The Sage SES 878 Barista Pro promises good espresso at an affordable price. An espresso machine with an integrated grinder for €600 or 500 francs (as of August 2026). That's quite something, and if the espresso tastes good, this combination is really interesting.
Be sure to check out the test of the Sage Barista Touch as well.
As a Kaffeemacher, it's important to us that you can make good coffee with simple means, and that also means without spending tens of thousands of francs. That's why we take a close look at affordable espresso machines too. It's about good coffee by all means, made as accessible as possible. That's why we've already tested the Delonghi Dedica EC 685 and also taken a close look at the Rancilio Silvia. You can find an overview of common espresso machine types here.
More tips and frequently asked questions about the Barista Pro, Express and more can be found in a separate article.
Name Chaos – Who Can Explain It?
Before we dig into the machine itself, we need to clarify the type and name first. In this respect, the machine was more complicated than in its operation. In Switzerland, the Barista Pro is now operating under the company name of Australian manufacturer Sage. Not long before that, the Sage models were available as Solis devices. In German-speaking countries, they were also known under Gastroback, while the English-speaking world spoke of Breville. Under new management in Europe, a standardization process was begun a few years ago, which is now largely complete.
The chaos was easy to see on YouTube back then when searching for test reports on the machine: Depending on which name you entered, you'd find quite a bit, but was that exactly your machine? This led to a lot of uncertainty among customers.
Compact, But Packed with Features
One of the biggest pros of this Kaffeemacher is surely that everything is under one roof. And that at just 39.5 cm width, 39.2 cm depth, and 42.2 cm height. An espresso grinder with a conical burr is built in, as is all the brewing apparatus. Even the included tamper can be practically stowed away in the Kaffeemacher. The water tank has a capacity of 2 liters. The bean hopper holds 250 grams. In our view, that's the perfect amount for a coffee bag, at least for home use. 1 kg bags are often left open until consumed, draw in air, and tend to become rancid.
The LCD display on the front provides the important information, and the grinder can be easily adjusted with the wheel. You can place the included milk jug on top of the machine. At around 40 cm square, the complete setup is ready. That's what we call compact, super compact even.
If you buy this espresso machine, you can get started right away. You're only missing a retention for old coffee, otherwise you're all set.
The Conical Espresso Grinder
We regularly preach: A good grinder is the prerequisite for good espresso. The fact that Sage also built in a grinder was something we initially found brave and good. Brave, because even renowned grinder manufacturers struggle with good grinders. Moreover, a grinder in an espresso machine carries the risk of heating up. The heat from the espresso machine can cause the burr mechanism to warm up and in the worst case even become damp.
When it comes to heat, a weakness of the Sage Barista Pro is an advantage. Due to its own Thermo-Jet heating principle, the heat is not distributed throughout the entire body of the espresso machine. For example, the cups on the espresso machine don't get warmed up either. This is a disadvantage for the cups, but an advantage for the grinder.
With 10 to 15 espresso shots in a row, we were able to detect a slight warming of the dispensed coffee powder to around 30 degrees. This is absolutely acceptable. The more coffee that is ground, the more the machine clumped. Clean leveling and tamping are then necessary to avoid the risk of channeling (Channeling).
Mastering Coffee Powder Amount
The grinding amount fluctuated within an average range for 10 grinds compared to grinders in the range below €800/1000 francs. For our test we weighed 18.2 / 18 / 18.4 / 18.1 / 18.6 / 18.5 / 18.3 / 18.4 / 18.5 / 18.4 grams.
The grind size itself can be adjusted in 30 increments via a wheel to the left of the machine. The current grind setting is displayed above the display, as is the current grinding time, which can be set in 0.5 second increments. Our target amount was 18 grams. With a grinding time of 13.5 seconds, we made the measurements described above. At a grinding time of 13 seconds, coffee powder weighing an average of 17.7 grams was dispensed.
