Breville’s line of ‘Touch’ espresso machines continues to grow. It started with the Barista Touch, then Oracle Touch, and now Breville has added the Barista Touch Impress – which added a set of features and improvements to the Barista Touch.
This post looks at the differences between Barista Touch and Barista Touch Impress.
Barista Touch vs. Barista Touch Impress – Top Differences
The Barista Touch Impress improves on the Barista Touch with several new features like assisted tamping or special settings for non-dairy milk steaming. Overall, it gives you more guidance over your espresso grind, extraction and steaming so you don’t go wrong on any step.
Controls and Display
While both models have a clear and colored touch screen display that makes it easy and enjoyable to use the machines, both work slightly differently:
Barista Touch’s screen displays menu of drinks, upon selecting one, you get to choose your customization settings like grind size, milk texture or temperature and all those things. Then you hit the brew button and the machine gets to work.
Barista Touch Impress allows for the same, but with an added benefit. It guides you and gives you REAL TIME feedback if you’re doing a step wrong. For example, if your grind did not fill the portafilter enough, or if you overfilled. Or if your tamp is not correct… you get to see those on your display and correct them before you brew your shot. Which leads to a great shot of espresso every time.
Assisted Tamping
With the Barista Touch, you’re manually tamping your grounds. But with the Barista Touch Impress, it is equipped with Breville’s Impress Puck system. While it’s not entirely automated tamping, like what you’d get out of the Oracle Touch, it’s ‘Assisted Tamping’. While the portafilter is still attached to the grind/tamp area, you will press down a tamping lever, and on the display, you see if you have tamped enough or if you need to tamp harder. The tamp is always finished with a 7-degree twist that polishes the puck and gets rid of any excess grounds.
Auto Steaming
Both Barista Touch and Barista Touch Impress have auto steaming feature with milk texture and temperature selections. However, the Barista Touch Impress has one extra feature… alternative milk settings.
Barista Touch Impress has special settings for Oat, almond or soy milk. What it does is calibrates air injection time and temperature to get the right texture out of each type of milk.
Preset Recipes
Barista Touch has 5 preset drinks: Flat White, Latte, Cappuccino, Espresso, Long Black
Barista Touch Impress has the same recipes and has three more additional presets:
- Babyccino: Which is basically frothed milk only
- Hot Chocolate: which guides you to making hot chocoloate recipe using frothed milk and any additional chocolate syrup or powder.
- Tea: uses the hot water dispenser to make tea.
Memory Function
Both models allow you to save your customized recipes under a name and icon of your choice. The Barista Touch allows for 8 saved recipes, while the Barista Touch Impress allows for 5 saved recipes.
Similarities of Barista Touch and Barista Touch Impress
- 30-step grinder settings
- 54mm portafilter size
- ThermoJet heating system and single boiler
- Similar accessories – Except for the Funnel which is only included with the Barista Touch
Which Should You Buy – Barista Touch or Barista Touch Impress?
Two things will impact your decision here:
1- Budget – the Barista Touch Impress is higher in price, which reflects in its added features.
2- How much guidance you need with your espresso preparation…
While both models have automated features in them, the Barista Touch Impress goes an extra mile with it’s step by step guidance and real time feedback. It helps you with things that goes wrong the most with new espresso machine users:
Tamping wrong – grinding too much or too little – Milk texturing
These are crucial parts of a great espresso shot, and take the most time to get correctly. With the guidance of the Barista Touch Impress, you get to see if each step is correct and what you need to fix it in case you did it wrong.
Then there’s the Alternative milk setting, which will make all the difference to any one who enjoys their coffee with non-dairy milk. As you know, these types of milks are pretty hard to texture due to their different fat content and texture. Selecting the alternative milk setting changes how to frother steams, brings up the temperature higher and steams longer, depending your milk selection.
If you feel like those extra settings are of no use to you, and don’t mind taking your time to figure things out, you can save some money by going for the Barista Touch instead.
Related Comparisons
Features of Barista Touch Impress
The Breville Barista Touch Impress is a superior espresso machine that offers users the ultimate control and convenience. With its intuitive touch screen, real-time feedback and assisted tamping system, users are sure to make an exquisite cup of espresso every time.
In addition to controlling the grind size, milk texture and temperature, the Barista Touch Impress also has auto steaming capabilities with special settings for oat, almond or soy milks. This allows for a more tailored experience when it comes to crafting your favorite specialty beverage. Whether you’re looking to craft a flat white, latte, cappuccino or even hot chocolate or tea, this machine can do it all with the added convenience of storing up to five preset recipes into memory.
What sets the Barista Touch Impress apart from its predecessor is its unique assisted tamping system which adds an extra level of precision to each shot. This system monitors and guides users through their selected steps for best results, giving them assurance that their espresso will be perfectly ground every time. Users can also trust in the quality of their beverage due to the 30 step grinder settings and 54mm portafilter size that ensures accuracy and reliability when it comes to pulling shots.
All in all, the Breville Barista Touch Impress is an ideal choice for anyone looking for a reliable espresso machine that offers greater control over their beverages as well as step by step guidance. With features like auto steaming and assisted tamping of your grounds, you can rest assured that you will always get a perfectly balanced cup of espresso every time!
Controls
- Colored touchscreen display with step by step guidance and real time feedback
Automation
- Automatic grinding and dosing
- Impress Puck System – assisted tamping with auto correction for a level and polished puck
- Auto MilQ – Automatic milk steaming and texturing with special settings for milk alternatives
Heating System
- ThermoJet system with quick 3 second startup time
- Single Boiler
Grinder
- Conical burr grinder with 30 adjustable settings
- 0.88 lbs bean hopper capacity
Preset Drinks
- Flat White, Latte, Cappuccino, Espresso, Long Black, Babyccino, Hot Chocolate & Tea
Additional Settings
- Create and save up to 6 customized recipes
Accessories
- 54mm portafilter
- Single and Double shot baskets
- 480ml milk jug
- Water filter and water filter holder
- Razor precision trimming tool
- Cleaning tablets
- Steam wand cleaning tool
- Cleaning disc
- Cleaning brush
- Descale powder
Features of Breville Barista Touch
The Breville Barista Touch is an excellent espresso machine that provides users with control and convenience. It features a colored touchscreen display with customization for each drink. With its first-class automation system including automatic grinding and dosing and auto milk texturing. But this model lacks assisted tamping and special milk alternative settings that the Barista Touch Impress have. With the Barista Touch, tamping is manual, and while steaming is automated, it will not calibrate for non-dairy milks.
In addition to the great automation features, the Barista touch also boasts ThermoJet heating system with quick 3 second startup time, single boiler and conical burr grinder with 30 adjustable settings for maximum precision when grinding beans. Plus, it has a 1/2 lbs bean hopper capacity.
Not to mention, users can make all kinds of delicious drinks like flat white, latte, cappuccino, espresso, long black. On top of that there’s the ability to create up to 8 customized recipes and save them in memory for easy access later on. As if this weren’t enough already, the Barista Touch comes with plenty of accessories such as 54mm portafilter baskets (single & double shot), milk jug (480ml), water filter & holder combo pack , razor precision trimming tool and cleaning tools like tablets & brushes to keep your machine running smoothly each time you use it.
Overall the Breville Barista Touch is an excellent machine for home baristas who are looking for great quality of coffee drinks with easy customization that allows for a great cup from first try. With its intuitive touchscreen display and array of features designed to ensure accuracy every time you pull a shot, this machine truly offers something special that sets it apart from other machines in its class.
Controls
- Colored touchscreen display with recipe customization selections
Automation
- Automatic grinding and dosing
- Automatic milk steaming and texturing with adjustable milk temperature and textures
Heating System
- ThermoJet system with quick 3 second startup time
- Single Boiler
Grinder
- Conical burr grinder with 30 adjustable settings
- 1/2 lbs bean hopper capacity
Preset Drinks
- Flat White, Latte, Cappuccino, Espresso, Long Black
Additional Settings
- Create and save up to 8 customized recipes
Accessories
- Dosing Funnel™ Attachment
- 54mm Full Stainless Steel Portafilter
- Single and Double Wall Filter Baskets
- 480ml Stainless Steel Jug
- ClaroSwiss Water Filter
- Integrated Tamper
- Razor™ Precision Dose Trimming Tool
- Cleaning Kit
- Water Hardness Test Strip
