Breville Fresca Espresso Reviews

We make about 6 coffees a day & the longest we go before emptying the tray is about a week & the tray is then only about half full. (I guess it also does depend on how quick you take the coffee once made - as you will have remnant drips.. Sounds like a lot of water though...

The water in the tray should be part of the brewing / cleaning process.

Hi Jacob,

I've never had that problem. My cups are dry. It sounds like you might actually have a leak somewhere...?!

I've always had water on top of the extracted coffee. I haven't been concerned about this, and research tells me that it does not affect the taste of the final coffee. You should only be concerned if one day it's dry and the next day it's wet.

Hey junald
I certainly find the coffee hot enough. It does have only one heating element, so you do have to wait a short time (maybe 15-20 seconds) for the steam to get up to temperature. Personally I find it quick enough. We are very happy with it and use it everyday.

Descaling is manual, but its an easy process. Add the descaler to the water and run the water through the machine a few times.

Michael, a tall mug will fit if tipped on an angle.

Sheraz, the milk is added by hand no matter what style of coffee you make. But you can make with a single or double shot of espresso. We are not strong coffee drinkers and we use the double setting so I assume a single shot would be relatively weak. We do love the machine and wonder how we survived without it and cannot bear instant coffee at all now.

Regards
Harry

Hi Sheraz, the coffee you make is nearly all up to you. You grind the coffee, decide how much to use, decide how much to extract, how much of the espresso to put in your cup and then how much milk to add. It's not really and automatic process at all. So yes you can make a weak cup. The milk you pour into the stainless steel jug and then froth with the steam wand so again, it's all up to you how you make your milk and how much you add. Hope this helps. Neroli

It does require you to grind the coffee into the group head then tamp it. Once locked in you can press the automatic 1 or 2 cup button which automatically pours the coffee, depending on whether you use the single or double filter baskets. It takes me less than 60 seconds to grind and pour the coffee. I like to froth my milk before hand which take a couple of minutes. If you are looking for an automatic machine i would recommend looking into the delonghi espresso pod coffee machine. You simply insert the desired coffee pod and press 1 button which automatically pours and is self cleaning, all you do is remove the empty pod. It has a seperate induction milk frother (like a mini kettle) which heats milk in around 60 seconds. A friend of mine has one which makes a good coffee, but the pods you have to order from them and they are around 60 cents each. I prefer manually making it with mine....it can be alot of fun experimenting!! Hope this helps with your answer!

Hi Sarah,

On Item 1.
To be honest I am not sure since I am a fairly non technical person when it comes to coffee makers. It seems only to be able to do one thing at a time. For example expresso or produce steam. So I think there is more than likely one steam source. If that makes sense.

Talk to the salesperson at the shop where you buy it first.

It has what I believe to be a steam pump system, that pushes water through a super heated coil of sorts. It's not like the big expresso systems in the coffee shops & large workplaces like my office in town (these do have boilers). (They cost >%22,000 last time I looked!)

Item 2

It has a huge tray underneath a grill to collect water, spill milk, and your excess coffee grinds. (Now lasts about three days on empties)

When I first bought machine home, for the first few days I was making a mess everywhere and alway over doing the grind.. Practice makes perfect and no hardly spill or waste any coffee grids.

As an aside, I thought we would use it for say maximum of 2-3 cups per day... Now it is more like 20 because the rest of the family and neighbours invite themselves over for morning coffees (we live in a row of townhouses and my balcony overlooks a lake..

So far it is running well, and I am very happy creating coffee I never thought was so good.

BTW. If you are new to coffee made this way. The real trick is the grid, the pressure and above all you must have HOT CUPS and Filters. Do this and you will be smiling from ear to ear like I am.

I now never ever buy coffee outside. It's bitter and tastes foul and here in Perth it's almost $4.00 per Large Mug!

So I reckon it's saving me money already. Plus, I have the pleasure of creating my OWN unique coffee.. Hope this helps

Cheers
Stephen