Meet the Oracle Jet — Breville's latest espresso machine that can grind, tamp, steam and brew both hot and cold coffee. Designed to automate your home brewing process, the only thing this machine can't do for you is move your portafilter to the group head after grinding.
The Breville Oracle Jet costs $1,999 and has already sold out on Breville's website, although it's available at Sur La Table and Williams Sonoma. It's hardly the cheapest option on the market. With that being said though, you can burn through $2,000 fairly quickly when you're shopping for the very best coffee makers, and it's not the most expensive coffee maker that Breville has to offer.
There's a lot to like with this machine, including a responsive 5-inch high-definition touch screen that offers both light and dark mode, as well as the ability to scroll through 10 preset drinks. Iced coffee lovers will also be pleased to see a new cold espresso setting, and there's also a cold brew function which can create a smooth, fruitier cold brew over ice in just 3 minutes. I can't wait to get my hands on this machine for a full review. Until then though, here's what we know about the Breville Oracle Jet.
First look at the Breville Oracle Jet
I've already mentioned the new Cold Brew and Cold Espresso settings, but what else is new in the Breville Oracle Jet? Well, you couldn't make a good coffee without well-ground beans, so Breville has included a high carbon hardened steel precision burr grinder in this coffee maker, complete with 45 grind settings that can take you from espresso through to cold brew grounds. This is dispensed directly into Breville's 58mm stainless steel portafilter, which holds an optimum 22g dose.
The machine will also automatically tamp to ensure that the right amount of pressure is used to optimize extraction, and depending on your chosen drink the smart touchscreen will also display suggested grind sizes to ensure that no grounds are wasted on a bad brew.
And when it comes to brewing, you'll have the ability to queue your milk so that steaming starts as soon as your coffee has finished brewing which, short of opting for a dual boiler machine that can do both simultaneously, seems like a smart way of letting the machine do all the hard work without too much supervision.
You can choose to hand-steam your milk, but Breville has also pre-programmed a range of steam settings (with options for a wide selection of plant-based milks, too) for hands-free steaming directly into your jug, leaving you to do the fun part: attempting some latte art.
Ninja's recently released espresso machine features a cold milk frothing setting, which could've been a handy addition to this machine to go alongside its cold espresso setting. Ninja uses an in-built frothing mechanism to achieve this though, so it's not something you could achieve with a conventional milk steamer.
What else is new?
I'm a stickler for details, and there are plenty of thoughtful touches worth noting with this coffee maker. Firstly, you can pour your water into a vent at the front of the machine, which is a much easier way of filling up your tank than having to pull your coffee maker out from under a cabinet to reach its water container. There's also a panel that shows the water levels on the front of the machine, so you'll never be caught short halfway through brewing.
Another useful feature for moving your machine in your kitchen is a front lever that lifts the base of the machine up, allowing you to glide it around your counters without having to lift it.
Finally, the machine's light and dark modes allow you to toggle the display settings so your machine won't create too much bright light in your kitchen, which is handy for small apartments or early risers.
