Breville Barista Express vs. Bambino Plus: Which Should You Buy?

• Choose the Barista Express if you don't own an espresso grinder and want one machine that grinds, doses and brews, with a pressure gauge and a separate hot water outlet.
• Choose the Bambino Plus if you already have a good burr grinder (or plan to buy one), make mostly lattes and cappuccinos, or need a narrow, light machine that's ready in seconds.
• Consider the regular Bambino if you like the Bambino Plus's size and speed, don't mind steaming milk by hand and can live with a smaller 47 fl oz tank.

Espresso needs a fine, consistent grind from fresh beans, so the grinder matters as much as the machine. The Barista Express has one built in: steel conical burrs, 16 grind settings and a 1/2 lb bean hopper on top. It grinds straight into the portafilter, and a grind-amount dial sets the dose. Breville's manual also describes an adjustable upper burr that extends the grind range when a coffee needs it.

The Bambino Plus has no grinder. To use fresh beans, you need a separate burr grinder that goes fine enough for espresso, plus room for it next to the machine. Breville also sells the Bambino Plus in a bundle with the Baratza Encore ESP grinder, which has 40 grind settings, 1 to 20 of them for espresso.

Both machines include single-wall and dual-wall filter baskets. The dual-wall baskets are made for pre-ground coffee, so either one can pull a shot from a bag of store-bought espresso grind. It's an easy way to start, but you give up the control that makes these machines worth buying.

Bottom line: starting from zero, the Express is the simpler, more complete purchase. If you already own an espresso-capable grinder, its biggest advantage disappears.

Breville says the Bambino Plus's ThermoJet heating system reaches extraction temperature in 3 seconds, and Tom's Guide's reviewer found it switched quickly between brewing and steaming. The Barista Express uses a Thermocoil heater with PID temperature control. Breville doesn't list a heat-up time for it, and Tom's Guide advised giving it a minute or two to warm up before the first shot.

A fast heater doesn't mean a warm portafilter. On the regular Bambino, which uses the same ThermoJet system, CoffeeGeek's Mark Prince ran two blank shots to warm things up and pulled his first real shot about 3 minutes after switching on. Plan on a quick flush and a warm cup with either machine.

If you leave the Express on, its manual says it drops into sleep mode after 1 hour and switches off after 3 hours.

This is where the Bambino Plus earns its name. Its automatic steam wand reads the milk temperature through a sensor under the jug, textures the milk on its own and stops at the setting you chose: three milk temperatures and three texture levels, from silky latte milk to thicker cappuccino foam. It purges the wand automatically afterward, and you can still steam by hand when you want to pour latte art. Breville rates its steam at 266°F.

The Barista Express has a conventional manual steam wand, run from a dial. Tom's Guide found it excellent at steaming milk, but its reviewer also said it took a while to master, and nothing stops the wand for you. The same dial runs the Express's separate hot water outlet; on the Bambino Plus, hot water comes out of the steam wand.

Neither machine brews and steams at the same time. Each has a single heating system, so you pull the shot first, then steam. The Bambino Plus switches over fast; the Express needs a short wait while its light flashes and it heats up for steam.

Both machines share the same core: a 54 mm portafilter dosed with 18 g of coffee, a 15 bar Italian pump, low-pressure pre-infusion followed by 9 bar extraction, PID temperature control, one-touch single and double shots, and manual control: hold a shot button for as long as you want pre-infusion, then press it again to stop the shot.

The Express adds two things that help when you dial in a new bag of beans:

• A pressure gauge on the front, so you can see whether your grind and dose are in range.
• Adjustable brew temperature: 200°F by default, up or down by 4°F in 2°F steps, according to the US manual.

The Bambino Plus keeps things simpler: Breville lists no gauge and no brew temperature setting. Tom's Guide's reviewer still singled out its adjustable pre-infusion as the feature that gave the most control over the shot.

The Bambino Plus is the small one. Breville lists it at 10.91 lb, about half the Express's 22.09 lb, and its grinder-bundle page gives it as 7.7 inches wide. Breville's two US listings give different figures for its other measurements, so check your space against both sets in the table.

The Express lists at 15.9 x 13.1 x 12.4 in, with the bean hopper on top and the water tank at the back. Tom's Guide pointed out that the tank can be hard to lift out under an overhanging cabinet, so check the clearance under your upper cabinets before you buy.

Remember the grinder, too. Pairing the Bambino Plus with a separate grinder takes up more counter than the machine alone; Breville lists the Baratza Encore ESP at 5.1 x 5.9 x 13.4 in.

• Warranty: Breville's US pages list a 2-year limited warranty for the Bambino Plus and a 1-year limited warranty for the Barista Express and the regular Bambino.
• Water: the Bambino Plus detects when the tank runs low. The Express has no low-water warning, as Tom's Guide and CoffeeGeek both noted, so keep an eye on its tank.
• Filters and cleaning: the Express comes with a water filter holder and a replaceable filter that Breville says to change every 2 months, plus cleaning tablets and descale powder. Both manuals walk you through a cleaning cycle and a descale cycle. The Express has a Clean/Descale light; the Bambino Plus flashes its buttons when it's due for either, and it counts 200 shots between cleaning cycles.
• Grinder care: on the Express, the burrs come out for cleaning, and the manual warns against grinding green or under-roasted beans.
• Electricity: Breville rates the Express at 1,600 W and the Bambino Plus at 1,560 W. It publishes no annual energy figure for either, so we don't estimate one. It does say ThermoJet uses up to 32% less energy a year than a Thermoblock heater, based on its own November 2022 benchmark, not a comparison with the Express.

The Bambino (BES450) is the Bambino Plus without automatic milk. It keeps the 3-second ThermoJet heater, the 54 mm portafilter and the same pump and pre-infusion, and it adds a dedicated hot water button. In exchange you get a manual steam wand, a smaller 47 fl oz tank, a 1-year US warranty and no low-water sensor, which CoffeeGeek flagged in its first look.

It makes sense if you want the smallest, quickest Breville and you're happy to learn manual steaming. Like the Bambino Plus, it needs a separate grinder for fresh beans.

Barista Express for an all-in-one setup that teaches you to dial in shots and steam milk by hand. Bambino Plus for fast, hands-free lattes in a small space, as long as you pair it with a real espresso grinder. Either way, budget for fresh beans: both machines are only as good as the coffee you put in them.