I tried Breville’s new $2,000 Oracle Jet espresso machine

If you had told me I would be unboxing a professional-quality espresso machine – with a price tag second only to that of the brand name – Oracle Touch — and that you can make barista-quality espresso in less than 30 minutes, without even consulting the instructions, is something I would never have believed.

My usual morning routine involves a $60 one-setting “espresso” machine that basically makes a decent cup of drip coffee using a portafilter. Called Oracle, so Breville’s new and top class espresso making technologyseems particularly fitting. It could see the future even when I couldn’t.

Breville first released its Oracle brand of award-winning espresso machines 10 years ago, and the just-released Oracle Jet is the first upgrade to its technology in five years. This is a serious home espresso machine for the serious coffee connoisseur. It’s not for the faint-hearted, but with a increasing number of Americans report that espresso or an espresso-based drink is their morning coffee of choice, this could be a worthy investment, but it’s Certainly an investment. (You can factor your espresso martini consumption into your consideration of that price. The cost of cocktails might make it worth dipping into your savings.)

Read more: This is how much you save by making coffee at home

What’s different about the Oracle Jet?

Precision, automation and speed were the driving factors behind the improved technologies of the Oracle Jet, which now features a fully integrated Baratza European Precision Burr that automatically grinds, doses and tamps by simply holding the portafilter in place under the grind and tamp outlet until the display technology clearly signals that you’re done. The system offers 45 different grind settings, taking into account the roast or expiration date of the beans you’ve selected.

For non-dairy foam fanatics, the Oracle Jet system now also offers built-in settings for soy, almond and oat milk, which can also be adjusted to your preferred temperature and foam quality. No more piping hot Starbucks for you.

It’s hard to remember a time before cold brew, but the trend in coffee consumption is only 10 to 15 years old, with explosive growth over the past decade and more to come. The cold brew market is expected to grow by a CAGR of 22.7% through 2031. So this is more clairvoyance from the Oracle, which now includes settings for both cold brew and cold espresso. It’s certainly not the first home espresso machine to offer such features, but the quality of output in both cases is certainly worth comparing with other models.

The new Oracle Jet also features Wi-Fi, allowing you to seamlessly upgrade the technology as it becomes available.

Oracle Jet Installation: Never Fear a Professional Machine

The Oracle Jet is a substantial machine, both in terms of weight and footprint, but it was surprisingly easy to get from the box to pulling shots. The easy-to-read display walks you through a straightforward setup, including installing the water filter and checking the water quality, performing an initial flush of the system with hot water for peace of mind, and setting a basic grind setting for your particular preferences and espresso beans. It even gives you a mini barista lesson, showing you what fast, ideal, and slow extractions look like and how much time each should take.

After a test shot, the Oracle Jet let me know that the extraction was too slow and that the coffee might be bitter, and encouraged me to increase the grind size, which is easily done with a dial on one side of the machine. I tasted the supposedly “too bitter” espresso and honestly found it to be perfect: clean and not at all bitter, but if the Oracle Jet believed I could do better, it’s a damn Oracle after all, and I was already an acolyte ready to do its bidding.

Intuitive technology at its best

Considering how simple the setup was, it’s no surprise that the Oracle Jet still offers about as basic functionality as possible for each of the nine built-in drink settings, including Flat White, Hot Chocolate, and Tea, among other expected espresso drinks.

Once a particular drink is selected, a menu shows what steps will unfold, with an option to adjust any of the built-in settings for time, grind size, temperature, milk type, foam quality and so on. It may take a little time and experimentation to nail down your exact preferences, but it’s easy to navigate and I found the built-in settings to deliver drinks that would be hard to improve upon (at least for me, a non-barista who always spells my own name correctly).

The system also allows you to easily program your own settings once you have determined your specific needs for grinding, temperature, milk and froth.

The few times I encountered something that might not have been intuitive weren’t disasters or one-time mistakes. For example, the steps for making a latte and an Americano looked the same on the display, with the only difference being milk versus water. I assumed the hot water would be a separate step, like the milk, so I initially didn’t have a large enough vessel to accommodate both the espresso and the hot water for an Americano, which was dispensed automatically.

The drip tray is quite large though and I quickly replaced it so my countertop and clothes wouldn’t get damaged in this experiment.

On a couple of occasions, when I hit the start button for something I wasn’t really ready for—for example, when I forgot to throw away the previous espresso before brewing a new one—a quick press of the same button stopped the process immediately and without causing any damage. That my instincts were right with a machine of this caliber was a surprise to me. Admittedly, I expected to have a lot more trouble experimenting with this machine.

Coffee quality with the Oracle Jet

Even my allegedly overly bitter test batch was top quality with a silky smooth crema, which of course says something about the quality of the beans. It is no surprise that the quality kept improving, as the Oracle Jet continuously indicated that it would adjust the grind size based on how long the coffee took to steep.

I still have a long way to go with cappuccino frothing art, but since it’s a piece of technology that isn’t automated, that’s entirely user error. I found experimenting with the froth setting to be a worthy endeavor to achieve a smoother, denser, and less sudsy result that would inevitably result if I were to leave it to my own devices and the manual froth setting.

If you have real barista skills, activate the manual mode by lifting the wand into the position away from the machine. The display will also prompt you to put the wand back after frothing, so it can rinse itself after each use.

The cold brew and cold espresso functions produce something more lukewarm than cold, but since these are meant to be served over ice, or in chilled cocktails, fair play. The cold brew was especially delicious, with a robust flavor that’s perfect for diluting with a little water and ice. The cold espresso still produced crema that was ideal for an espresso martini.

What about that dairy-free foam?

The temperature and froth settings are automatically adjusted when you select a different, non-dairy milk. While I’m not a daily connoisseur of non-dairy lattes and the like, as a frequent cappuccino drinker I would be perfectly happy with the texture of the almond and oat milks, both of which I tried. The almond milk seemed particularly effective and silky smooth. These settings can also be adjusted to your exact preferences.

One missing element

I await the day when a home espresso machine can deliver cappuccino art, but that is just a wish at this point, not a hope. I will say that some other systems have a bypass option that allows you to select beans other than those in the main hopper, but the Oracle Jet does not, so it is a more involved process if you want to use decaf or a different roast.

The bean container is easy to remove though. If you do want to do this, it’s not a big problem. However, you will inevitably find some bean residue in the funnel.

The price is no joke

Here’s the potential downside. The Oracle Ray isn’t the most expensive espresso machine designed for home use, but it is one of them. As a truly professional machine with excellent capabilities, I think its $1,995 price tag is justified, but again, it is an investment and comes with a limited two-year warranty. (Again, I implore you to consider your espresso-martini consumption and make a wise choice.) As a relatively affordable, non-commercial model for a small bar or restaurant, it could be ideal.