Ascaso Dream PID vs Breville Barista Touch

The shots are definitely among the most flavorful I have ever pulled at home. They are not as good as a great espresso bar with a talented barista, but they’re very good - a definite step up for me, especially in consistency. And given that I’m in the middle of a rural area, they’re the best I can get for 31 miles (50 km) or more.

It does that, and it does that very well. The thermojet heating system provides a very quick transition between brewing and steaming and steaming spee...

I got a return model which I ended up upgrading, however my thoughts are that it has amazing aesthetics- actually second to none in that department and is great that you can use 58mm accessories.

So I am disappointed that I have yet to get the same taste from fresh ground beans out of the new machine that I enjoyed with old one. I'm currently doing pre-ground coffee in the Barista for americano's, and they do pretty good. But with fresh ground beans, I have yet to get the right combination of settings. A lot of the time it comes out tasting burned

Also, the temperature displayed on the PID “jumps” from 86°C to the temp you selected (ex.: 94°C) so it’s hard to know if the temperature is accurate when cooling down or warming up. The only way to know is when the boiler light stops flashing. That’s just a small annoyance

There is no control for the temperature of the crema, thus the milk is the only variable with flexibility. The highest temperature setting allowed on the milk is 170 degrees. On my old machine where I manually monitored the frothing with a thermometer, I would go to 180 degrees. Part of the reason I like it that hot to start with, is that I make big lattes

Night and day with the same beans. Easy to dial in and works well with the grinder. Very happy with our purchase and quick delivery. Even the courier was curious about what was in the boxes

I went through the arduous steps of cleaning the burr grinder (yes, tools are involved) and I vacuumed out a ton of coffee dirt but even after all of that the grinder makes noise but fails to grind beans. After just two months this is unacceptable to have it just not function anymore. I am still trying to get an email back from Breville support so I'll update this review if they are able to resolve the problem. Still the fact I have to deal with this in the first place means I am never going to enjoy this machine as much as I had been this thing is NOT cheap