January 4, 2014

Breville Oracle Dual Boiler BES980XL Espresso Machine

Come visit our store to learn more about the brand new Breville Oracle Dual Boiler BES980XL Espresso Machine. In Canada, Breville set a retail price of CAD $2,300..00. When you purchase the Oracle, you become a member of the "Club Oracle". We will walk you thru the calibration process on your machine in our store including a coffee education session:

Club Oracle:

1. Coffee Beans
2. Coffee Freshness
3. Coffee Buying and storage
4. Understanding grinding and dosing
5. Tamping
6. The importance of brewing water temperature
7. Pre-Infusion
8. Brew Pressure
9. Espresso Extraction
10. Milk Texturing
11. Machine maintenance

Our first impression and review:

It looks like Breville took the auto tamping technology from La Marzocco. The tamping pressure out of the box is close to 30 lbs. We confirmed this with a spring loaded tamper. The tamping pressure can be programmed. The distribution of the grinds accross the filter basked is amazingly even. The polishing can also be programmed. There is no way of channeling. A consistent tamp, every time, no matter who pulls a shot.

The "Smart Steam Wand" is incredible. It features both modes. Either a manual steam wand or automatic steam wand with programmable milk temperature shut off and programmable milk to foam ratio. We were able to get a dense microfoam, perfect for latte art. No matter when steaming 8oz. or 16oz of milk, the results were consistent. Doesn't stop there, it even flushes out the steam wand with several steam bursts when done, sweet. 

We recommend to increase the steam boiler temperature to the maximum setting if you are mainly using the steam wand in manual mode for Micro Foaming. This way you get maximum rolling capacity.

They even thought of the Americano drinker. There is a hot water spout directly behind the group head, dispensing hot water right into the mug after pulling a shot. With 3 preset and 6 custom settings there is plenty of Americano selections.

The large bright LCD display enable easy reading, especially for us requiring reading glasses :) The brightness can be programmed.

The Oracle even features LED illumination for the cup platform, perfect for pulling shots in the dark. The brightness can be programmed.

The box comes loaded with extra Barista goodies such as knock box, double wall stainless steel travel mug, frothing pitcher, cleaning supplies and much more.

Pay attention to the overall hight of the Oracle. To the top of the grinder hopper, the machine comes in at a hight of 18".

Whatch the video from Breville: