Sage Appliances BES100 Espresso Knock Box, The Knock Box Mini

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If you have the Sage Oracle or Oracle Touch, or one of the “in-between” machines from Sage that, as I've mentioned, kind of straddle the home barista and hands-off machine user market, then you'll need a milk jug as all of these machines have a steam wand. They all come with Sage milk jugs, though, so you don't need to buy one. Whether you need to upgrade your basket depends on your machine, mainly. If you have a machine with a portafilter size that competition baskets are available for, which is most 51, 53, 54, and 58mm group machines, then it's an option you could look into. OK so now we're probably getting into the stuff most people came here to find out, thinking “Do I really need a WDT tool, an RDT spray bottle, an OEM leveler” and so on, and the answer for most of these is not necessarily. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that changing to an IMS or VST competition basket, for example, isn't necessarily going to give you better tasting espresso, just different, and they usually allow you to grind finer, so it's something you may want to try, but it's not crucial. Upgraded Shower Screen

Obviously, someone can move from one category to the other. I certainly did, I was a very normal coffee drinker up until about 2014/2015 when I started to dip my toes in the proverbial rabbit hole, which is what prompted me to start this blog, almost straight away, just as a hobby for the first few years.If you are using a spray bottle, I would recommend being very sparing with the mist. Also, definitely only do this for single dosing. The Weiss Distribution Technique (WDT) reduces the chance of channeling by breaking up coffee clumps and evenly distributing the coffee in the basket. It's particularly useful if your grinder produces clumps, which most of the more entry-level grinders will do especially when having to grind particularly fine. If you're happy with the hands-off approach, you don't “need” brew scales as such, but the fact you're using a coffee machine of this type would indicate that you're wanting great cup quality, and in my humble opinion, you can't really get great cup quality without brew scales. In fact, I think they're more than great. For the person who has a relatively normal relationship with coffee, bean to cup coffee machines are amazing, you can get them for a few hundred quid, representing a MASSIVE yearly money saving for most people who regularly get their coffee fix from chain coffee shops, and they'll give you much better coffee than any other type of “normal” coffee machine, using fresh coffee beans!

They need it to wake up (or at least think they do) and don't really care all that much about how it tastes. This category of coffee machine users are what I refer to as “normal” coffee drinkers, and I'm not having a go at this kind of coffee drinker, not at all, in fact, I think this kind of person has a perfectly normal relationship with coffee, it's geeks like me that are weird! 😉 I like using levelling tools, and WDT tools, I just find them kind of therapeutic, like using fidget spinners, but then again I'm sure if I'd have grown up in an age where it's the done thing to get a diagnosis for stuff like this (In the 80s and 90s when I was at school, I was just called “hyperactive”) I'd probably be diagnosed with ADHD so that probably explains it ;-). Dosing Ring I'm sure you've heard of the horses for courses saying, which I'm assuming comes from the horse racing world and relates to the fact that some horses do better on certain courses than others – and it's a good analogy to use for figuring out which coffee machine tools and accessories you might need because as I've mentioned, home espresso really isn't a one size fits all affair. Bottomless or “naked” portafilters, as they're sometimes referred to, are great tools for home baristas, as they allow you to see issues with the shot that you might not be able to taste, but I think most people using a hands-off automated portafilter machine will probably find them an annoyance, and if you can't taste the issue, does it really matter? We have put this at the top of our list because it is a great base for you to begin your search – compare all the others to this one and you won’t go far wrong. As a lower-to-mid range in terms of price, this is an excellent option.

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Hygiene - should you really hit your portafilter off the side of a bin with germs and bacteria in there? It is even worse if the filter falls in and you have to fish it out If we're talking about the espresso machines that are really made for the hands-off user, we're really talking about the Sage Oracle Touch, and you don't need a tamper for that as it tamps for you, using the internal tamping fan. The Oracle also has a tamping fan and takes care of the tamping for you, so you don't need a manual tamper for the Oracle either.

I'm starting off with the most obvious tools and accessories for home barista espresso, so if you're already familiar with most of these, and/or you already have most of them, then just scroll down a bit to the likes of the WDT, RDT, Shower Screens, Mods and so on, that may be what you came here to find. Coffee Grinder If you have the Barista Touch, you do need to tamp manually, and that comes with a tamper that fits in the magnetic tamper slot. There's nothing stopping you from buying an aftermarket tamper though, there are loads of tampers available these days that are compatible with the Sage 54mm group machines, including hand tampers, and calibrated tampers, but you don't “need” one, as it comes with one. Personally, I think most people using the Oracle or Oracle Touch aren't going to want to mess about doing this, and I think it's fairly unlikely that they'll notice the difference in cup quality anyway unless they happen to have an amazing, Q-grader level palate. Dosing Ring As you would expect, we’re looking at a quality stainless steel unit here, which just glistens and oozes with class. It’s a lovely thing to have in your kitchen, and wouldn’t look out of place in the trendiest of coffee shops.I'm mentioning these machines, by the way, because some people who're looking in the “hands off” category may enjoy the middle ground between hands-off and home barista, which includes the Barista Touch and Barista Express Impress. Leveller This is the coffee I drink every day, it's amazing, and I would say that of course, but I'll put my money where my mouth is, with this chunky discount: The Ross Droplet Technique (RDT) involves wetting your beans before grinding to minimize static. It works, so if you have a grinder that does suffer from a lot of static, then you might want to do it, but if you do, I would highly recommend only doing this when single dosing, and using the SPN tool instead. The 9 bar OPV mod changes the pressure limit in the basket from about 13.5 bars to 9 bars. In theory, it's not a big deal. All the over pressure valve does is limits the pressure in the basket to whatever the spring is made to allow, so you can achieve the same aim with the grind size. In reality, having a 9 bar OPV is a big plus, it really makes things easier, and it's very cheap and easy to install. That being said, you're not obliged to use the Sage milk jug, obviously, and there are loads of different milk jugs on the market.