If you have the Sage Barista Express Impress… ☕️

[Dup]

I started a thread the other day about how to make great coffee, off the back of which I’m now considering buying this machine!

However, some questions before I finally commit…!

Do you have to hold the milk jug to the side while it’s heating the milk? Can you not just put the jug on the tray and leave it to do its thing?

How many cups can you make before you need to replenish the water reservoir? Ditto the coffee beans?

And finally… it’s 41.5cm tall including the coffee bean unit. Frustratingly, the front of our kitchen cabinets is 39.8cm. So, I can’t just pull it out, I’d have to angle it a bit to take it out every time I want to fill up the water/beans. Just how annoying will this become? 😬

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Soz, I don't have a Sage Barista Express Impress, but I have the Sage Oracle which is very similar. So far as the milk jug, yes I just leave it to do it' s thing.

Sounds like a bit of a pain to have to pull it out to fill it...depending on how much you use it I guess.

So far as how often, depends on how you make your coffee, i.e. double expresso or long with lots of hot water. Easy enough to approximate, i.e. tank capacity / how you like your coffee (minus a bit for milk heating and steam).

Thank you!

Bump!

Not sure how much help I will be as I put in a max of 18g of beans at a time, refresh the water everyday and heat the milk with the jug on an angle at the side!

if you can’t access the hopper and water easily, it will get very annoying very quickly. (And if you aren’t as nerdy about coffee that you wouldnt be bothered about having a full hopper then why not find an easier to access machine and spend the money saved on a separate grinder?)

I do the same. You quickly realise the beans are better being kept fresh rather than being in the hopper. OP your setup would sound too annoying I think.

We have the Sage Barista Touch - there is a sensor which allows you to leave the jug to heat the milk until it reaches temp, or hold it if you prefer more control over heat / foam. We have to move the unit forward slightly to the right to fill the water reservoir, but it is not that inconvenient and can be accessed easily. I couldn’t say how many cups it takes before needing to refill water or beans, as we like to vary the beans we use and only put a small amount in the hopper at a time, which helps keep the beans fresh. We fill up the water every time the prompt tells us the reservoir is running low - we are in Scotland and have great water, so no issues with limescale etc.

hmm… thanks all… I am so fed up with the bodge job decisions of the previous owner of this house always coming back to haunt me!

I bought it!

It makes great coffee but I feel I need to know more about how to use it properly.

The ‘full walk through’ video on the Sage website isn’t actually a full walk through when you compare it to the instructions. A lot of steps are skipped.

Has anyone seen a really good, step by step video of how to use it?

Some particular questions:

1- why would you ever just do one shot/one cup? We tried it and it seemed really thin. But it must be there for a reason?

2- do you really have to ‘purge the group head’ by running by a short flow of water using the 1 CUP button before every time you put the portafilter in the group head? It’s really messy as the hot water sputters everywhere.

3- sounds silly but what’s the best way to clean out the portafilter in between shots? Am I right in thinking it has to be dry before it’s placed back in to the grinder?

1- why would you ever just do one shot/one cup? We tried it and it seemed really thin. But it must be there for a reason?

>If it's the same as my Oracle you can change the duration of the shot, maybe you want to adjust it.

2- do you really have to ‘purge the group head’ by running by a short flow of water using the 1 CUP button before every time you put the portafilter in the group head? It’s really messy as the hot water sputters everywhere.

> Never bothered

3- sounds silly but what’s the best way to clean out the portafilter in between shots? Am I right in thinking it has to be dry before it’s placed back in to the grinder?

>I sometimes rinse it under the hot water flow, or rinse it under the group head, never worried about it being wet when put under the grinder.

If your espresso is thin, your grind settings probably need changed. Probably to make your grind finer. A double espresso should take about 25 seconds. We always use the same beans so haven't touched grinder settings since shortly after we bought it but, if you change beans, you'll probably need to adjust settings to get the sweet spot.

I've never "purged" the group head and just occasionally rinse out the portafilter but never dry it.

Re your original question about milk. I use my thermopen and heat to 59 degrees. Thats my preference though. Other temps are available. You definitely need to angle the jug. It should make a "phsssssssssh" sound as opposed to a loud frothing noise. The former will get smooth foam, the latter a feck load of froth. It's a knack though that you'll get the hang off.

@Dup get on TikTok for proper how to vids. It feels very hard and messy at first but once set up it’s easy. There’s vids on there for first time “just get a cup out” use and then others to take you through a new beans dialling in process and programming the machine for time and water temp.

1. Get some nice fresh beans via a roastery not the supermarket. If you have some supermarket beans to use up, you change the filter/basket. And I never use the one shot one!
2. if you leave the plastic disc in the ports-filter (as it comes) you don’t really have to do this. I do tend to press the one cup button without the portafilter in to check water is warm straight into a mug before pulling the shot. (I found the coffee was too cold at first.)
3. if im pulling another shot straight after I just get rid of the coffee puck (very satisfying once they come out whole) and grind in again without washing or drying.

id also play with grind filters inside the grinder to get a finer grind. I couldn’t get the espresso pressure dial up before I changed these.