Sage - The Oracle, Bean to Cup Coffee Machine with Manual and Automatic Milk Frother, Brushed Stainless Steel

I had read only good things about the Breville Oracle (it's called Sage in the UK) and as I was getting good results with my Stand-alone Sage Grinder and De Longhi Espresso machine,I really expected this to be incredible. It cost x 4 times the cost of that grinder and espresso machine, so is the coffee x4 better? No, it isn't, so don't expect too much and you will be fine. I've used this for two years now - how time flies- and there is much I like about it: 1. It looks really nice, is well constructed and I don't find the plate flimsy like many others here have mentioned ( see photos of the machine and plate, after ten months of use, below) There are some scuff marks, but , that is only to be expected 2. The Auto tamp is great, however,I was getting really consistent tamps with a calibrated tamper from Espro, so its no big deal. 3. The Auto grind and dosing is very convenient, but uses too much coffee 4. The Water level indicator and the LCD information display that tells you when the tank is empty is just fantastic 5. The hidden wheels and supply box : design is A+ 6. Dual Boiler with PID for consistent temperature and simultaneous espresso and steam for lattes 7. Integrated grinder saves space, and the coffee storage is enough for one 250g pack. This will last 4-5 days at the most, with two uses per day,as this just eats beans, so you don't have to worry about heat and losing bean freshness Update; May 2017: The single basket provided by Sage (free) , solved the bean consumption problem and that's why I award the Oracle 5 stars now) But, tell me, how is the &&**%^ coffee?! Well, that depends on the beans, with fresh roast beans, the espresso is excellent. Much better than Starbucks and Costas, and good espresso translates to great cappuccinos and lattes. It's a lot like a computer: Garbage in Garbage out The crema is only 1-2mm, I tried really fresh beans too, but the crema thickness isn't as good as you get in nespresso machines, Update2019: Nix that, I now get excellent crema, see below, the secret is fresh brand and a tight ramp, with the coffee flow starting at 8 seconds and lasting for 25 ml See below however the taste of the coffee is really good, if you use fresh beans 2019 Update, I got a really thick crema with fresh beans and a double tamp And the espresso is better than any I have had from anywhere It is an amazing machine! Even if you use old packaged beans, I find the espresso substandard, but the cappuccinos and lattes still taste great- better than the large coffee chains, as the milk and sugar mask the inferior coffee You only have to make adjustments on the grind size, as the tamp and the temperature are all adjusted just right. I find myself using 28-32 grind size these days with really good milk-based coffees The dual boilers are great to have, but I never minded waiting a bit with single boilers Now, to the downsides: 1. The coffee dosing is too much: 22 g of coffee each time means you finish a 250g bag in 11-12 extractions, thats 3-4 days for us! Maybe 5-6 days ,without guests. 2. You always have to use 22g, even if you select a single cup, it still grinds 22 g, so if you don't use it as two shots, you are wasting even more coffee, (Update: with the single basket from Sage (sent free) this is largely ameliorated and I have no complaints) 3. The auto steam wand and auto purge are really convenient, but you can't make decent latte art with it. I tried. Manual doesn't work also My cheap 120 quid Delonghi, with its underpowered thermoblock (not even a single boiler here) gave me better "art", so if you want to make latte art, steer clear. I guess its because of the high tech design, thick stubby want with an inbuilt thermometer and all, but it is great for plain cappuccinos, not for art. granted, I know the knob can switch from latte to cappuccino, but it doesn't create the right velvet microfoam I need for art 4. It costs a lot, but then it does a lot: Now in the coffee world,cost is a very relative term. You can spend a 1000$ on a grinder very easily. So when you look at what you are getting, great design, dual boilers, PID, Auto tamp, Auto purge, built in grinder, it isn't all that overpriced. What I mean is , you can get similar results for a lot less, if you are willing to learn a little.Here you are paying for the integration, the technology , the convenience and the quality of the finish. Bottom-line: If you want to make latte art and save money on the machine and also on beans: go for a Barista express or another grinder -machine combo instead. If you want convenience and great coffee, if money is no object, and you don't mind using 22 g of beans per session (one button press), then by all means, this is great! Update: 6 months of use; I love the machine, the coffee is really good and the convenience is fantastic. The plate is holding up with mild scuff marks( see photos below) and Sage sent me a single basket , gratis, that has reduced the excessive dosing per cup. I have upgraded my rating to five stars. Update 2021 The espresso is really good, the milk frother is not so good as it once was, but the machine has given us 5 years of better-than-cafe quality drinks… it was worth every penny… and still is

