I tested the brand new Breville Oracle Dual Boiler, and it’s the most futuristic espresso machine I’ve ever used… for better or for worse

It goes without saying that dual boiler coffee machines regularly top most people’s best espresso machines lists. Dual boiler espresso machines aren’t for everyone, though: generally, they’re pricier and much, much bigger.

The Breville Oracle Dual Boiler is no different: it’s frankly gargantuan, at a massive 15 inches wide and 17 inches tall. This is not a machine for small kitchens. Heck, this is barely even a machine for large kitchens. This is a machine for a kitchen with a dedicated coffee corner.

While, yes, the Oracle Dual Boiler is huge, that’s expected for an espresso machine of this caliber. It’s a dual boiler — inherently large — and makes commercial-grade coffee (with some quirks). Is it worth $3,000, though? I’ll discuss everything in this comprehensive Breville Oracle Dual Boiler review.

Breville Oracle Dual Boiler review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? The Oracle Dual Boiler is a powerful espresso machine with a quad-core processor (yes, really), touchscreen (yes, really), and Wi-Fi (yes, really)
• Who is it for? It’s for serious home coffee lovers, but not espresso purists. Confused? Let me explain. The Oracle Dual Boiler has a built in (and lackluster) grinder, which won’t impress coffee snobs
• What does it do well? Well, it makes cafe-quality drinks, if you’re a chain coffee addict
• What are its weaknesses? Its inability to dial-in light roasts won’t impress all coffee drinkers
• Anything else to know? If you love dark roasted coffee and espresso machines more intelligent than 5-year-olds, then this is the machine for you

Breville Oracle Dual Boiler review: Specs

Breville Oracle Dual Boiler review: Price & availability

The Breville Oracle Dual Boiler is very expensive. It’s the most expensive espresso machine I’ve tested to date.

You can find it for $2,999 at Breville U.S.. In the U.K., Breville products go by the name Sage, so you’ll find it listed as Sage Oracle Dual Boiler. It’s £2,499 at Sage U.K.. and £2,499 at John Lewis.

Breville/Sage has a ton of espresso machines, all with similar naming conventions. I’ll quickly explain the difference between the various models. It’s all very confusing.

So the Oracle range of espresso machines basically refers to automation. If a Breville espresso machine has “Oracle” in the name, it has some degree of automation. Obviously it’s not a superautomatic machine, but it’s more of an automatic machine than, say, a Bambino Plus ($499, the best entry-level Breville).

The Oracle Dual Boiler is the flagship model. Further down the Oracle line, you’ll find the Oracle Jet, which is $1,995, so is a cheaper introduction into an automated Breville machine.

The Oracle Jet is not a dual boiler, so you can’t steam and extract at the same time. Breville does, however, make a non-Oracle dual boiler (I said confusing, didn’t I?), which is just called the Breville Dual Boiler. This machine has no grinder and no automation, so would be better for the more traditional coffee snobs in the house.

So while the Oracle Dual Boiler is the most expensive Breville machine on the market, it’s also the most “intelligent” — if you like that sort of thing. You’re essentially paying $3,000 for a computer + coffee machine.

Breville Oracle Dual Boiler review: Design

As you’d expect from a Breville/Sage machine, the Oracle Dual Boiler is beautiful. And massive. It’s 15 inches wide, 14 inches deep, and 17 inches tall, so it’s an utter behemoth.

The design is pretty standard for a bean-to-cup, but it’s definitely one of the most modern machines I’ve ever seen. The edges are rounded, which just carries an air of modernity, and there’s a 6 x 3 inch touchscreen in the center of the machine.

This touchscreen is bright, responsive, and colorful, exactly what you’d want to see on a premium espresso machine like this. You can choose light or dark mode (I chose the dark side) and you can adjust screen brightness to your liking. Each drink recipe has a full-color high-res illustration depicting the drink, which is really helpful for coffee beginners who might not know the difference between a latte and a flat white.

To the left of the touchscreen is the power button, and to the right is the Breville/Sage logo. This facade has a really clean, easy-to-use design, and will look beautiful in any kitchen.

Above the touchscreen is the flat top of the machine; the grinder and hopper is on the left, and the right side is empty so you can store your milk jug and portafilter there between uses. I will note that it gets quite warm, so it could be a good location to store your mugs if you like them pre-heated. The machine doesn’t vibrate much when it’s heating up so I doubt there’d be an overt risk of the mugs falling off.

Now onto the actual coffee-making area of the machine. As you’d expect, the grinder is on the left, the group head is in the middle, and the steam wand is on the right. It’s a nice left-to-right process, just like reading.

