The Breville Oracle Dual Boiler (Sage Oracle Dual Boiler in the U.K.) released today, Monday, September 15. You can purchase the machine for $2,999 from Breville U.S. and £2,499 from Sage U.K..
Yep, this is a really expensive home espresso machine. Is it one of the best espresso machines? Well, it's certainly one of the best Breville espresso machines I've used. The Oracle Dual Boiler straddles the line between an espresso enthusiast/prosumer coffee machine. Some espresso evangelists might not be impressed, and that's fine, but I think the Oracle Dual Boiler is a force to be reckoned with. It's the Titan of the espresso world.
I've not written my full review yet — that will be coming soon — but I've compiled a few of my first impressions here. Spoiler alert: this is one of the most intelligent espresso machines I've ever used. It's like a smartphone and a coffee machine rolled into one beautiful, ingenious piece of tech.
The king of all steam wands
My favorite thing about the Breville Oracle Dual Boiler? The steam wand. This is one of the most impressive steam wands I've ever used. It's about a half inch thick, so already sturdier than most other home espresso machines I've used. The steam itself is expressed through four holes, rather than the one hole you might find on cheaper machines.
The steam wand is powerful, but it's also very precise. I found it very, very easy to get barista-quality microfoam. I've worked at artisan coffee shops and chain coffee shops, and the Oracle Dual Boiler's steam wand is near-identical to one you'd find on a commercial machine. The closest comparison is the Smeg EMC02 Mini Pro, which is one of the most impressive steam wands I've ever used.
Take a look at an oat milk latte I made on the Oracle Dual Boiler. Bear in mind this is oat milk, so not as velvety as cow milk, and I used manual mode, not the AutoIQ setting (which I've not tested fully yet — I'll discuss that in my upcoming review).
I can't lie, I'm really proud of that latte art. This is probably the closest I've come to my barista-level latte art I used to bash out every day.
Here's a photo of cow milk latte art — this was the first drink I made on the Oracle Dual Boiler.
I know the milk is a little too bubbly, but as I mentioned above, this was the very first drink I made on this machine. I think for a first attempt, this is pretty good.
The steam wand also self-purges, like other Breville machines, and has a live temperature sensor so you don't scald your milk. How cool is that?
The Oracle Dual Boiler is (if you hadn't guessed) a dual boiler machine, which means it uses separate boilers for espresso and the steam wand. You'll be able to steam milk and pull shots simultaneously, which means you should be able to sling drink after drink should you so desire.
I'm so excited to drink way too many coffees this week as I test every aspect of the Breville Dual Boiler — it's been thrilling thus far.
Mess-free self tamping
When I first unboxed the Breville Dual Boiler, I was about ten seconds away from messaging customer service, demanding why the machine had shipped without a tamper. I jest — I was more confused than anything — but, yeah, it's worth noting that this machine doesn't come with a tamper.
You'd easily be able to buy a Breville 58mm tamper should you so desire, but the Oracle Dual Boiler isn't designed to require a tamper.
The tamper is built in to the machine itself. Unfortunately that means I can't show you a photo lest I deconstruct the machine, but here's a photograph of the group handle while grinding and tamping.
The machine doses, grinds, and tamps all automatically. (I'll get into this later, but dialing in is a bit of a nightmare.) If you're the kind of barista who hates dealing with coffee grounds all over your kitchen, or you hate the idea of having to buy a separate grinder, then this is the machine for you.
From experience, the grinding takes a while. The first few times I used this machine, I stopped the tamping before it had finished, as I thought I had done it wrong. It takes a good forty seconds or more to grind and tamp. Just let the machine do its thing — it knows what it's doing.
Once I got used to this feature, though, I enjoyed it. I loved not having to clean up my counter after making a coffee.
The self-tamping is akin to the "Smart Tamping System" found on the De'Longhi La Specialista Opera, but with a little more automation. The De'Longhi version requires the barista to pull on a handle and tamp internally, but the Breville version literally does everything. You put the group handle in, and a minute later, you've got a perfectly tamped puck, ready for extraction.
Sure, coffee purists will criticize this and say it's not as good as a human barista, and that may be true. Some coffee purists decry all built in grinders, and, again, that may be for good reason. But the Oracle Dual Boiler isn't for that kind of home barista, and that's fine.
Espresso worthy of a specialty coffee shop
But there's a caveat to this one, which I'll get into below. Once you're dialed in (which is finding the perfect grind for your beans), the espresso is utterly marvelous. I used the provided 58mm single-walled portafilter and the espresso was divine.
The espresso is rich, balanced, and juicy, with a beautifully thick crema and layered flavors. Say goodbye to unpleasant bitterness and weak shots, because once you've found the right grind, the Oracle Dual Boiler will pull espresso worthy of the fanciest specialty coffee shop in your city.
While I don't think the espresso tastes any different from the Breville Bambino Plus ($499), the Oracle Dual Boiler and the Bambino Plus have different use cases. The Bambino Plus is intended for smaller spaces, and doesn't have a grinder.
The Oracle Dual Boiler is the Titan of the coffee world: it's massive (18 inches high, and takes up a whole countertop in my kitchen), with an 81-fluid ounce water tank, and a Baratza grinder built in.
As the use cases are so different, so is the target demographic. If, like me, you have a small kitchen and are happy using a hand grinder, you'll get Oracle Dual Boiler-level espresso with the compact Bambino Plus.
But if you want size and substance, you'd definitely find yourself right at home with the Oracle Dual Boiler.
But... it's a dialing-in nightmare
As promised, the aforementioned caveat. Once I got myself dialed in, the Oracle Dual Boiler pulled espresso delectable to serve to angels. Espresso ambrosia, so to speak.
Even so, the process of dialing myself in was so frustrating and so time-consuming that I wanted to give up. I've only had this machine for three days, and I am learning how to use it as we speak. I know this will not be an issue further down the line, once I'm more familiar with the Oracle Dual Boiler's inner workings.
However, dialing in my light roast beans took 23 minutes and almost a full 200g bag of coffee.
Let me just say that I know most coffee drinkers tend to gravitate towards dark roast beans, so perhaps Breville designed the Oracle Dual Boiler with that in mind.
The Oracle Dual Boiler has 45 grind settings, and out of the box it's set on number 7. I had to go all the way up to 18 for my light roasted beans, which is strange, as light roast tends to require a finer grind.
I've yet to test with dark roasted beans — that's next on my list of things to do — but my editor Pete had similar issues with the Baratza grinder, so I'm inclined to think this is a universal problem.
As I have mentioned, I will be writing a full, 2,000+ word review in the next week or so. Keep an eye out for my full review, but so far, I'm really enjoying the Oracle Dual Boiler.
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