# Sage Barista Express - results



## mdizzle1 (Nov 13, 2016)

I have recently picked up a Sage Barista Express off a well known auction size for £330. A huge saving on the current best price of £549 new. The guy who sold it didn't really understand the machine and gave up on it, it's barely used.

I have come from using the delonghi dedica ec680 and krups blade 'grinder' combo. I was expecting to have a long afternoon ahead of me dialing everything in but I was surprised how quickly I managed it.

After reading up on the machine on this forum I opted for a grind setting of 4, quantity at the 2pm position. I gave the porta filter a good knock and tamped until the tamper edge was 1mm off the edge of the PF.

After a few shots I have settled on grind size 5, quantity at 12pm, same tamp. I am using a medium dark Christmas blend from my local roastery, Redber coffee. (guildford).

Fantastic machine, very easy to use, and the dial gives you a very quick indication of how well things are going.

Most importantly the end result is head and shoulder above the burnt tasting, watery shots from my old delonghi.

Thanks to all those you have helped me out in other threads in choosing this set up. It is perfect for my current needs and will allow a little experimentation in the future


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

Nice buy.

The metrics you are using wont be the best for ongoing learning on your machine however.

Grind setting is usually different from machine to machine, from bean to bean and from age of the burrs in the machine.

When tamping 1mm from the edge can be different with different beans or of course depending on how much coffee is in the basket.

To learn to dial in you need the following

- Weigh your coffee with accurate scales to within +/-.2 of a gram. (i.e. shoot for 17.8-18.2g)

- Tamp, it really doesn't mater how hard so long as you are consistent from tamp to tamp. The correct amount of coffee should tamp to roughly the right height. The only thing that really matters is that the tamped puck is not too close to, or too far away from the shower screen.

- Pull a shot with your cup on the scales. You are aiming for a 1:2 ratio in 25ish seconds. So 18g of coffee makes a 36g shot. It doesn't have to be exactly 25 seconds which leads onto the next point.

- tune the shot. If its too fast then tighten the grind (still grind 18g) if its too slow then loosen the grind. If its in the right ballpark but too sour then extract for longer (tighten the grind) if too bitter extract less (loosen grind)

Do this until you have the coffee as good as you can get it. The process becomes second nature after a while. Always paint by numbers however, so weigh your grind, weigh and time your shot.

If the christmas blend is just the roaster picking coffees that remind them of christmas then great.

If it is 'infused' with other flavours I would give it a wide berth. Sounds like you are using a proper roaster anyway, but always remember fresh roasted coffee is the most important thing by far.


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## mdizzle1 (Nov 13, 2016)

Yeah the beans aren't infused with anything! They have just picked out beans with nutty and fruity tones. I have my faithful Monsoon malabar waiting in reserve too!

Thanks for your pointers, I have a set of 0.1kg /1kg scales in the post, would you recommend using the razor tool to get the height of the puck right? I don't want to be weighing the shot each time.

After a couple dozen shots, the machine seems to be very consistent which hopefully means the grinder is too.


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

I'm guessing you mean 0.1g/1kg? .1 of a kg is one gram increments which is way too much.

The razor tool will strike anyone who has been making coffee for a while as a very bad idea. It is good to have your headroom right but scraping up the surface of the puck seems like a recipe for channeling (where the water just goes through one part of the puck). Basically the razor is no substitute for putting the right amount of coffee in the basket.

You can avoid using a scale every time, but only if you trust your grinder to put out an accurate amount of coffee. Begin by weighing every grind, if you find that you are reliably getting 18g +/-.3g then you can skip weighing out and just use it for dialling in a new bean or if you think something is going wrong with your coffee.

Be aware tho, things like humidity, age of beans and how warm the grinder is can mean your grinder will put out a different amount of coffee one day to the next. Personally I weigh every output for peace of mind, it doesn't feel like that much hassle to me.


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## mdizzle1 (Nov 13, 2016)

Thanks again for the information.

My scales are accurate to 0.1g sorry!

I will check my grinder is consistent for a while with the scales once they arrive, I was hoping the razor would make it idiot proof for the wife, so she can make a decent shot first thing in the morning without waking me up!

I'll be sure to make micro adjustments to my grind as my beans age, I'm finding the hopper doesn't heat up at all but I don't leave the machine on for any longer than 20mins.

I can't get over how fantastic the coffee tastes out of this machine, it's definitely matching my favourite cafe right now!


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

So long as your getting good coffee that you are enjoying thats all that matters!

If the grinder is accurate you shouldn't need the razor, but feel free to give it a go and compare it to what you normally get, see how you go!


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## mdizzle1 (Nov 13, 2016)

Edit: Deleted.


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## mdizzle1 (Nov 13, 2016)

Anyone find they get slightly different amounts of grinds with their BE depending on how full the hopper is? I don't like leaving too many beans in the hopper but it seems to grind slightly less if it is 1/4 full or below...


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## GCGlasgow (Jul 27, 2014)

Most grinders are affected by how full the hopper is and have to adjust accordingly or just keep topped up to the same level.


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## MatthewBw (Sep 9, 2015)

I know this is an old thread but one of the good features of this is you can easily take the hopper out with coffee locked in and open it to put it back into a bag or container, quite handy.


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