# Oracle Touch - I am lost in the wilderness



## Simon Bohn (Dec 6, 2021)

I love coffee but I am a novice to doing it myself at home, the answer (I thought) was the Oracle Touch.

Ok so today the machine arrived and I have Starbucks dark roasted beans but I could only get it to start extraction at 8 seconds when the Grind was set to 1! It tastes terrible.

I thought the machine was broken so onto phone to Sage product support. I have summarised what they told me below:

Light/Medium Beans (best for expresso) - set 93C temp, Fresh Beans (mine I found during fault finding were from Sep 19 2021 and today is Dec 6), should extract between 9-14 secs and I should stop it about 30 secs.

Dark Roasted (best for milk based drinks) - set 86-90c temp, Fresh Beans, should extract between 9-14 secs and I should stop it about 30 secs.

Might need to play to 'dial it in' (a new expression to me) but start with a Grind of 25 and play with it until extract kicks in between 9-14 secs?

So I am waiting for very fresh beans to arrive. With the current Starbucks beans (roasted Sep 19th 2021) when I set the grind at 25 the extraction starts almost immediately, perhaps 1-2 secs and keeps flowing loosely and is well beyond 30ml for expresso.

Is this all plausible the bean is the major problem here or do I have a problematic unit?


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

If your shot takes 8s, grind set to 1, with dark roasted beans, you won't have any better luck with light roasted beans.

It's less likely that you have a problematic unit, than you are receiving bad advice.

It's mind boggling to me that they talk in terms of seconds rather than weight.

1. Pull shots manually, stop the shot to deliver the desired weight in the cup (which should be on scales on your drip tray). Let's say you are putting 18.0g in the basket (checked before pulling the shot), try 45-54g out with the darker roasts, you might need more like 72-80g out with lighter roasts.

2. Can you set the grinder any finer, does the burr have other settings that can be manually selected?

Don't get into a frenzy & pull a bunch of shots & say, "I've tried everything & nothing is working!". Report back on each shot, one by one, detailing grinder setting, dose weight, beverage weight & how long you had to run the pump to get that weight in the cup. (Forget how long until coffee starts to drip from the PF - extraction starts when you start the pump & ends when you hit the target weight in the cup.).


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## longpvo (Jul 21, 2021)

You can get it to grind finer, yours is probably not correctly zeroed/calibrated. Next, dialing with the built in grinder of the Oracle is a pain, you sort of need to purge/waste one dose after a grind adjustment. You should get a scale and weight your input/output, I tried Breville (Sage) ballpark in time before and it was too much trouble and wasteful.

Just bare in mind the first 7 seconds using either Single or Double shots mode is slow pre-infusion, if you use this mode, first drip at 6-8s meaning grind is too coarse, I usually aim for first drip between 9-11s, beyond this meaning grind is too fine. If you extract really dark beans, just hold the button and it will go into manual extraction with a straight 9 bars profile without the 7s pre-infusion, less astringency in my experience for dark beans.


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## TobyAnscombe (Sep 28, 2014)

Hey @Simon Bohnand welcome..

Before you start doing anything too serious then can I suggest you pop down to your local indie coffee place and ask if you can buy about 100g of the beans they use - right out of their hopper! or buy a 250g bag as I'm pretty sure that they will sell you some. An easy and very consistent brand is Square Mile Red Brick which works quite well with the Oracle Touch.

That way you can see if it brews ok - every machine is different and the numbers on the top dial (video above) and the grind will be different for most people but as a rule you are looking for between 2-3 to 1 ratio of coffee in to out (so given the standard Sage double is 22g then somewhere between 44g and 66g out before you add any milk.

@MWJB has it right - grab a pencil and paper and weigh everything and write everything down and come back and let us know what results you got...


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## 24774 (Mar 8, 2020)

You've got lots of advice here, read the Sage sticky too. Once you've implemented everything there, see where you are.

One thing - those Starbucks beans are stone dead, you can't use them to learn anything. Use fresh beans that have been rested about 10 days.


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