Breville BES985BSS Oracle Jet Espresso Machine, Brushed Stainless Steel

Why it's worth it

The Oracle Jet automates every step from bean to finished latte, with a Baratza burr grinder built in and 45 grind settings. It also does cold brew and cold espresso, which no other machine in this lineup offers.

This is the machine for people who want café drinks without learning anything. It auto-grinds, auto-doses, auto-tamps and auto-textures. The Auto MilQ system has settings tuned for dairy, soy, almond and oat, with temperatures adjustable from 104°F to 167°F and eight texture levels. You swipe, select and walk away. Owners consistently describe it as the machine that ended their Starbucks habit.

The grinder is the part worth paying attention to. Breville put Baratza European Precision Burrs in it — hardened high-carbon steel with 45 settings, more range than the Barista Express Impress offers. Paired with a group head you can trim in one-degree increments, you get real control if you want it and sensible defaults if you don't.

From our review of 8 breville kitchen appliances

What we like

• +This is the machine for people who want café drinks without learning anything
• +The grinder is the part worth paying attention to
• +The cold brew and cold espresso functions are genuinely useful if iced coffee is your default half the year
• +It's also the biggest and heaviest machine here, at about 26.7 pounds and nearly 15 inches deep

What to know

• –Owner feedback on this one is more mixed than on Breville's older machines, and the complaints cluster around software and…
• –It costs the most of anything in this guide by a wide margin, and the standard one-year warranty doesn't scale up with the price
• –Full automation means less control