The Easiest Way to Make the Best-Tasting Espresso at Home

In its native Australia, Breville is synonymous with toasters. But since expanding to the U.S. in 2002, the company has been quietly unsettling a wide field of established brands with durable, high-performance induction burners and food processors. Its latest coup is in the automatic espresso market: The Oracle Touch uses an intuitive touchscreen to prepare—and re-create on command—your favorite espresso drink. An integrated conical burr grinder removes guesswork, and a steam wand, powered by a dedicated boiler, textures milk to your taste without requiring a doctorate in coffee science.

Although it looks like an industrial-grade machine, the $2,500 Oracle Touch is meant to help java fiends make cafe-quality drinks at home. Jura Inc.’s $5,500 Giga W3 offers 31 espresso drinks, compared with the Oracle Touch’s five, but Breville’s precise temperature control produces more balanced espresso. The $3,000 Prima Donna S from De’Longhi SpA also has a double boiler to heat water, an integrated burr grinder, a self-cleaning milk wand, and a memory function to store preferences, but only the Breville regulates water pressure to prevent bitterness and get an even extraction.