Breville BES980XL Oracle Espresso Machine Review

Breville Oracle BES980XL Overview

Breville company constantly challenges preconceived notions of what to expect from espresso machines and strive to innovation. The latest product, the Breville Oracle, is no exception. It crosses the lines between semi-automatic and super-automatic coffee machines. Breville Oracle BES980XL successfully creates a hybrid that for our surprise we like it. Here in Breville BES980XL Oracle Espresso Machine Review you can find out why.

This Breville oracle review should give you enough information to help you make an informed purchasing decision.

Why Choose Breville BES980XL Oracle Espresso Machine Review

Breville may long look the answers for your deepest coffee concerns and we have a feeling you have found what you were looking for.

Grinder, scale and tamper not needed! The Oracle automatically doses, grinds and tamps freshly ground beans from the ½ pound removable bean hopper into a 58mm stainless steel portafilter. While the shots brew, take advantage of the dual boilers and allow the Oracle to simultaneously froth your milk with the automatic or manual latte (less texture) and cappuccino (maximum texture) settings.

If you want to wake up and magically make the perfect cup of coffee every morning then Breville Oracle BES980XL is the answer.

For those who want a great shot of espresso – without the need to manually do everything for every shot – this is the coffee machine for you.

The price tag of the Breville BES980XL Oracle is within the range of super-automatic espresso machines, yet the Oracle is just a semiautomatic espresso machine that brings true cafe quality to your home without the barista.

The Oracle has automatic grinding, dosing, tamping and milk texturing, automating the two most difficult parts of manual espresso.

Features of Breville BES980XL Oracle

The features of Breville BES980XL Oracle is where we get really excited. Breville Oracle is a true technological wonder. The features in this coffee maker machine are designed around improving the overall experience and pulling perfect coffee shots every time.

Dual Boilers

Dual boilers are one of the most impressive and most expensive features of the machine. The design of the dual boilers allows to brew and steam milk at the same time. Also, two boilers help to temperature stability during brewing. A constant temperature helps create consistent shots every time. The two boilers are made of stainless steel while the temperature on the two boilers is controlled separately to improve the precision of the brewing temperature.

Dual Pumps

The Breville BES980XL Oracle coffee machine has one pump for the espresso and one for the steam to ensure a constant pressure while pulling shots. for very precise operation. Most high-end espresso machines have only one pump.

Breville Oracle is designed with two boilers to do both, pulling shots and steaming milk. This is a time saver option as it can save time between steaming and brewing. Breville fixes this problem by incorporating a second pump designated to do steaming only.

Preinfusion

The pre-infusion function is important to allow uniform grounds saturation and avoid channeling which often is a problem when pulling shots. The factory settings of 7 seconds with 60% of the normal pressure are default but these settings can be adjusted to compensate for various beans’ density and roast.

Shot Clock

The shot clock is a nice feature that allows you to know how long a shot has been pulled. This time can be very useful for tweaking your shot. It can be determined when you first start to use the Oracle, or if you want to experiment.

Temperature Control and PID

The temperature control is one of the most important factors for making a perfect coffee cup, especially when preparing an espresso or a cappuccino. Breville BES980XL Oracle has the triple heat system which is a patent-pending innovation and is designed for ensuring consistent quaity shot.

Triple heat is built to use three separate heating elements for steaming, brewing, and brewing.

The systems work separately on different temperatures. The scheme here shows how Breville implemented the triple heat system in Oracle model.

BES980XL Oracle has two PID controllers that maintain the precise temperature needed. One PID controls the temperature in the brewing boiler, while the second maintains the perfect temperature in the group head.

The PID feature in brewing boiler is not unusual for an espresso machine. The unusual in the architecture is to add a PID to the group head and actively regulate the temperature during brewing. This is pretty amazing because home baristas, usually struggle to bring the group head to the right temperature and it’s always guesswork. Many tips and tricks for that can be learned on forums. Oracle fixes the issue with the addition of PID on the grouphead. NICE!

The brewing temperature can be adjusted by using the digital controls with a +/- 2°F precision. This gives you as the home barista the option to tweak the shot to compensate for bean’s origin and roast.

The steam boiler also has a temperature control function which is not a PID but just a thermistor. PID addition here would only increase the price and complicated the design.

