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Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: two-minute review
If you want to make sure you’re getting the best possible flavor from your coffee beans, the Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction will help you achieve it with minimum fuss and zero mess. It guides you through the process of dialling in the grinder and preparing exactly the right amount, so that each shot of espresso is extracted in optimum time for a well-rounded flavor. It isn’t the quickest way to make coffee (for that, look for a fully automatic espresso machine), but if you want to do justice to your beans, this is a great option.
The Impress Puck System is my favorite feature, letting you pull down a lever to tamp your freshly ground coffee without having to remove the portafilter handle from beneath the grinder. You never have to move a filter basket full of loose coffee and risk spilling it, and the tactile feeling of the lever is very satisfying.
Once you’ve got your basic espresso just right, you’ll unlock the whole menu of 14 hot and cold drinks. Some popular coffees are conspicuous by their absence (flat white and macchiato, for example) but everything in the list is easy to customize, so you can tweak a preset to create your own creation quite easily.
Cold brewing involves allowing the bed of ground coffee to infuse in cold water (a process known as blooming) before it’s extracted at high pressure. The result is a smooth-tasting drink that’s a good alternative to traditionally made cold brew, in a fraction of the time.
For me, the only real disappointment was the AutoMilq system, which struggled to create a smooth microfoam with dairy milk. The plant preset worked much better, particularly with oat milk, and using the steam wand manually was a piece of cake. The angle of the wand and shape of the pitcher make it easy to create a good whirlpool, and steam pressure remains consistent.
Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: price and availability
The Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction is available direct from Sage for £1,199.95 (about $1,600 / AU$2,500). That’s the same price as the original Barista Touch Impress, so you’re essentially getting the cold-brew option thrown in for free.
The Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction is currently only available in the UK. When it does launch internationally, it will be under the “Breville” brand rather than Sage.
If you’re looking for something more affordable, take a look at the Ninja Luxe Café. It’s also a semi-automatic espresso machine, meaning it grinds beans directly into the portafilter basket, and guides you through the process of preparing different drinks. Like the Sage machine, the Ninja also has a cold-brew option for chilled drinks. The Ninja Luxe Café is available for $499.99 / £499 (about AU$750).
Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: specs
|
Name |
Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction |
|
Type |
Semi-automatic espresso machine |
|
Dimensions (W x H x D) |
14.2 x 13.4 x 16.3 inches / 36 x 34 x 41.5cm |
|
Weight |
24.18lbs / 10.97kg |
|
Water reservoir capacity |
2.1 quarts / 2 liters |
|
Milk frother |
Automatic and manual |
|
Bars of pressure |
9 |
|
User profiles |
a |
Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: design
The Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction comes in four colors: stainless steel (shown here), black stainless steel, black truffle, and sea salt. When it comes to size, it’s one of the biggest home espresso machines I’ve tested to date, measuring 14.2 x 13.4 x 16.3 inches / 36 x 34 x 41.5cm. For comparison, the similarly specced Ninja Luxe Café is 12.99 x 13.39 x 14.57in / 330 x 340 x 370mm.
When you’re measure your work surface to see whether you have enough space, it’s also worth bearing in mind that the water tank slides onto the back of the machine, so you’ll need enough room to pull it away from the wall when it’s time for a refill. The tank is easy to remove thanks to a robust carry handle on the top, and has a hinged lid that snaps into place to keep the water clean.
The machine is supplied with a water filter to remove impurities, which can affect the taste of your coffee. The package also includes a water hardness testing strip, so you can configure it to suit your tap water. If your water is particularly hard, Sage recommends using pre-filtered water instead.
You’ll also need to make sure there’s sufficient space on the left-hand side of the machine to use the manual lever that compresses your freshly ground coffee. The grinder and tamper (together known as the Express Puck System) mean you’re never handling a portafilter handle full of loose coffee grounds, making the process of brewing espresso much less messy.
The Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction has a large power button on the front of the case, but everything else is operated via its bright touchscreen. This feels smooth and responsive – and, unlike the screens on some other coffee machines, it isn’t prone to fingerprints.
Something I particularly like about the Sage Barista Touch Impress is the number of accessories included in the box. You get a stainless steel milk pitcher with a fine spout that’s ideal for latte art; the usual set of single-wall and pressurized filter baskets; a cleaning pin tool for the steam wand; a barista towel; a water filter; and a full set of cleaning products. Open the Eco Starter Kit and you’ll find enough descaler, group head cleaner, grinder cleaner, and milk wand cleaner to keep you going for several months.
If you’re wondering where you’ll keep all that, don’t worry – pull out the machine’s drip tray and you’ll find a handy little accessory drawer. It’s a thoughtful touch.
The bean hopper is tinted, which reduces the amount of light reaching your beans (something that can cause the flavor to degrade) while also letting you see how many are left – a smart compromise. The hopper also has a good rubber seal to help keep unused beans fresh.
The grinder offers 30 settings, and can be adjusted using a dial on the left-hand side of the machine, near the tamping handle. The dial isn’t marked with numbers, but each time you switch between grind sizes you’ll hear a small beep, and the display will show the new setting. This is far easier than having to peer round the side of the coffee maker.
Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: performance
The Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction guides you through the process of brewing a well-rounded espresso, handling the more complicated tasks for you to turn the usually tedious process of choosing the correct grind size into something fun.
The first time you use the machine, you’ll be guided through the process of configuring it for your particular coffee beans. This involves calibrating both the grind size and the dosage.
