think I benefit from the higher end grinders, but it might be a worthwhile investment if you are very serious espresso drinkers. Or if you exclusively drink milk based drinks (lattes, flat whites etc.), then good quality, pre-ground beans in the dual walled baskets might be ok for you and maybe you can forgo the grinder, and reassess and purchase later if you still feel you need one.

That's really great advice @Toastofthetown we will mostly be drinking lattes / flat whites so might just test it out with good quality ground coffee & if we decide we would like one we can get it after.
Instead of a grinder I'll add nice coffee & coffee mugs to his present!
Feeling excited now & I'm going to order the Bambino plus in brushed steel
I think he'll LOVE it
I got him an ooni pizza oven last year so it was hard to think of something that might equal that but this might just be that.....
Thank you all

And, as an accidental consequence I benefit from these gifts too

@NalPolishRemover

And, as an accidental consequence I benefit from these gifts too

😁😁😁

@toastofthetown what does dial in mean?

As you can tell I'm one of those people that bought the machine based on reviews during lockdown when I couldn't get my coffee made for me 🤣 I'm probably not using it to the fullest extent.

@Patapouf we use a filter machine currently so we're no coffee experts! We have friends who have the nespresso type machines & neither of us love the coffee from them so no desire to get one of them. Equally the ones you need training in how to use seem v intimidating so I was really looking for one that made decent coffee by itself!

Dialling in is basically getting everything set up so your ready getting the best espresso out. If you are using unpressurised / single walled baskets then the size of the coffee grounds will affect how quickly the water flows through and too quick or too slow will both makes the espresso taste bad. And each coffee bean will behave a bit differently so might need a different grind size. So it just takes a bit of trial and error to find out how much coffee, or which size to grind it to to get the best espresso and that process is called dialling in

Patapouf- pressurised baskets flatten the taste of your coffee. They’re pretty reasonable for ready ground beans but not for good beans freshly ground.

If you’ve got a pressurised basked you can remove it (with a screwdriver or the end of a slim teaspoon) and replace it with a non-pressurised one. You’ll be surprised at how much difference it makes.