Breville Barista Express vs Expobar Office Leva

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Ground coffee, especially if freshly roasted and ground, results in much better quality coffee than the kind of results you get with pods or capsules.

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It comes with a commercial style steam wand as opposed to a pannarello steam wand. These are harder to master but can allow you to produce better, richer milk froth.

One of the most important aspects to pulling a great espresso is the amount of pressure used. Aspects such as how tightly tamped the portafilter is can affect the pressure and therefore the overall quality of the extraction. A pressure gauge helps you to adjust your process to achieve a perfect 9 bar of pressure.

It has a steam wand, which allows you to make steamed/frothed milk to create other drinks from an espresso base.

A 58mm portafilter is the most common size in the industry, offering a greater range of accessories to purchase such as portafilter baskets and tampers.

With a cup warmer you can heat the cups before pulling your espresso so that it doesn't go cold quickly, which affects the taste and quality. It also means that you don’t have to manually heat them using hot water.

A burr grinder works in such a way that you can get a consistent, uniform size of grind each time, which is one of the key aspects of getting great tasting espresso. On the other hand an inferior blade grinder often leaves you with an inconsistent grind.

With a transparent water tank you can easily see when it needs to be filled up. This is important as attempting to make an espresso with an empty tank can damage the machine.

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A PID controller controls the temperature of the boiler electronically. It offers a far greater degree of accuracy and consistency than a regular, mechanical thermostat used to control temperature. This is very important as a temperature of around 92°C to 96°C is key to pulling the perfect espresso.

An integrated water filter produces cleaner water for brewing espresso. It also helps to prevent the build up of limescale.

The water tank is removable, making it easier to refill.

A hot water outlet is useful as it can be used to heat cups, as well as making americanos, long blacks and teas.

With a larger water tank you don’t have to refill it as often.

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With a drip tray indicator the machine informs you of when you need to empty the tray.

The machine alerts you when it requires cleaning.

At the end of the extraction process, all moisture is removed from the puck. This allows you to easily tap out the coffee from the portafilter afterwards, reducing mess and the need to clean it as often.

After a certain period of being idle, the device will switch to a sleep mode to conserve power.

It has an internal fuse/thermal sensors which prevents the machine from overheating.

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A 3-way solenoid valve relieves the portafilter of pressure and moisture after the extraction. This produces a dry puck which can easily be removed afterwards. It also means that you don’t have to wait for the pressure to equalise, so that you can make back-to-back coffees.

With a double boiler or heat exchanger system, you can brew and steam milk at the same time. This has an advantage over single boiler machines where you have to wait between brewing and steaming for the temperature to adjust.

With a pre-infusion function you get a low pressure of water before it ramps up to around 9 bar of pressure. This gently expands the grinds to get a smooth extraction and to help prevent channeling in the cake.

These buttons can be programmed for different types of coffee such as an espresso, doppio or ristretto. This means once you have mastered a particular style of coffee, you can get it the same every time.

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The time taken to pull an espresso shot is one of four key elements, and should be around 19-22 seconds. Once you have the grind, dose and tamp correct, you can use the shot clock to time the pull perfectly.

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