Usually this process (known as dialling in) involves brewing several shots of straight espresso, but the designers at Sage have acknowledged that people have different tastes, so you can pick from a short menu of different drinks right from the start: espresso, long black, latte, cappuccino, and flat white. You’ll unlock the more extensive menu of hot and cold beverages once the initial setup is complete.
Pick a grind size by turning the large dial on the left-hand side of the machine (near the lever), then follow the onscreen instructions to grind the beans into the filter basket. You’ll then be instructed to pull down the tamping lever to create a nicely formed puck. This is the most pleasing part of the process, and the machine recommends doing it twice for the best results. It doesn’t take much pressure, but you get some satisfying resistance with the right dosage.
If you don’t have enough ground coffee in the basket, the machine will offer to grind a little more, then let you try tamping again. If there’s too much coffee, you can use the trimming tool provided in the box to remove a little without creating cracks in the puck.
Once the machine has worked out the optimum amount of coffee, it will save it for future use. Don’t worry if you want to use different beans later on, or your coffee’s properties have changed as the beans age – the Barista Touch Impress will check each time you make a drink and make adjustments on the fly.
Once your coffee is nicely tamped, it’s time to insert the handle into the brewing group and start making your first coffee. The Barista Touch Impress will time how long it takes for your shot of coffee to pour, and warn you if it’s taking a long time (and is likely to be over-extracted and sour) or has poured too quickly (making it watery). I like the fact that the machine won’t insist that you discard over- or under-extracted shots, recognizing that some coffee-drinkers have different preferences.
Once the machine is dialled in, you’ll have access to the full menu of 14 hot and cold presets. It’s a pretty impressive list, but some (such as hot chocolate, shakerato, and espresso martini) are recipes rather than drinks you can prepare using the machine alone. It’s also worth noting that unlike the Jura J10 and the De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic, there’s no way to foam cold milk.
The options are:
- Flat white
- Latte
- Cappuccino
- Espresso
- Long black
- Babyccino
- Café crema
- Hot chocolate
- Tea (ie. hot water)
- Cold brew
- Cold espresso
- Espresso shakerato
- Latte shakerato
- Espresso martini
I was a little surprised that Sage chose to forego some popular coffee drinks (such as caffe latte, flat white and macchiato) while including so many esoteric options such as shakeratos; but all drinks are editable, so you can easily create your favorites by tweaking the presets. The original Barista Touch Impress offered just eight options.
When you select a cold brew drink, the machine will pulse cold water over the bed of freshly ground coffee in the filter basket and wait a moment to let it bloom before passing cold water through at high pressure.
The result isn’t quite as full-bodied as that from the Jura J10, but it’s still noticeably sweeter and smoother than coffee brewed hot, and a very good alternative to traditionally made cold brew when you don’t have hours to spend steeping grounds in the fridge.
The only feature I found lacking was the Sage Barista Touch Impress’s AutoMilq system, which is designed to heat and froth dairy and plant-based milk automatically.
During tests, AutoMilq seemed to struggle, in particular with full-fat dairy milk. This is surprising, because this is usually the top choice for creating a silky microfoam. Rather than creating a fine foam with the texture of emulsion paint when preparing a latte, the steam wand pumped in too much air, creating a lot of large bubbles, which were unstable and burst as it switched to heating the milk. The result was nicely heated milk, but barely any foam.
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I had more success with oat milk, with the machine creating smooth and pourable microfoam for lattes, or thicker and “dryer” foam for cappuccinos. You can choose between milk texture options when making your drink, and the machine will incorporate different amounts of air to suit.
I had no problem using the machine to steam milk manually, though, and the angle of the raised wand made it easy to position the jug correctly to get a good whirlpool going.
Cleaning the machine after use proved straightforward. The machine rinses its brew head when powered on, the steam wand purges automatically after each use, and tapping the “settings” button at the top-right of the screen will let you access step-by-step instructions for descaling, using the blank disc and cleaner to refresh the brewing group, and cleaning the milk wand.
However, it won’t explain how to use the grinder cleaner, and the manual only explains how to dismantle the grinder and use the brush to remove debris. There’s no explanation about how to use the sachet of milk wand cleaner, either.
Should you buy the Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction?
|
Attribute |
Notes |
Score |
|---|---|---|
|
Value |
Well made and feature packed, but over twice the price of the Ninja Luxe Café, and closer to the price of machines that can also foam cold milk. |
3.5/5 |
|
Design |
Easy to use, with clear instructions on displayed on the bright touchscreen. Lever-operating tamping system is satisfying to use. Large footprint won’t fit some kitchens. |
4.5/5 |
|
Performance |
Excellent hot and cold coffee brewing and smart guidance for dialling in grinder, but AutoMilq system seems to struggle with whole dairy milk. Plant milk foams better and wand works fine manually. |
4/5 |
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Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: also consider
How I tested the Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction
I used the Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction for two weeks in place of my usual coffee machine, and brewed coffee using a blend of freshly roasted Brazilian and Colombian arabica beans. I spent time dialling in the grinder for the beans to begin with, and followed the directions to tweak the grind size each time I made a new drink.
I went through the whole drinks menu, and tested the steam wand using full-fat dairy and oat milk. I used the AutoMilq system, and steamed milk manually.
Once I’d finished testing, I ran through all of the machine’s cleaning and maintenance programs.
First tested June 2025
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