Breville revolutionized home espresso with its Oracle series — a super automatic machine that grinds, doses, tamps and extracts shots of honey-brown coffee that are nearly on par with those pulled using a semi-automatic. The Oracle Touch ($2,500), its newest addition to the hybrid espresso family, has already garnered major accolades from the Specialty Coffee Association and marks the next generation of home espresso machines.
Operated by a full-color touchscreen interface, the machine has pre-sets for five different espresso drinks, and can save up to eight personalized drink formulas with custom temperatures or milk texture. Much like the existing Breville Oracle, the machine uses a built-in conical burr grinder to grind and tamp 22 grams of coffee, extracts shots at nine bars of pressure, and textures milk using a built-in steam wand.
As noted by Wired, the Oracle Touch’s greatest differentiating factor is its ability to read and react to variables, calibrating extractions according to water hardness and adjusting steam pressure based on milk temperature. In other words, it thinks like a professional barista does.