I’ll discuss this fully in the ‘Grinder’ section below, but the grinder basically does everything for you. All you need to do is put your portafilter in the grinder; the machine grinds, doses, and tamps automatically. Some coffee snobs will say this isn’t the right way to make coffee, and that’s fine, but this machine isn’t for them. This machine is for serious coffee lovers who also want the process to be as easy as possible.

The group head in the middle tends to be a little stiff; I found that I needed to use two hands to get my group handle slotted in properly. This could be because the machine is new, though, and might get easier with time. Unfortunately I’ve only got the machine for a short testing period, and the machine only released last week, so I’ve not been able to test this fully.

On the right side of the machine is the steam wand, and oh boy, is this steam wand a beast. It’s about a half an inch thick, with a red loop so you can move the wand without burning yourself. It doesn’t have a ball joint like the Smeg EMC02, but it was easy to find the angle sweet spot regardless. The steam wand also unscrews so you can clean under the tip.

At the bottom of the machine is the removable drip tray. This has a mesh layer under the silver grill so you can really get in there and clean. There’s also a secret hiding spot behind the drip tray to store things like extra portafilters and cleaning products, should you so desire.

All in all, this is a beautiful, modern machine that I think will look fresh for years to come. It’s incredibly well made.

Breville Oracle Dual Boiler review: Grinder

The Breville Dual Boiler uses Baratza European Precision burrs as its grinder. These burrs have 45 grind settings. I’ve used and reviewed the Baratza Encore ESP. I gave it a 4-star rating in my review, but the main reason why it got such a high rating is because of its value-to-cost ratio. I found it struggled to grind fine enough for some light-roasted beans, which is still an issue with the Oracle Dual Boiler’s Baratza burrs.

While Breville doesn’t specify which Baratza burrs the Oracle Dual Boiler uses, the most expensive Baratza grinder is the $899 Forte, which has ceramic burrs. As the Oracle Dual Boiler doesn’t specify ceramic burrs, I’m inclined to believe the machine doesn’t have those specific ones.

General hearsay online (on Reddit and Home Barista) purports that the Oracle Dual Boiler has the same burrs as the Baratza Encore ESP. Now, this is an unverified rumor, but if this is true, then that’s majorly disappointing. You’re telling me I’m paying $3k for a $200 grinder? If true, that’s kind of unacceptable. You should be getting a high-quality grinder with a premium machine. I’d expect at least the aforementioned Forte ceramic burrs. I’ve reached out to Sage/Breville for clarification, but have yet to receive a response.

Now that’s out of the way, I’ll actually talk about the grinder’s ease of use. I love getting all nerdy and technical with grinders (if you read my grinder reviews, I have multiple mathematical tables with uniformity and retention), but as the Oracle Dual Boiler grinds, doses, and tamps all internally, I have no way of measuring retention and uniformity.

So, we’ll just have to go off taste and ease of use.

As I mentioned briefly above, the Oracle Dual Boiler is good at figuring out dark roasted coffee. Medium roast and light roast? Well, you’re on your own there.

I found it near-impossible to dial in my light-roasted beans. I used an entire 250g bag of light-roasted beans trying to dial in my shot. Yes, an entire bag. It was $10.

Dark roast, however? The Oracle Dual Boiler figured that out in one shot. If you primarily drink dark coffee, then this is the machine for you. As someone who loves light-roasted beans, though, I would definitely skip this machine personally, for the sole reason that its grinder just can’t wrap its head around them.

The grinder is, as you might expect from an automated Oracle machine, absolutely painless to use. All you have to do is put the 58mm portafilter into the grinder. The machine automatically doses the coffee (you choose the grind size, or it can choose automatically) between 18-22g, but I found it mostly dosed 22g.

I’d recommend getting one of the best coffee scales — I use the Wacaco Exagram Pro — to measure exactly how much coffee the machine dosed. I weigh the portafilter, then tare the scale, then let the machine dose and tamp. Then I weigh the portafilter again to see the coffee dose.

The Oracle Dual Boiler takes about a minute to finish tamping, and it makes a strange whirring sound during. The first time I used the machine, I thought this was the sound of an empty grinder, and stopped tamping halfway through by mistake. So heed my warning: it is tamping, it just takes longer than you think.

Of course, you don’t have to use the built-in grinder. If you’ve got your own grinder, you can grind, dose, and tamp (as long as you have a 58mm tamper on hand). But then why wouldn’t you just buy the Bambino Plus, the Barista Express, or the non-Oracle Dual Boiler?