Cup Warmer

The cup warmer has its own heating element. It doesn’t rely on heat from the boilers, like the most machine in its class. This allows temperature stability, regardless if the boiler is used or not.

Volumetric Dosing

The Breville BES980XL Oracle helps pull adjustable volume shots from a ristretto to a lungo and even a café crema. Moreover, there is the ability to program that volume into a preferred beverage. You can simply tweak your coffee to perfection. Once perfection is met, you can save that into a profile to pull that shot consistently. No human error, no miscalculations. You start your morning morning starts with the perfect shot with press of a button.

You can also program the duration of a shot. Oracle has many options to program and automate brewing parameters, and this one is very handy.

By controlling the shot duration, we can pull shots with very high precision. The shot clock is another way to modify the coffee strength and volume. The default shot volume is set at 30 seconds for a double espresso. The volume can be adjusted in two ways:

• by time (the default)
• by volume of water pushed through the puck

Advanced Automated Milk Frother

The milk frother of Breville BES980XL Oracle can be used both manually if you are an expert, or you can just let the machine do it automatically for you. For perfect heating, the steaming wand has a temperature probe to prevent overheating the milk. The steaming wand tip is specially designed with 4 holes for a perfect milk texture.

Built-In Grinder

Built-in grinder is one of the key advantages to the Breville BES980XL Oracle. The grinder can be adjusted between 40 different fineness settings. The locking mechanism helps to grind directly into your portafilter.

Based on your preferences you can adjust the total dosage of coffee ground to customize your shots. The Oracle’s grinder is also equipped with an adjustable automatic tamping system that will tamp and level of your coffee grounds to keep extraction parameters.

Coffee bean hopper on the Oracle holds up to 8oz of whole bean coffee. The hopper can be removed and features a bean stopper is there to help take it off even when there are still beans in hopper.

Built-In Grinder / Automatic Tamping / Coffee Dosage

The built-in grinder which is one of the strengths of the Oracle system is probably one of the best built-in grinders in the industry. You can adjust the grinder to 40 settings for espresso range. If you automate the process you can gring directly into your portafilter.

The automatic tamping feature is another feature of Breville BES980XL Oracle you can use to ensure consistent pressure every time. This is very convenient if you are not qualified barista. You could use a calibrated tamper, but this an additional thing to buy.

One of our favorite features is the coffee dosage. If you are using a semiautomatic, you always have to adjust the dosage, if you change coffee beans. Since not all the beans are the same and you also need to change the grind size. The perfect pressure is a combination between of the elements:

• Grind size
• Tamping pressure
• The amount of coffee grounds in the puck
• The coffee bean variety, origin, and roast

Because of this every time you change the beans you have to adjust the other variables for perfect extraction.

Removable Bean Hopper

The bean hopper of Breville BES980XL Oracle is quite big to hold up to 8oz of beans plenty for a domestic espresso machine. You can remove the hopper completely to clean it. This is useful when you need to change the beans before finishing the last batch. The bean stopper is designed to help remove the hopper even when there are still beans inside.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS:

[+] Automatically grinds, doses & tamps the required amount of coffee for mess free, barista-quality espresso
[+] Programmable hands-free milk texturing with automatic purge.Water tank capacity-84 ounce;Voltage: 110 – 120 Volts
[+] Dual stainless steel boilers & dual Italian pumps with PID; Boilers can be descaled by user
[+] One Touch Americano delivers water directly into the cup after extraction; 3 preset & 6 customizable settings
[+] Programmable shot temperature from 190 Degree-205 Degree. Displays in either Degree F or Degree C

What We Think about Breville BES980XL Oracle Coffee Maker

Breville BES980XL Oracle coffee maker isn’t just a shortcut – it’s a powerful, customizable coffee machine that can be manually tuned for the tastiest beverages every time you want them.

The Breville Oracle machine is loaded with advanced features to ensure the perfect shot every time but…

To get the most out of Breville BES980XL Oracle coffee maker, you really must use quality beans and experiment with brew temperature and grind size to achieve perfection.

The payoff is that your daily cup if far more consistent and easily brewed than normally possible for most coffee makers in this category.

You can get Breville BES980XL Oracle at the best price here: