On trial:

Time to skip the coffee shop? We put the brand’s best-seller to the test

It’s a coffee machine that’ll change the way you drink your daily caffeine fix - and this is coming from a tech-phobe who has never mastered more than a cafetiere.

As part of Sage’s Icon campaign, the Barista Express is being celebrated as one of the original and most influential home espresso machines—designed to bring café-quality coffee into everyday routines – so, can it deliver?

With over 2 million machines sold globally, this true icon helps coffee lovers recreate their favourite drinks at home. Built around the idea of “one machine, millions of mornings”, the campaign highlights how the Barista Express continues to shape modern coffee rituals.

The bean-to-cup concept is based on the idea that ingredients taste better when fresh, so the technology in the Barista Express Bean-To-Cup machine protects the quality of the coffee beans by grinding them directly into the filter for you, meaning you experience the full flavour. You might think this would make everything more time consuming, but the whole process from bean to coffee takes less than a minute. Even the biggest coffee addicts can’t grumble at 60 seconds.

A multitude of things. Firstly, it looks chic and the sleek design and muted tone will work with any kitchen decor.

You can use either whole roasted beans or pre-ground coffee in the machine and there are a whopping 15 grind settings – meaning you can have your beans as coarse or fine as you want them. The bean hopper has space for 250 grams, which is enough to make 25 shots of espresso, while the water tank can hold 2 litres and features integrated water filtration which is time saving because you don’t constantly having to refill both - even if you have the PTA over for coffee.

Sage is known for it’s award-winning technology and in the Express machine you’ll find the ‘Thermacoil heating system’ that includes an adjustable temperature control; this means you can keep the temperature in line with the coffee you want (warm for me, scalding for my dad), and prevent loss of flavour from over-heating.

We particularly loved the instant hot-water dispenser for making a quick cup of black coffee. And, better still, there’s space for six cups on a warming tray so you never need put your hot coffee in a cold cup – the worst offence!

Lastly, the coffee machine comes with a two-year guarantee to give you total peace of mind.

I will say, it’s not the sort of thing you can expect to master without putting in a little groundwork first. It’s definitely valuable to read the instruction booklet, and I also watched some really helpful videos on YouTube. Once you’ve done that, and have the grasp of the basics of the machine, you’re all set – the reward of truly great-tasting coffee makes it worthwhile.

I’ve been using the coffee machine daily for three weeks and, while I need to fine-tune a few of the settings, I know it’ll become second nature the more I use it.

Yes, thanks to a helpful ‘Clean Me’ light that turns on when you need to do a cleaning cycle. The automated cleaning and descaling cycles keep things really straightforward, only taking around 5 minutes with a cleaning tablet.

There’s also a water filter provided to help reduce the risk of limescale build-up in all the inner parts of the machine, which you’re advised to replace after about three months of daily use.

Again, Sage has a really helpful video of the cleaning process on their website. My top tip would be to wipe the milk off the frother with a damp cloth literally as soon as you’ve finished using it - that way the milk doesn’t dry and stain (which happens much quicker than you’d imagine!)

To make your coffee go from ‘Mm that’s nice’ to ‘I can’t believe I just made the best coffee in the world’, the right machine needs the right ingredients and the right know-how. Sage has the answer, with specialist-roasted beans and expert tutorials to have you whipping up your favourites to specialist cafe standard in no time. And, from 1 October, you can get 2 free bags of coffee, 25% off fresh beans and save up to £650 on coffee in total. Find out more here.