Breville Oracle Dual Boiler review: Espresso

The Breville Oracle Dual Boiler has a huge range of drink ‘recipes’ you can choose from. I’ll list them all here: espresso, cafe crema, americano, latte, flat white, hot chocolate, latte shakerato, espresso shakerato, cortado, piccolo, espresso martini, babyccino, cappuccino, latte macchiato, mocha, tea, and ‘custom’.

Yes, you can make your own recipe and save it to the homescreen. I made my own little flat white recipe, with a 35ml shot volume and oat milk texture ‘6’, temperature 140°F. The default flat white has a 60ml shot volume, which is a bit too much for me.

Don’t get me wrong — the machine is intelligent, sure, but it’s not more intelligent than you, the human barista. This is all fun and games, but the machine also has a manual mode, which I did gravitate towards most of the time.

If you use the automated setting, the machine doesn’t actually make the drinks for you. You still have to make the drink: the machine just tells you how to do it. For example, if you choose a latte, the screen reads: coffee double shot, milk 140°F. You just follow its instructions. This is great for first time users — but then again, would first time home baristas really spend $3,000 on an espresso machine — or people who want homemade coffee but with a little extra help.

Anyway, now that’s out of the way, I’ll actually talk about the espresso flavor. If you read the ‘grinder’ section, you’ll know that the Oracle Dual Boiler doesn’t really know what to do with light roasts.

As a result, I’d only recommend you get this machine if you’re a dark roast fanatic. Love Starbucks coffee? Then this is likely the machine for you. Love light roasts? Then you’ll probably need a machine sans-grinder like the Dual Boiler ($1,599). It’s an old machine now, but it’s stood the test of time.

I tested with both light and dark roasts and the dark roast provided a more consistent shot. Here’s a photo of a dark roast shot.

As you can see, there’s nice thick crema and a deep brown color to the espresso itself. This espresso tasted as you’d expect: strong, bitter, and a little chocolatey. This shot was 45g and extracted in 23 seconds, so a little too fast, but still good in a caramel latte.

In automatic mode, the Oracle Dual Boiler extracts via volume, not time. So if you’ve ground your beans too fine, it’ll take up to 40 seconds, if your beans are too coarse, it can take just 17 seconds. You want the sweet spot of 23-28 seconds.

You can easily switch to manual mode though, and you start and stop extraction yourself. I’d recommend getting a coffee scale if you’re going to use this mode.

All in all, the espresso is great. I don’t think it’s worth $3,000 — it’s just as good as the espresso my Bambino Plus can make, which I think is the best espresso machine for pure espresso taste.

But it’s all down to personal preference: if you want a super fancy, techie machine like this, then yeah, it’ll make you delicious espresso. With dark roasts, of course.

Breville Oracle Dual Boiler review: Milk

As I mentioned above, the Oracle Dual Boiler is, you guessed it, a dual boiler machine, which means the steam wand and the group head use different boilers. I found it super easy to steam milk and extract espresso simultaneously.

Thanks to this dedicated boiler, the steam wand is really impressive. It’s about a half an inch thick, and oh-so powerful, and is perfect for experienced baristas, or those wanting to level up their latte art. I found it really easy to make beautiful art in pretty much every drink I made.

Here’s a photo of an oat milk latte I made on the Oracle Dual Boiler.

As you can see, the milk is perfectly textured, with velvety microfoam and delicate aeration. This is quite hard to achieve on non-dairy milk, so I am really impressed with the steam wand here.

Here’s a photo of a dairy milk latte I made.

Image 1 of 2

As you can see, the milk is shiny, velvety, and smooth. My latte art isn’t great, but that’s because I didn’t fill the jug enough. That’s my fault. The milk texture itself is perfect, definitely something you’d expect to be served at a coffee shop.

This is one of the best steam wands I’ve ever used — beaten only by the Smeg EMC02 — and I have no doubt that any home coffee enthusiast would adore using this machine.

Interestingly, there’s a feature on the Oracle Dual Boiler that I’ve only really seen on fully-automatic machines before.

The Oracle Dual Boiler has something called “AutoMilQ” for automatic milk steaming. This feature is supposed to adjust its power for different types of milk, including: dairy, almond, oat, and soy.

I tested this feature with oat milk (Oatly Barista), and I did not like it. It made the steam wand way less powerful and made it more difficult to mix in the larger bubbles. I would never use this feature again.

