Breville is a company that has been at the forefront of innovation for over 100 years. They have made many different products to help make your life easier, and their coffee equipment is no exception. Two of the most popular (albeit most expensive) models of excellent coffee makers are the Oracle and the Oracle Touch.
With a sleek design, an intuitive interface, and easy-to-use advanced features, these machines are some of Breville’s best espresso machines. The coffee beans are ground fresh in the machine before brewing to produce some of Breville’s finest and smoothest espressos. Both the Oracle and Oracle Touch coffee machines make great-tasting coffee, but some key differences need to be considered before making your purchase decision.
So, let’s compare both products to help you make an informed decision about which coffee maker is best for you!
What can you expect from the Breville Oracle BES980XL?
The Breville Oracle coffee machine is great for anyone who loves brewing their own morning coffee at home. It has commercial-grade dual stainless steel boilers with amazing temperature control and simultaneous extraction and steaming.
It goes one step further by ensuring that the water is at exactly the right temperature, resulting in precise espresso extraction.
The integrated precision conical burr grinder processes, doses, and tamps exactly 22 grams of freshly ground coffee for optimum taste. The Over Pressure Valve also regulates the maximum brewing pressure during extraction, preventing unpleasant, bitter-tasting coffee.
The Oracle also features a self-cleaning steam wand powered by a dedicated boiler for making delicious lattes, cappuccinos, and other coffee-house delicacies. The wand froths the milk to your personal preference and produces barista-quality microfoam.
This adds to the taste of your drink and is essential for creating beautiful, professional-quality latte art at home.
The Oracle also has an LCD (liquid crystal display) screen on its front, which allows you to choose what type of coffee you want, whether that is one shot of espresso, a double espresso, or a delicious Americano.
What can you expect from the Breville Oracle Touch BES990?
The Breville Oracle Touch is the newer version of Breville’s original Oracle automatic espresso machine. The Touch has a new array of features that make it even better than the previous model. But it does keep some of the old ones as well.
The first feature of this high-quality coffee maker is the addition of touch screen operation – hence the name. Simply swipe and pick for espresso, long black, latte, flat white, or cappuccino, and the machine will start to make your favorite cafe-quality coffee at home.
Similar to the Oracle, it features stainless steel dual boiler construction, which allows you to steam and brew simultaneously.
The pre-infusion feature uses water pressure on freshly ground coffee, allowing it to expand before extraction for a much more even taste in your mug. It also has dose coffee grinding, and it can auto-tamp 22 grams of coffee grounds.
The Oracle Touch also uses the optimum water temperature to reduce bitterness in your drink, while the automatic steam wand, once again, allows you to create the perfect latte art from your kitchen.
However, you can instantly change the coffee strength, milk texture, or milk temperature by simply pressing a button. This allows you to design and store up to eight of your own personalized coffee recipe settings exactly how you like them and save each with a specific name.
What are the differences between the two?
So, now that you know a bit more about each coffee maker, what are the biggest differences between them?
Size
Size is important if you’re limited on counter space or want something that will fit easily in a smaller kitchen. These machines’ width and height ratios are very similar, but the Oracle Touch is definitely bigger than the Oracle. Their exact measurements are:
- Oracle – 36.8 x 37.3 x 44.7 cm
- Oracle Touch – 37.3 x 39.2 x 45.4 cm
So, the Oracle Touch will certainly take up more room in your kitchen.
When it comes to the size of other components, such as the water tank and half-pound bean hopper, the capacity is equal for both automatic coffee machines. However, the overall size might be something to consider, especially if you’re looking for a more compact machine.
Material
Now, this may have been slightly more of a deciding factor than the size difference. The Oracle’s exterior is stainless steel and contains some plastic components.
The Oracle Touch, on the other hand, has no plastic parts and is entirely constructed of brushed stainless steel. This makes it a little more durable and less likely to be damaged, as plastic can break or crack.
Display
The pinnacle of the Oracle Touch is its touch screen display. This allows you to choose exactly what type of coffee drink you want by simply swiping and selecting. You can also choose your own personalized drinks via this screen.
You can save eight of these drinks in total and personalize specific aspects of the drink, such as grind size, brewing time, and even drink temperature.