I got this machine since, although I'm an espresso enthusiast, with our first baby arriving I wanted something easy that delivered good coffee and that my partner could use without assistance. I was coming from a Delonghi Dedica paired with a Sage Smart Grinder Plus. The oracle is an extremely convenient machine with a ludicrous price tag. It is almost a superautomatic machine but delivers real espresso (all superautos use pressurised baskets). Also the Oracle is probably easier to clean. You need almost no espresso knowledge to use it, well you do need to learn to dial in and dose your output, but if you do that then people in your family can get decent espresso with no knowledge. Outside of my review title, there are some serious issues with this machine. - First is the price, you can get an outstanding espresso setup for about the same money (I moved to a Lelit Elizabeth + Niche Zero and this is a million times better FYI). - Second, the grinder only works if the hopper is at least half full. The Sage Smart Grinder Pro has the exact same problem which prevents you from single dosing if you so wanted, but more importantly it makes the hopper kind of useless because you constantly need it full. My guess is that the design of these grinders requires the weight of the beans on top in order to keep a good bean feed rate into the burrs, without which any consistency in the grind goes. Needless to say, this will give you unpredictable espresso, normally 1/10 shots will be good and the rest crap, making you dial in back and forth in grind non-stop. - Third, the retention of the grinder is just crazy. Again same with the Sage Smart Grinder Pro which I've owned and used for 4 years so I know inside out. Changing beans is either painful or wasteful, your choice, because of all the leftover beans in the burrs etc. - Fourth, even with the hopper full I've found the espresso to be inconsistent occasionally. Sometimes it decided to flow super fast and I had to bring the grind down from like 30 to 20 so not a minor change. This was not due to beans aging. Something was going wrong and it's hard to say what, it could have been the automatic puck prep, the grinder, (although I regularly cleaned and maintained these) or the machine simply not respecting the temperature or pressure (although I always fully preheated the machine and PF and basket to scalding point and it's unlikely it would work improperly like this). The Sage Smart Grinder Pro required a high amount of WDT to produce decent espresso without channelling due to the excessive amount of clumps - I would definitely put my money in the puck prep being suboptimal but also this most likely varies with beans (I always used freshly roasted specialty beans) which might explain why some people don't mention it. I did not have a bottomless PF then though, so I cannot confirm this. So, actually the grinder is the biggest issue with this machine, but the point of the Oracle is the automatic puck prep (tamping) and well also the automatic milk frothing. I do admit that the milk frothing is simply excellent. Even if you use a small amount of milk it is mind blowing that you can do latte art with the auto frothing. I never used it in manual mode since there was literally no point. In conclusion and for the price, I would not recommend this machine for what it tries to achieve based on its own internal competition. I do not think the grinder is up to the task which entirely limits the performance of this machine. If this machine costed considerably less then it would be acceptable for it to perform this way. But the primary reason for the 1 star is that the machine failed after the first descale. It would not go over 70° or so meaning it was entirely unusable (literally the machine was stuck in preheating mode). Please do your research online and you will find this is an extremely common issue with the Sage machines. It is frightening because of the extremely high cost, and needless to say you're out of espresso until you find a replacement. Luckily I had purchased from Amazon directly and they took it back as faulty and I got my money back, but it was a total hassle because I had to find my own courier to send it to the Scotland warehouse - the problem is most couriers won't deliver something of this size or a kitchen appliance or coffee machine specifically. And fortunately I had kept the original shipping boxes! So, frankly, do not bother. With a real espresso machine and grinder (not kitchen appliances like Sage) you can get excellent espresso with only a small learning curve, and they will last you for years and years as they can be serviced and repaired. The one real step the oracle solves for you is the puck prep which it fails at due to its poor grinder, again with a grinder that gives you fluffy grinds (not the Sage) it's as easy as distribute and tamp which anyone can do. Just get a Lelit or another real machine and a good grinder (minimum Eureka Mignon) and you're good to go for years to come.

