@DrForinor i think you have to value how much a minor amount of additional convenience is worth vs the question of could it be better. I’ve used the Sage Oracle a fair bit, and it certainly gives decent coffee as good as a coffee shop.
The few downsides I see are:
- single dosing isn’t that great and I think you get a fair bit of variability if you do it
- obviously this isn’t an issue if you’re happy to just fill the hopper with a single bean, but in that case I’d worry about it going stale as it’s not airtight, doesn’t keep out light and gets warmed by the machine.
- milk texture is good for cappuccino (loads of stiff foam), but in my opinion not as good for latte/flat white. It works by a pump injecting air in (rather than it being pulled in at the surface), and I don’t think the bubbles end up quite as small or as well incorporated.
- the convenience makes it too easy to make ok coffee vs great coffee (that isn’t much extra work)
- the autotamper means you can’t play with dose, you just take what you get. You’ve also got no idea how well distributed and tamp free it is.
- while you could weigh every shot, run it manually so you can stop at the target volume, and tweak grind settings to keep it where you want, it’s too easy not to. In practice you tend to just hit the double button (runs for a set time) and get what you get, only adjusting if it’s really miles off. It’s very hard to tell the difference a difference of 10g in the bottom of a cup, but it makes a massive difference to the quality of the drink.
- I don’t think it’s built with repair in mind, so expect a lower lifetime. It’s really a kitchen appliance that’s trying to compete against bean to cups.
Overall though you definitely can make great coffee if you take the time and effort, and could lift the quality even more with a separate grinder, but you probably won’t.
One area where it does really shine though is if others need to use it. It’s a lot easier to show someone than doing it all manually.
Any machine can’t make beans taste better than they are, they can only extra what’s there, so once you’ve reached the level of an Elizabeth (or other equivalent), it’s really diminishing returns and you’re probably better off spending the difference on better beans.
Enjoy the deliberation 😀
