Breville BES876BSS Barista Express Impress, Brushed Stainless Steel

Why it's worth it

The Barista Express Impress puts a 25-setting conical burr grinder and an assisted tamper into one stainless machine, so you're not buying a grinder separately. It doses, tamps at a consistent 10 kg, and gives you a real steam wand for microfoam.

This is the machine that makes espresso a habit instead of a project. Grinding, dosing and tamping are where beginners lose shots, and the Impress handles all three in one motion. The dosing system measures your grounds and auto-corrects the next dose based on what it saw. Pull the lever and you get an even puck every time. That's the difference between drinking espresso most mornings and giving up in week three.

Tamping by hand sounds easy until you've done it badly a hundred times. Uneven pressure tilts the puck, water finds the thin side, and half your coffee never gets extracted. The assisted tamper applies about 10 kg with a 7-degree twist at the end, which is what a good barista does by feel. You get a polished, level surface without thinking about your wrist angle.

From our review of 7 espresso machines for home baristas, by David Sinclair, Managing Editor

What we like

• +This is the machine that makes espresso a habit instead of a project
• +Tamping by hand sounds easy until you've done it badly a hundred times
• +The 25 grind settings sound like marketing, but this is the adjustment you'll actually use
• +The steam wand is manual, and we mean that as a compliment

What to know

• –It's a single boiler, so brewing and steaming can't happen at the same time
• –At 16.5 inches tall it won't slide under standard upper cabinets with the water tank in place, and it's not light