Where to start? The Oracle is a beautiful looking machine. It's really well designed and flatters my coffee making. In fact, it makes some of the best coffee this side of a professional barista. But I'll admit that, for the purists amongst you, there's plenty to make your hackles rise. It doesn't need a huge amount of skill to get great tasting coffee, and that may drive away those of you who like to perfect the art. Me? I just enjoy coffee. Prior to the Oracle I had a small manual machine which allowed me to pull an espresso and steam the milk at the same time. I'd also bought a massive, used grinder and spent many a happy hour trying to dial in the perfect grind, tamp and pull. I think it's fair to say that I failed pretty miserably. After a year I started to turn out milk that was close to what I'd expect from a latte, but it probably took another year before I got it right more than I got it wrong. I'm not sure my espressos were ever much good. So you'll understand I was a perfect candidate for the Oracle. This isn't a fully automatic machine - you'll pay another few hundred for the Sage/Breville version of that - but it does take control of the things I'd been having trouble with - the grind, tamp and frothing - while still allowing me to set up the results the way I prefer them. At first the Oracle is a little intimidating, so I found it best to accept the default settings and work from there. If you're contemplating spending this much you probably won't need me to tell you that using decent coffee beans is really important. If the pack has a sell-by date on it, forget it. Only use beans if you know their roasting date, and make sure it's less than 30 days ago. The grinder is controlled by a knob on the left side. Lower numbers give a finer grind, and I've consistently found that a setting between 18 and 22 works best for the beans I get. Two filter baskets are provided, for single or double shots, though I pretty much exclusively use the double. There are some excellent videos on YouTube from Sage which show how to set up for the perfect espresso. The coffee should start appearing around the 8 - 12 second mark and produce about 25 ml in each shot glass at the end of the 30 second pour. Out of the box the machine is set to brew at 93 degrees Celsius, but like many of the settings this can be changed. On the milk side of things there's another knob which adjusts the density between cappuccino and latte. I use skimmed milk, although Sage say you'll get best results from full fat, but I'm pleased with the lattes I make. The same knob controls the temperature of the milk. A smiley face on the display indicates when the temperature is in the sweet spot, which maxes out at 65 degrees. Above that the milk begins to use its natural sweetness, they say. But 65 degrees is far too cold for me. I have it set at the maximum of 75 degrees and my palate can't taste anything wrong. You can flip the steaming lever up to steam manually, or flip it down to let the Sage do the work. The steaming head introduces air into the milk according to the setting you've chosen and the result is very good. The colder the milk is before you start, the better the result, I've found. Cleaning the machine is best done after each coffee making session. I also use cleaning tablets to flush out the system every two or three weeks, though the machine will tell you when you should do it if you forget. It'll also tell you more irregularly to descale. It takes a while, though the Sage does the heavy lifting, and it's really important to do it and protect your investment. I can only scratch the surface in this review in covering the amount of refining you can make to your coffee. I should say that you can also make Americano if you prefer that drink, and you can set the volume of liquid according to the size of the mug you use. This machine is expensive. There's no doubt about that. But if you're serious about your coffee, and maybe struggle to get good results from a manual machine, give the Oracle serious consideration. I couldn't imagine being without it now.

My coffee experience started in my late 30's. I started with instant which quickly became mundane, moved quickly on to a pod machine, and again didn't really satisfy me. The pod coffee mostly tasted watery and the powdered milk bland and artificially sweet. After many months of looking I decided on a bean-to-cup machine and De'longhi seemed to have the most choice of machines. De'longhi Magnifica Esam 4200 (Amazon best seller) was the machine I settled on and to be honest I wasn't disappointed. I thoroughly used the machine every day for over 2 years and 9 times out of 10 It produced a decent cup of coffee. In fact my only criticism was the coffee was never hot enough and 10s In the microwave was the only solution. All in all a decent bean to cup machine with few drawbacks! My enthusiasm for a more Costa/Starbucks coffee and the need to tailor the coffee to my taste continued. As I said the De'longhi made a good cup, but never a great cup. Back to the drawing board I went. After a couple of months searching for the holy grail of machines I stumbled upon The Oracle. It seemed to have the wow factor with plenty of on-line videos and reviews to support this fact. It arrived on Wednesday and 3 days later I am extremely happy and confident I made the right choice. This machine produces the most delicious hot coffee. It has the wow factor, not only In the coffee It produces, but also In the way It looks. I am enjoying every aspect of this machine and creating some tasty drinks. It's encouraging me to try all types of coffees, as this machine can produce them with ease. I have the white glove service booked as there may be additional features that can be shown to me, and why not? Its part of the experience! If this machine is within your budget and you want quality coffee shop drinks, do not hesitate, It's fantastic! I will update this review in a couple of weeks following the white glove visit. Update! Following the white gloves visit, I can truly say the coffee machine is still absolutely fantastic. The man arrived and after a brief chat he set-up the machine to its optimal settings. He adjusted the grinder, explained how to get the best from the machine and went into detail regarding descaling and general maintenance. He even gave me a free bag of coffee! The machine gets used even day and I believe its the best purchase I've made this year. Truly excellent coffee and probably the best home coffee maker on the market.

Lovely looking machine, beautifully built, but sadly I've been let down by sub-standard operating instructions and hand-holding for this Expresso Machine. Let me explain. I love coffee, but I'm no expresso aficionado, and you need good taste buds to "dial-in" a machine like this. Ie, be able to work the grinds, the timing of the expresso water flow and select your beans. Simply put, i found that the "Zoom online classes" not good enough - I needed the White Glove Service, now not offered by Sage, where they would come and set up the machine, dial in the perfect expresso and help select the beans etc. No excuses on this SAGE, all legal restrictions on COVID have now been lifted, and if you're buying a £1,500+ machine, you need to offer this service to people like me that need 1:1 help. Online videos just didn't work for me. So, back to Nespresso, or my AeroPress.

This review is from having this machine almost a year, and used it every day, often multiple times a day. Firstly, I'll address the first elephant. This is technically an appliance, not a machine (of course, it's a machine in the descriptive sense, but it's not classified as a "coffee machine"). What This means that it is incredibly difficult to modify and/or repair. I proper coffee machine is simple on the inside, and doesn't hold your hand. In the right hands, you'll get the best coffee ever from a real machine. This applience is very complicated inside, with lots of electronics, all designed to make a machine that can make coffee for you. That being said, you dont have to let it hold your hand, you can dial everything in yourself, and it's probably the best "applience" out there, and really just as good as a machine in every way except mods and repairs. Second elephant, the grinder... It's good. Actually, surprisingly good. But a £400 grinder is going to beat this one hands down. I got this machine refurbished for £900, and for that deal it's absolutely worth it, and great value. But you're thinking of spending £1900 on a brand new one, your better off buying the Sage Dual Boiler (basically same machine without the grinder) fir £1000, and buying a separate grinder that's gonna outshine the one in the oracle. So the machine... appliance* ...It's absolutely fantastic. The coffee I make in this thing at home is better than the coffee I make work with our commercial grade, £8,000 La Marzocco... of course, I do get to use my own choice of beans at home, and can out more care into dialing in ratios. Either way, the coffee quality is superb. The steam wand is good... Though I despise the thick tube shape they went with, and the lack of movement kn it compared to the Sage Dual Boiler. I have no idea why they decided to go with this design over a proper design... Either way, it still works. The 'auto steam' function is pretty cool. though I never use it my self, as I prefer to practice my steaming as much as possible, the auto steam does produce a really nice texture to your milk. Though, if you put in the effort to doing it yourself, it will of course be better. Super easy to clean, as it litterally walks you through the steps. And least importantly, but not quite unimportant, it's quite a pretty machine. At least, if you get the truffle black one like did. I'm personally not a fan of the big silver or white boxes. That being said, the Dual Boiler has a crimson red kne that looks absolutely gorgeous. So why 4 stars and not 5, despite me glazing it so hard in my review? Well... The issues are minor, but I can't ignore them. And when combined, I'd say it's worth taking of a star. And of course, its the issues I have already mentions: the steam wand works great, but feels flimsy and hideous. It's a pain in the back side to repair or modify, and the grinder isn't on par with the machine (though it's still pretty good). Conclusion is, if your budget is £1900, then dont buy this machine new, but the Sage Dual Boiler and a separate grinder. If you are thinking of buying this machine refurbished for £900, do it! It's amazing!

I’ve always wanted a real barista machine and I chose the Sage because of its features. It produces nice frothy milk for Cappuccino and less frothy for flat whites. Long black or espresso- it’s your choice. The grinder is of good quality and grinds from course to fine with a good range of settings . It also is supplied with a single and double shot hopper for the coffee head and now I have explored the machine further, its maintenance is fairly straightforward. It carries a small ‘tool tray’ in the rear of the removable drip tray which is very useful. No fear of misplacing the tools needed for maintaining the machine. It can be programmed to switch itself on at a predetermined time to save you from waiting for the machine to warm up. It doesn’t take long anyway. All together, I love this machine and I look forward to my morning coffee. The wonderful thing about a bean to cup machine is that the choice of beans is endless! Enjoy.

Edit: 2 weeks on and Amazon tell me they cant refund me until a full month has passed after receipt. I have spoken to dozens of Amazon reps. Amazon seem to ignore any law or basic decency, Avoid spending money like this on Amazon. This review is mainly focused on the terrible customer service received from Amazon. Amazon has failed completely in providing a robust and hassle free return experience for a £1500 item. Never again will I buy anything high value from amazon as a result. in short I have had to pay over £100 for postage and packaging to return this item myself, now the item has been signed for I have been told you will just get a refund at some point in the next 2 weeks. It has taken me hours of frustration and with amazons chat to get to this point. Also the card with which i purchased this machine no longer exists and have been told varying stories about what will happen, "I can get a refund back to any card" "only the card used to purchase can get the refund" etc etc... so at this stage I have no coffee machine , and am £1389 + £110 down .... The Coffee machine was returned because one day (luckily I was home) it turned it self on and started steaming out of the wand by itself, and then started making loud elecrtical buzzing noises and tripped the house fuse. its now unusable and will just trip the fuses if plugged in again. However, The Coffee Machine is good, lots of settings to play with. consistent shots. easy to use milk steamer for anyone to get ok micro foam, the dual boiler was great, takes about 15 minutes to get to full temperature. and looked nice on the counter.