Breville Bambino Plus: The Science of Perfect Espresso at Home
Update on Feb. 21, 2025, 11:46 a.m.
That first sip of a perfectly crafted espresso. The rich aroma, the velvety crema, the intense, balanced flavor – it’s a sensory experience that coffee lovers around the world crave. For many, achieving this level of quality at home has seemed like an elusive dream, a realm reserved for skilled baristas and expensive, complex machines. But what if you could unlock the secrets of cafe-quality espresso in your own kitchen, with a machine that’s both powerful and user-friendly? Enter the Breville Bambino Plus, a compact espresso machine that packs a scientific punch.
Espresso 101: Why It’s So Tricky (and So Rewarding)
Espresso, at its core, is a concentrated coffee beverage brewed by forcing hot water through finely-ground coffee beans under high pressure. It’s a relatively recent invention, with the first espresso machines appearing in Italy in the early 20th century. These early machines were large, complex, and required significant skill to operate. Over time, espresso machines evolved, becoming more compact and automated, but the fundamental principles remained the same.
The challenge of making good espresso at home lies in controlling several crucial variables:
- Temperature: Espresso extraction is incredibly sensitive to temperature. Too hot, and the coffee will taste bitter and burnt. Too cold, and it will be sour and underdeveloped. The ideal temperature range is surprisingly narrow: 90-96°C (195-205°F).
- Pressure: The water needs to be forced through the coffee grounds at around 9 bars of pressure (about 130 pounds per square inch). This high pressure extracts the desirable oils and flavors from the coffee, creating the characteristic crema – that rich, golden-brown layer on top of the espresso.
- Even Extraction: The water must flow evenly through all of the coffee grounds. If it finds paths of least resistance (a phenomenon called “channeling”), the resulting espresso will be weak and unevenly extracted.
- Milk Texture: For those who enjoy milk-based espresso drinks like lattes and cappuccinos, achieving the perfect microfoam – that silky, velvety texture – is a significant hurdle.
Consistency is key. Even slight variations in any of these factors can dramatically alter the taste and quality of the final product. This is where many home espresso machines fall short, struggling to maintain the precise conditions needed for a truly exceptional shot.
Inside the Bambino Plus: Engineering Your Espresso
The Breville Bambino Plus tackles these challenges head-on, incorporating clever engineering and scientific principles to deliver consistent, cafe-quality results. Let’s take a look under the hood:
Rapid Heating, Consistent Results: The ThermoJet Advantage
Traditional espresso machines often use boilers to heat the water. Boilers, while effective, can take a significant amount of time to reach brewing temperature, and their temperature can fluctuate during use. This is because they’re heating a relatively large volume of water, which has a high thermal mass – it takes a lot of energy to heat it up and cool it down.
The Bambino Plus, on the other hand, utilizes Breville’s innovative ThermoJet heating system. Instead of a large boiler, the ThermoJet uses a specially designed, low-thermal-mass heating element. Water passes through this element in a controlled flow, getting heated to the precise brewing temperature almost instantaneously. Think of it like a highly efficient, on-demand water heater, specifically designed for espresso. This means you can go from a cold start to brewing temperature in just 3 seconds. But it’s not just about speed; it’s about stability. The low thermal mass of the ThermoJet system means it’s less susceptible to temperature fluctuations during the brewing process, ensuring that each shot is extracted at the optimal temperature. This consistency is crucial for achieving that perfect, balanced flavor.
The Brains of the Operation: PID Temperature Control
Even with a rapid heating system, maintaining that precise temperature throughout the extraction process is a challenge. This is where the Bambino Plus’s PID temperature control comes in. PID stands for Proportional-Integral-Derivative, and it’s a sophisticated type of feedback controller used in many industrial applications where precise temperature control is essential.
Imagine you’re driving a car and want to maintain a constant speed. You could just press the gas pedal a certain amount and hope for the best, but that wouldn’t account for hills or wind resistance. A cruise control system, on the other hand, constantly monitors the car’s speed and adjusts the throttle to maintain the set speed, regardless of external factors. A PID controller is like a highly refined cruise control system for temperature.
In the Bambino Plus, the PID controller constantly monitors the water temperature and makes tiny, rapid adjustments to the ThermoJet heating element. It’s constantly calculating the difference between the desired temperature (set by the user) and the actual temperature, and then adjusting the power to the heating element proportionally, integrally, and derivatively. These three terms – proportional, integral, and derivative – refer to different aspects of the control algorithm, allowing it to respond quickly and accurately to changes in temperature, preventing overshoot (going above the desired temperature) and undershoot (dropping below the desired temperature).
As one user, Matthew, put it: “I had been making latte-like drinks for a while… I decided to try making lattes at home and went with the Breville because of all the features…[The coffee quality was] definitely drinkable, but a far cry from what you can get from a cafe.” After getting a grinder and working at his technique, he reports the coffee being “much better quality than the pre-ground stuff, and definitely an enjoyable drink.” The PID control helps ensure that the Bambino Plus can get the most out of high-quality beans.
The result? Consistent, optimal extraction temperature, shot after shot, eliminating the bitter or sour notes that can result from temperature fluctuations.
Unlocking Flavor: The Magic of Low-Pressure Pre-Infusion
Even with perfect temperature control, achieving a great espresso requires more than just forcing hot water through coffee grounds. The water needs to interact with the coffee in a way that extracts the desirable flavors and aromas without over-extracting the bitter compounds. This is where pre-infusion comes in.