On the other hand, the Oracle has an LCD screen on its front that will let you pick what kind of drink you want.
Although this is very informative, automatic, and allows you to choose from a wide range of drinks, it doesn’t quite have the same wow factor as the Oracle Touch. It also doesn’t let you pick pre-programmed coffee settings.
Overall, the touch screen controls of the Oracle Touch are quick, intuitive, and can cut precious seconds off your coffee-making time, which is crucial if you’re in a hurry.
Price
Finally, let’s talk about price. There’s no point denying it – both of these amazing coffee makers come with a pretty extravagant price tag. Even so, the Oracle Touch is still significantly more costly than the Oracle.
So, what are you paying for with that extra money? More durable materials, a more modern design, a bulkier frame, and a touch screen display will appeal to some people.
But overall, there are a lot of similarities between these two expensive coffee makers. So, it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth paying the extra money for a few additional features.
What are the similarities between the two?
In all honestly, there are more similarities between the Oracle and the Oracle Touch than there are differences. Let’s go over the key points:
An integrated conical burr grinder
Both of these coffee makers come with an integrated conical burr grinder. This is a great barista-level feature, as it means that you don’t need to buy a separate grinder – you simply use the one integrated into your machine.
The built-in grinder works effectively and consistently. You can select your preferred grind settings with a quick touch, or swipe, of a button.
The machine will grind, dose, and tamp the coffee grounds for you – you don’t have to worry about a thing! Simply secure the portafilter in place and watch the magic happen!
The other great thing about this is that it can adjust the amount of coffee to achieve your desired flavor and texture and avoid losing either.
Barista-grade espresso machines are required to hold 22 grams of ground coffee, which is the professional minimum. These devices also achieve this, meaning you quite literally are getting a professional standard coffee with every brew.
Precise temperature control
Another important aspect of these machines is their precise digital temperature control. The Digital PID control allows you to pick the precise water temperature you want.
Then, it will hold that temperature for the entire brewing process, meaning that there is no variation and your coffee comes out exactly as you want it every time.
Plus, you can immediately see the temperature of your coffee without having to guess. This guarantees that your coffee is brewed at the perfect temperature each and every time and will give you the best flavor profile possible.
It also helps prevent heat loss between pulling an espresso shot and steaming milk by using thermal stability technology.
Pre-infusion functionality
This unique feature distinguishes all Breville espresso makers and gives them exceptional value. Basically, it’s one of the main reasons they’re so popular.
The flavor of the coffee is amplified when the grounds are pre-infused, which means they’re soaked for a few extra seconds in hot water before being introduced into the puck, infusing the coffee grounds before the whole brewing process commences.
This function causes the grounds in your coffee to expand, enabling them to release more flavor and a smoother texture. The result is a more consistent, well-balanced coffee extraction. Also, the espresso has a greater coffee fragrance and taste with every shot.
Fully automatic machine
Both the Oracle and the Oracle Touch are fully automatic machines. They’ll go out of their way to make sure you get the most delicious cups of coffee possible.
The grinding, dosing, tamping, and texturizing of the coffee and frothing of the milk are all performed automatically. This means that all you need to do is put in the beans, select your drink, and press start.
Wrapping up
In conclusion, both of these Breville coffee machines are excellent choices for anyone who wants to make professional-grade coffee at home. But, they each have their benefits and drawbacks.
Nonetheless, considering all this information, we think Oracle is the better choice. Not only is it more affordable, but it also has many of the same features as the Oracle Touch.
This includes its automatic coffee brewing functionality, automatic grinding with the integrated burr grinder, pre-infusion technology, and more.
You can make just as good a cup of coffee with the Oracle as you can with the Oracle Touch, but with a cheaper price tag. Plus, the Oracle is less bulky, so it’ll suit a wider range of kitchen spaces.
But, the Oracle Touch isn’t an upgrade for nothing. It certainly has more going for it in the user-friendly touch screen and the super helpful eight recipe programmability.
So, if you’re an avid coffee drinker with enough cash and want the extra ease of modern coffee making, the Oracle Touch is also an excellent choice.
Whichever machine you choose, you can be sure that you’re getting a high-quality product that will make the perfect cup of coffee every time.
Happy Caffeinating!