Presumably, AutoMilQ makes the steam less powerful for non-dairy milk as it tends to be more delicate and prone to over-aeration. I understand that this could be a useful feature for non-barista non-dairy milk.

Also, I suppose if you want hands-off milk steaming, then MilQ could be good for you. Personally, however, I’m very happy to baby my milk through every step of the process. I actively enjoy steaming my milk manually, so I’m not the ideal candidate for automatic steam wands.

Breville Oracle Dual Boiler review: App

Yes, the Breville Oracle Dual Boiler has an app: Breville+/Sage+. I write that with a strained rictus grimace plastered on my face. My eye is twitching. I can hear my heartbeat in my ears. I may or may not be biting down on my tongue so hard I can taste blood.

Right, that’s all a bit of hyperbole, but seriously, the fact that this espresso machine has an app is just a bit much. And the worst part? The app literally doesn’t do anything. Sure, you can turn on the machine from your phone. Sure, that saves you two minutes in the morning. But seriously? I do not need my espresso machine to have Wi-Fi. No thank you.

This could be my personal preference, though. What do you think? Do you love the idea of being able to preheat your coffee machine from bed?

Anyway, here’s a few screenshots from the app so you can see for yourself.

You can change the machine’s name in the app, but there’s quite a strict character limit. I tried to name it “Caffeiney McCaffeineyface” ala Boaty McBoatface, but there wasn’t enough room. Sigh. It’s now called “hot bean juicer 3000”, which doesn’t have the same ring to it.

But that is it. This app’s got all my data for that? Right, okay, makes sense. I think this is a bit of a gimmick and I will not be using this app regularly. It would be so much better if the app took some inspiration from Acaia’s Brewmaster app, which plots your espresso extraction on a graph and has a great notepad section where you can track the notes of your espresso shot.

Breville/Sage, if you’re listening, I’d love for the Breville+/Sage+ app to behave less like a remote control, and more like Brewmaster. Thanks!

Breville Oracle Dual Boiler review: Storage & maintenance

As I mentioned earlier, this is a massive machine. I’ve referred to it as the Titan of espresso machines before, and I think that’s such an apt name. It truly is the Titan of espresso machines.

It’s a huge 15 inches wide, 17 inches tall, and 14 inches deep. You will either need a massive counter free in your kitchen — with no cupboard above — or a dedicated coffee station. This machine took up a whole counter in my kitchen and I found myself getting a little stressed out by how cluttered it looked during my testing period.

All that being said, if you’ve got a big kitchen or somewhere spacious to store the machine, this won’t be a problem.

I will note that the Oracle Dual Boiler is power-hungry. I noticed that when the machine was heating up from cold, my electricity usage (I have a live electricity usage monitor in the kitchen) jumped up from about 4p an hour to about 50p ($0.68) an hour. This will obviously depend on where you live and your electricity provider, but it was noticeably higher for me. Although, if you’ve bought a $3,000 machine, I doubt a 50p ($0.68) electricity cost will be an issue for you.

The Oracle Dual Boiler has an array of self-cleaning modes: it can rinse the steam wand, deep clean the steam wand, group head cleaning, descaling, and water filter switching information, and more. Obviously it’ll prompt you when you need to do certain cleaning tasks.

The machine also comes with a cleaning disc and cleaning tablets, which I appreciate. If you run out, though, you can easily buy more supplies from Breville direct.

Day-to-day maintenance is very straightforward, but also essential for longevity. I’d recommend you empty the drip tray every day and purge the steam wand before and after use. Make sure you wipe down the machine so it stays looking fresh and sparkly for as long as possible.

Most of Breville’s cleaning advice is just common sense, too — descale when required, put in a water filter, etc. You can also buy WDT tools and tampers from Breville, but the whole point of this machine is that it does it for you, so these aren’t essential purchases.

Breville Oracle Dual Boiler review: Verdict

The Breville Oracle Dual Boiler is a premium, high-tech espresso machine perfect for one kind of home barista. This isn’t for beginners, and it’s not for coffee snobs, either. The Oracle Dual Boiler is for those who are serious about coffee, but not necessarily serious about technical coffee.

If you love dark roast and you love playing around with different drink styles, this is the machine for you. The proclivity for dark roast bodes well for syrup lovers, and I can definitely see the Oracle Dual Boiler’s espresso tasting particularly good with pumpkin spice or toffeenut syrup.

While this machine is expensive, big, and a little frustrating if you like light roast, if you’re in the aforementioned coffee-lover-but-not-necessarily-coffee-snob category, you will love the Oracle Dual Boiler.