The fact that more precise adjustment isn't possible can be easily compensated for by adjusting the water amount. However, the machine could be improved without much effort by offering more precise selection of grinding time. We wish Sage would do this in the next revision.
Espresso Baskets and Fake Baskets
Four baskets are supplied with the Sage. For serious coffee enthusiasts, only the two baskets with actual holes are interesting. Two of the included baskets pretend to have multiple holes, but actually only have a tiny opening. They're intended for pre-ground coffee. In this case, the brewed coffee is pressed through a double-walled bottom and then through a tiny hole. This creates crema even with old, pre-ground coffee. This deceives the eye into thinking the coffee is good. However, crema alone is not a quality indicator for coffee, precisely because of baskets like these. If you're using pre-ground coffee on this espresso machine, you're doing something wrong. After all, the built-in grinder is there for a reason.
But a normal 1-basket and 2-basket are also included. We recommend the 2-basket. Get used to working with it. In doubt, you'll drink more coffee or always have some brewed for your neighbor or colleague in the office. The espresso quality and reproducibility of the 2-basket is significantly better.
Mastering Dosing Amount
Sage specifies the dosing amount for the 2-basket as 19 to 22 grams. We didn't put more than 18 grams of coffee in there and advise against trying. You gain no added value by cramming more coffee in and having the espresso machine's shower head already pressing on the coffee powder. Once the coffee powder comes into contact with water, it expands again. The risk of channeling is extremely high if you overfill the basket this way.
So work with a maximum of 18 grams, or better yet 17.5 grams. This also reduces the problem of filling the basket. By pressing the basket against the grinder's release mechanism, grinding begins. If you don't interrupt it, it grinds for the selected 13 seconds. The basket itself has a diameter of 53 mm. Sage specifies 54 here, but our 54 is more like 53. The powder has less room to fall and distribute in such a narrow basket. This causes it to form a mound on the basket and partially spill over. This is clearly visible in our video (at minute 11:49 in the video).
By pressing the grinder's release button again, however, you can stop it. By tapping the basket once on the work surface, the powder settles a bit and provides more space for the coffee powder. In the video, Felix does this process three to four times to get 18 grams of powder into the basket.
Instead of interrupting the 13 seconds, we recommend you program the grinding time directly to, for example, three times 4 seconds. With this method, we obtained more accurate coffee amounts than by interrupting the 13 seconds.
After leveling and tamping comes the espresso extraction. Speaking of leveling: Sage includes a leveler, but we couldn't use it at the high fill heights suggested by Sage.
Brewing and Coffee Quality
The grinder does the most important part of the work. What follows is the brewing process, which means continuously delivering water at a constant brewing temperature. The Sage SES 878 Barista Pro comes standard with pre-infusion: it delivers a smaller portion of the brewing water at the beginning without pressure on the coffee powder. Using such a technique is a matter of philosophy. We like to say: What matters is what lands in the cup. You can make good coffee with or without pre-infusion.
Our coffees tasted inconsistent when we set the machine's temperature to the lowest value. We still measured temperatures over 98 degrees at the peak, but these dropped relatively quickly and settled at just under 96 degrees before declining further. The machine delivered a steady 9.5 bar pressure throughout the brewing process.
The pulled espressos were too bitter and unbalanced at high brewing temperature. With adjusted brewing temperature, the taste was acceptable.
The water amount can be adjusted. This is important because it allows you to better accommodate the reduced coffee amount. The brewing ratio depends on one hand on the roast and the coffees. For our coffees, we like to recommend a ratio of 1:2.5, for example 17 grams of coffee for the double espresso at 42.5 grams output.
Hardly Gets Hot Any Faster
What's really impressive is how quickly the espresso machine reaches temperature. After switching on, it signals it's ready to brew in around 3 seconds. This is a real added value for anyone who wants to make a quick coffee. However, one thing to keep in mind: While the so-called Thermo-Jet heating device of the espresso machine is ready, the material of the basket and other components is not yet warmed up. If you start brewing now, you lose temperature to the basket and the group. So definitely run at least one shot through with an inserted basket but no coffee. This warms up the machine, and from the first shot on, the espresso tastes good.
