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Out of the BoxThe Bambino
Breville is absolutely killing it in the espresso machine category. Or should I say categories, because they have almost every aspect of espresso machine technology covered, from basic, bare bones machines, all the way up to their own unique take on the “bean to cup” model. At every price point, the company has an espresso machine that more often than nought is the top selling machine on the planet at that price.
Our focus today is Breville’s true “entry point” quality-driven espresso machine: the Breville Bambino. They do have lower priced machines in their stable, but The Bambino is their lowest priced machine featuring a bevy of the company’s tricked out components, and a machine that can deliver true high end espresso quality via PID controlled temperatures, pre-infusion and a true instant-on capability.
The unboxing experience with The Bambino is virtually identical to the Bambino Plus. They both come in similar boxes, both feature similar items (the Bambino Plus includes cleaning tabs and a blind filter, the Bambino does not have these), and both, very unfortunately, come in giant styrofoam cocoons with lots of plastic wrappings.
Breville’s subsidiary, Baratza Grinders, moved to very eco-friendly, recyclable and biodegradable packaging nearly half a decade ago. I truly wish Breville, a major brand in the quality espresso and coffee world, would do the same. Until they and other manufacturers do, I will always call this out, because in this day and age and concern with everything from climate change to overfilled landfills, these things matter.
The Bambino’s box follows the Bambino Plus model of putting all the main information on the box’s narrow sides, to further emphasize the svelte nature of the machine. Opening it reveals the very detailed product manual on top of the styro cocoon. Lifting that shows some of The Bambino’s bits and parts: descaling powder, the portafilter, 3 filter baskets and Breville’s 54mm plastic tamper.
Removing the cocoon of styro from the box, be careful because the steaming pitcher, in its smaller box, is wedged in on the side. Once that is removed, lift one side of the styro cocoon and the machine, wrapped in lots of plastic, is half-revealed. Getting the machine out of its nest leaves you with removing more plastic to see the machine in its glory. There’s a bit more plastic protecting the reservoir lid, and some tape keeping the reservoir and drip tray secure; remove those, and the machine is ready to set up.
Visually, The Bambino is a very tiny machine. It’s even smaller than the Bambino Plus. It is so small, it’s almost portable sized for taking during your vacation and travels (pair it up with a manual grinder and Bob’s your uncle).
Starting at the top, there is a small cup tray that, given this is an instant on, thermojet system, won’t do anything for heating up cups, but at least you can place a few on top: up to four on their own, or more if stacked. It has a polished steel surface that looks good, and subtle ribs to help with cups drying.
In back is the reservoir, and at 1.4l, it is smaller than the 2l reservoir on the Bambino Plus. Underneath the reservoir sits a hidden feature: there’s a little tool there for cleaning out the steam wand or even removing the tip of the steam wand for a deeper clean. (it will also help you remove the steam wand tip to swap in an aftermarket tip.
Up front there are two main brew buttons and two smaller buttons, one for hot water, one to activate the steam wand. You might notice there’s no power on button. The machine is powered on anytime you press one of the shot buttons. The hot water button is one feature The Bambino has that the Bambino Plus does not have: an actual dedicated button for hot water activation. On the Bambino Plus, you have to do an awkward two button press to start the flow of hot water from the steam wand.
The two brew buttons serve several purposes. They are volumetric controls, leaving the factory being able to brew 30ml with the single button, and 60ml with the double button. Keep in mind the machine will run for a max of 50 seconds, so if you ground to fine, you won’t get the programmed liquid volume in that 50 seconds. The buttons can also be used to brew “manually”, including how long you want the preinfusion to last, by pressing and holding a shot button for the first few seconds of a shot. Releasing the button ramps the machine up to full pressure. Pressing again ends the shot.
The buttons are also used in the machine’s descaling and cleaning service, which is detailed on page 16 of the product manual (PDF file, which, of course, you should read cover to cover!). Both the single and double shot buttons’’ total volume of liquid output can be programmed, a procedure I’ll cover later in the Usage sections.
Moving to the grouphead, the only areas Breville cut costs are in the cheaper portafilter (when compared to the Barista line 54mm portafilters), and the plastic sheath around the grouphead. The grouphead itself, dispersion plate and screens are similar to those found on the newer Barista line machines, like the Pro, Touch and Touch Impress. The bayonet screw points in the grouphead are made of thick plastic.
The portafilter is, in shape at least, identical to the stainless steel one that comes with the Bambino Plus. The main metal is aluminum, however, making this portafilter very light. On The Bambino’s box, it falsely states this portafilter is stainless steel, which it is not.
The aluminum portafilter features the same 3-bayonet mount that all of Breville’s Barista line machines have, so aftermarket portafilters for those machines (and there’s dozens, if not hundreds available) will fit The Bambino. One we particularly like is this chopped model that comes with a nice tamper with a hidden feature – a WDT tool! And it’s just $25 or less. Buy it, seriously.
There are two undocumented “upgrades” to the Breville Bambino shipping today, compared to the machine when it first launched, at $50 more than the 2024 price of $300. It used to come with only two filter baskets, and no steaming pitcher. Today, it ships with 4 filter baskets (two pressurized, two standard), and includes a nice 500ml steaming pitcher. That’s as much as $50 in added accessories, even though the machine price dropped from $350 to $300.
The steam wand has a single hole tip, but is fully articulating, meaning you can easily direct the wand where you want the hot water or steam to go. It also includes Breville’s signature rubber finger grab for easy handling of the wand during use. The wand is the same found on the Barista Express, so you can swap out a 3 or 4 hole tip on it if you like (easy to find aftermarket).
