A great cup of coffee every time at the touch of a button
Sage Oracle Touch
Working from home has many advantages and I especially don’t miss the commute to and from the office. I love that I don’t have to get up an extra hour or two early to beat the traffic or wait a little longer at the end of my shift to let the traffic ease.
I do miss lots of other things, including human interaction with colleagues and the routine. Most of all, I miss the excellent office coffee we have on tap and the occasional trip to the local coffee shop for my favourite shot of espresso. I mostly drink coffee during the day and so I never felt the need to invest in a proper coffee machine for home or at least until we went into lockdown.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I find I’m busier working from home and have less time for breaks and so I needed a machine that could make great coffee with the least amount of fuss. Not surprising then, I was keen when Sage asked me to try one of their coffee machines, the Oracle Touch.
I love coffee, but I wouldn’t consider myself an expert coffee drinker. I enjoy drinking a variety of coffee brands and would find it hard to go back to anything less than grinding my own beans. However, as good as I am at drinking coffee, I’m no expert when it comes to making coffee. The Oracle Touch produces what I would consider a barista grade cup of coffee consistently even when an amateur like me is at the controls. Unfortunately, the cost of entry is prohibitive for many, but for those who value consistency and quality coffee, it’s hard to look past what the Oracle Touch has to offer in a machine that’s likely to last a lifetime.
The Sage Oracle Touch is a beautiful machine with quality materials and classic looks that won’t date with time. The model I received for this review was the brushed stainless steel colour but it’s also available in Black Truffle. The sides and top are made from a matching plastic colour which makes it easy to maintain and keep clean.
As the name suggests, there’s a colour ‘touch’ screen that makes using the machine incredibly easy. There are five coffee drink presets and you can save an additional eight custom presets.
Everything about this machine has been designed with the user in mind. It is moderately large (39.2 x 37.3 x 45.4 cm) and heavy (17.4kg).
The Oracle Touch isn’t a particularly light machine but Sage engineered a clever system to make moving it on a worktop easy. Beneath the stainless steel overflow tray is a knob which you twist. This extends a leg which has a small wheel at its base. By raising the machine at the front, another two small wheels at the back come in contact with the worktop making it easy to slide the Oracle Touch around on the worktop. This makes cleaning under the machine easy. Once you put it back into position, simply twist the knob again and the rubber feet beneath will stop it from budging.
Under the tray there’s a little drawer for storing the cleaning tools that come in the box including a spare portafilter insert. A great place to put them for safekeeping.
The Oracle Touch is easy to set up and start making the perfect cup of coffee right out of the box. It has a massive 2.5-litre water tank and this has a water purifying filter too which you conveniently fill from the top. The bean hopper has a 280gram capacity with a large lid that has a rubber seal to keep your coffee beans nice and fresh.
You can see the quality of all of the parts of this machine including the heavy portafilter that comes with two push-in baskets (single shot and double shot). You also get stainless steel milk frothing jug and matching brushed metal-clad ‘knock box’ which is where you dump your coffee grinds from the portafilter. The steel jug is a decent size and designed for its intended purpose but I would have preferred if it had measure markings on the inside.
Unlike a lot of cheaper coffee machines, the Oracle Touch has a lot of professional features including digital temperature control (PID) technology and dual stainless steel boilers and a heated group head. This means you can make a cup of coffee while also frothing your milk.
Water pressure is critical to making the perfect cup of coffee and the Over Pressure Valve (OPV) limits the maximum pressure throughout the extraction, helping prevent bitter flavours in the coffee shot. It also has true low-pressure pre-infusion, which gradually increases the pressure to gently expand the grinds for an even extraction.
I love cappuccinos and the Oracle Touch makes a consistently good cup every time. I did find the brand of milk would influence the frothiness and texture and of course, the beans you buy will also make a massive difference.
The steam wand automatically textures milk to a preset temperature and density of the foam. You have to wipe the outside of the wand when you take it out of the jug but when you swing it back to its resting position it will automatically steam and clean itself. You can also choose to manually froth the milk but I found the results far more consistent letting the machine do it for me.
The process of making an Americano is incredibly simple. First, choose your drink from the menu on the touch-screen by swiping left or right. Then get the portafilter, choose your basked size and press it into place. Now connect the portafilter beneath the grinder and then either press the grind button on the screen or twist the handle anticlockwise to start the process. The machine grinds the beans then fills the basket, tamps it and cuts it.Â
The machine makes a fair racket during the process but there’s no easy way to grind beans without making noise. Next, twist it out of the grinder and connect it to the group head and twist it tight. Press the brew button on the touch screen and it will automatically brew and pour into your cup. This is followed by a separate spout for the hot water which will fill the rest of your cup for a perfect Americano. You can set the amount of water you want or choose to stop it if you think you have enough. The portafilter has two spouts so you can fill two cups at a time.
It really is idiot-proof and sticking to the defaults will guarantee a great tasting cup of coffee. However, after a couple of months of using this machine and hundreds of cups of coffee later, I have managed to improve the taste by adjusting the grind coarseness and water flow.
I generally like full-fat milk but occasionally, I like using Barista Oatly milk, which works better at a lower temperature when frothing, so I saved that as a preset drink.Â
Using presets makes it much easier to quickly offer drinks to visitors too. You can give custom presets a name as well as choose from a list of coffee icons.Â
Making fine adjustments to your presets is easy and you can overwrite existing ones or use them as a basis for variations. Everyone in the house can enjoy the favourite drink at the touch of a button.
Although it only takes six or seven minutes to reach the default temperature of 90C (this can be changed if you want) you can set the Oracle Touch to automatically turn itself on at a predetermined time and day/s of the week. This is ideal for those who love a caffeine hit first thing in the morning and don’t have time or patience to hang around.
After using the machine for weeks I got a message to tell me it was time to put the machine through a cleaning routine. The simple on-screen instructions walked me through the process. It took six minutes and left the portafilter clean as a whistle. I believe it does this after 200 cups of coffee approximately.
There’s no doubt the Sage Oracle Touch is a luxury item but you get what you pay for. I can’t attest to longevity but based on a couple of months of testing and hundreds of coffees, I can see this lasting a long time. It has enough automation to ensure someone like me can make a great cup of coffee every time, but still, have enough manual controls to adjust the essential things to help you extract the best taste from your favourite coffee beans. It does take longer to make a cup than say a capsule machine but the results are worlds apart.
Sage has less expensive machines such as the Barista Pro and Bambino Plus which offer excellent features if the Oracle Touch is out of your price range.
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