Imagine pouring water onto a dry sponge. At first, the water might just sit on top, or it might run straight through in certain spots. But if you gently moisten the sponge first, it will absorb the water more evenly. Pre-infusion does something similar for coffee grounds.
Before applying the full 9 bars of brewing pressure, the Bambino Plus gently wets the coffee puck with low-pressure water. This allows the coffee to “bloom,” releasing trapped gases (primarily carbon dioxide, a byproduct of the roasting process) and allowing the water to penetrate all of the grounds more evenly. This prevents “channeling,” where the water finds paths of least resistance through the coffee puck, leading to uneven extraction and a weak, unbalanced espresso. By ensuring that all of the coffee grounds are evenly saturated, pre-infusion sets the stage for a more complete and flavorful extraction.
Silky Smooth, Every Time: Automatic Milk Texturing
For many coffee lovers, the perfect espresso is just the beginning. The ability to create silky, velvety microfoam – the hallmark of a great latte or cappuccino – is equally important. Manual milk frothing, however, can be a tricky skill to master. It requires the right technique, the right steam pressure, and the right milk temperature.
The Bambino Plus simplifies this process with its automatic milk texturing feature. Simply place the included stainless steel milk jug, filled with cold milk, under the steam wand and select your desired temperature and foam level. The Bambino Plus takes care of the rest.
The secret lies in the design of the steam wand and the integrated temperature sensor. The wand has four holes, strategically positioned to create a vortex in the milk. This vortex action, combined with the precisely controlled steam pressure, introduces air into the milk while simultaneously heating it. This process denatures the milk proteins, causing them to unfold and form a stable network around the tiny air bubbles. This creates the microfoam – a smooth, velvety texture with bubbles so small they’re almost invisible to the naked eye.
The temperature sensor, located on the drip tray, monitors the milk temperature and automatically shuts off the steam when the desired temperature is reached. This prevents overheating the milk, which can result in a scalded taste and a loss of sweetness. You can choose from three temperature settings (Warm, Ideal, and Hot) and three foam levels (Low, Medium, and High), allowing you to customize your milk texture to your preference.
And, for the experienced baristas, the Bambino also offers the option to manually steam milk.
The Right Dose, Every Time: 54mm Portafilter and Precision
The Bambino Plus utilizes a 54mm portafilter, a size often found in higher-end home and even some commercial machines. This size, combined with the recommended 19-gram dose of coffee, provides the optimal surface area and coffee-to-water ratio for a full-bodied and flavorful espresso extraction. Smaller portafilters and lower doses can often lead to weaker, less satisfying shots. The included Razor precision dose trimming tool further helps ensure a consistent dose and a level coffee bed, crucial for even extraction.
Beyond the Machine: Mastering the Art of Espresso
While the Bambino Plus takes care of many of the technical challenges, a few key factors remain in your control:
- Fresh Beans and Grind Size: Using freshly roasted coffee beans and grinding them just before brewing is essential for optimal flavor. The grind size should be fine, but not too fine. A burr grinder is highly recommended for consistent results.
- Tamping Technique: Tamping is the process of compressing the ground coffee into a firm, even puck. The goal is to create a level surface that offers consistent resistance to the water flow. Aim for about 30 pounds of pressure, applied evenly.
- Water Quality: The water you use makes a difference. Avoid distilled or highly filtered water, as the minerals in tap water actually help to extract the coffee flavors. If your tap water has a strong chlorine taste, use a simple filter pitcher.
Troubleshooting Common Problems:
- Sour Espresso: This usually indicates under-extraction. Try a finer grind, a slightly higher dose, or a longer extraction time.
- Bitter Espresso: This usually indicates over-extraction. Try a coarser grind, a slightly lower dose, or a shorter extraction time.
- Weak Crema: This could be due to stale beans, a coarse grind, low pressure, or insufficient tamping.
Espresso Through the Ages: A Quick Sip of History
Espresso, as we know it today, is a relatively modern invention, but its roots go back centuries to the origins of coffee itself. Coffee cultivation and consumption began in Ethiopia and spread to the Arabian Peninsula by the 15th century. Coffee houses became centers of social and intellectual life, and various brewing methods were developed.
The first machines capable of producing something resembling espresso appeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Italy. These machines used steam pressure to force water through coffee grounds, but they were large, cumbersome, and often produced inconsistent results. The invention of the lever-operated espresso machine in the mid-20th century marked a significant advancement, allowing for greater control over pressure and extraction.
Over the decades, espresso machines continued to evolve, with the development of pump-driven machines, automatic features, and increasingly sophisticated temperature control systems. The Bambino Plus represents the culmination of this evolution, bringing the precision and consistency of professional-grade espresso machines into the home.
The Future of Espresso at Home
The future of home espresso is likely to see even greater automation and connectivity. We can expect to see machines with more sophisticated sensors, algorithms that automatically adjust brewing parameters based on the type of coffee beans, and integration with mobile apps that allow for remote control and customization. Sustainability is also likely to become a greater focus, with machines designed for energy efficiency and the use of eco-friendly materials.
Conclusion: Your Journey to Espresso Excellence
The Breville Bambino Plus is more than just a coffee maker; it’s a gateway to the world of cafe-quality espresso. By combining clever engineering with a deep understanding of the science of coffee extraction, Breville has created a machine that empowers both beginners and experienced coffee enthusiasts to create exceptional espresso and milk-based drinks at home. It’s a testament to how technology can enhance our everyday rituals, transforming a simple cup of coffee into a moment of pure enjoyment. So, embrace the science, explore the possibilities, and embark on your own journey to espresso excellence.