Milk Frothing and Cappuccino
The Sage SES 878 Barista Pro also produces quite decent milk foam if you know how to handle it. This provides the basis for all espresso-milk mixed drinks like cappuccino and latte macchiato.
Here too, the machine's switching speed is impressive. The espresso was just brewed, and the machine is already ready for milk. This can be triggered with a dial wheel to the right of the machine. A little hot water should be released first, then frothing can begin.
The machine has relatively little power. This slows down the frothing process, which is initially good for beginners: you have more time to find the right position and don't have to stress as much as with machines with more pressure. On the other hand, it's also more difficult to get all the milk rotating and thus break down the milk bubbles again. But it's absolutely possible, and our video on the topic of latte art can help you with that.
The supplied milk jug is suitable for frothing. However, because the spout isn't quite straight, clean and especially straight pouring is made more difficult. An upgrade is worthwhile here.
Americano and Other Coffee Drinks
Other drinks, such as tea or an americano, can also be brewed with the Barista Pro. Directly next to the basket holder is a small water outlet that delivers around 180 ml of water in one turn.
This is practical if you like to drink an extended espresso, the so-called americano. Sometimes you like to drink more coffee volume but don't want to make a milk drink. Then the americano method makes sense. To do this, first pour about 100 ml of water into your cup. With the Sage Barista Pro, you can simply place the cup under the basket holder and use the dial wheel to the right of the machine, the milk frothing dial, to add water to the cup. Then you brew your espresso as usual.
With an americano, you avoid pushing the entire water amount through the coffee. While this also results in a full cup, it over-extracts the coffee. We call this over-extraction, and it's bitter and unpleasant. So the americano method is the better choice. Water in the cup first, then espresso on top. In this order, you even get crema.
Conclusion
It's amazing what's possible in one machine in such a compact space. We felt that Sage did good work and put pressure on well-known competitors even in higher price segments. At many points, they had learned from the coffee community and implemented things well.
With the coffee dosing or basket size specification, Sage wanted more than was necessary. High dosing is sometimes considered desirable, but not at all costs. And too much going in is anything but ideal.
We would have liked more setting options for the grinding amount, and more precision with the temperature. The 3 seconds to brewing start proclaimed in the advertising were impressive, but 15 seconds would have been more honest. Because warming up the material is necessary for good espresso. 3 seconds sounds better, but 15 seconds is still a good value.
The Sage SES 878 Barista Pro is still available for around €600 or 500 francs (as of August 2026). All in all, a decent espresso machine with an integrated grinder.
Pro:
- The machine's basic heat level is relatively low, so the grinder doesn't heat up either. This is often a problem with integrated grinders.
- Gets hot faster than you can count to 5. A real plus for spontaneous coffee drinkers, but don't forget to warm up the basket.
- Suitable for espresso, cappuccino, americano and more.
- Decent coffee quality in little space thanks to fresh grinding and more.
- 2 liter water tank that's easy to remove and fill.
- Price-to-performance ratio very interesting at around €600/500 francs.
Con:
- Cold cups, as the machine barely warms up as a whole.
- Basket size mess, can't Sage measure?
- Narrow basket diameter, so overflow problems when grinding.
- Outlets of the basket holder close together, precise positioning of the machine is necessary.
- Temperature not constant throughout the brewing process and sometimes significantly too high.
We bought the Sage Barista Pro. This is a basic principle for all our tests. Sage additionally provided us with the Barista Express on loan, which we returned after the test.
We found that a good compromise. We test independently, which you can also see from this test. We've been asked many times to test this and other machines. Our basic principle of buying everything ourselves gets quite expensive.
If you're going to buy this machine from an online retailer like Amazon anyway, please do so via our affiliate link. It doesn't cost you anything more, and we can put it toward further machine tests.