The drip tray is actually bigger than the Bambino Plus, in terms of the volume it holds, but it does so in a smaller overall footprint. This is because The Bambino doesn’t have to have the cutout design for the automated frothing system and steam pitcher temperature measuring the Plus model needs. Still, it is a very small drip tray. It is mostly plastic, yet sits well in the machine. The drip tray cover is metal and looks quite nice, but is thinner and of lower quality than the one on the Bambino Plus.
The backsplash on The Bambino is polished steel and at certain viewing angles, can give you a look at what’s going into the cup. Since the backsplash doesn’t angle up, it will not give an angle for viewing shots from chopped portafilters if you bought such an option for your machine.
The water reservoir at the back of the machine is clear, and easy to see from most angles. It only holds 1.4l of water, 600ml less than the Bambino Plus’ water reservoir holds. The Bambino also does not have the Plus’ low water sensor, so you will have to keep track of how much water is in there if you don’t want to run the machine dry. Breville’s Claris Water filter system will fit a Bambino Plus, but I am not sure yet if it will work in The Bambino (we will check that for the full review). As always, we recommend only using filtered water with your espresso machine, so purchase a good, “designed for coffee” system, like the BWT magnesium / zinc systems.
The base of The Bambino has four sturdy and grippy rubber feet which do a fairly decent job of keeping the machine planted. That said, the machine overall is very lightweight, and you will need to hold it when inserting and removing the portafilter.
On top of the four filter baskets and steaming pitcher, The Bambino a sample of descaling powder, and the previously mentioned tool for cleaning and maintaining the steam wand tip.
As for the weight and dimensions, The Bambino is tiny and lightweight. It measures a scant 19cm across at the wide base (7.5”) and is as deep as it is tall: 32cm (just over a foot). It weights just 3.5kg empty (about 7.75lb). The cup clearance from spouts to drip tray is 10cm (4”).
The Bambino has a very powerful heating system, drawing 1560W total, with 1450 of that going to the thermojet system. That said, the thermojet is extremely energy efficient, and this machine consumes less than half the power of the Breville Infuser, and as much as ¼ the power a Rancilio Silvia does. If energy economy is important to you, this machine delivers.
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First UseThe Bambino
I’ve used 3 Bambino Pluses over the years, since the first units shipped, so I thought I was going to be familiar with The Bambino. And in many ways I am. That said, The Bambino offers one convenience factor the original Bambino Plus did not, and more recent Plus models do offer, in a more inconvenient way: hot water access.
Why is hot water access important? It’s because the biggest drawback of Breville’s instant on thermojet system is how stone cold the rest of the machine is on startup. The brewing water delivered to the grouphead may indeed be stable at 200F, but it loses that temperature very fast, passing through a) a cold grouphead, b) a cold dispersion plate, c) a cold dispersion screen, d) a cold filter basket, and e) a cold portafilter. Leaving The Bambino on (like the Bambino Plus, or the Barista Touch, etc) doesn’t do much to help either, because the very energy efficient thermojet is still sitting there “in idle mode”, not really actively heating the machine.
So… with Breville’s thermojet systems, you must preheat everything if you want a four star espresso shots. Typically you can run a few blank shots through the portafilter (no coffee added) to get things up to temperature. But you still are delivering espresso to cold cups, and that won’t do. Thankfully, The Bambino has instant hot water along with instant on and instant steam. Just put your espresso cup under the wand, and give it some hot water!
To prove the point, I did pull my first shots on The Bambino straight after starting, with no preheating. The shots ended up sour and luke-warm.
After letting the machine cool down for a half hour, it was approached again, but this time, a single blank double shot was run through the grouphead and portafilter first. Basket wiped and dried, coffee dosed in, distributed and tamped, and I pulled a double. Improved, but still sour, and warm, not hot.
One more cool down, and one more attempt: this time, I pulled 2 blank doubles in the espresso cup. Dumped, wiped everything. I ran some hot water from the steam wand into the espresso cup and placed it on top of the machine. Grind, dose, distribute, tamp. Loaded up the portafilter and pulled the double.
And it was a very nice, properly heated, properly brewed shot. The Bambino’s built in preinfusion did its job. The volumetric controls set from the factory (I didn’t change the programming yet) delivered a good 55ml double. Crema development was excellent, and the shot was tasty and the heat level exactly where I expected it.
Is doing the preheating an inconvenience? Sure, it can be. At the end of the day many home baristas would rather have a machine that is toasty hot in all its components when I step up to it to pull a shot. But, the preheating is a tradoff I’m happy to live with on this machine because of several factors.
Factor 1: Energy efficiency. The reason why a Gaggia Classic Evo Pro or Rancilio Silvia is so toasty hot and instantly ready to pull a shot after being on for a half hour is because it’s been using a ton of energy to keep 100ml (or 300ml) boilers hot and ready.
Factor 2: No warm up time. Traditional machines need up to 15 minutes before you can pull a shot. You can pull a shot on The Bambino about 3 minutes after turning it on: hit the brew button 3 seconds after powering it up to run you first blank shot. Hit it again in a minute for the second blank shot. Remove the PF, wipe and dry it, prep your coffee, and literally 3 minutes after turning the machine on, you’re pulling a shot at good temperatures.
Factor 3: Instant On, Instant Hot Water, Instant Steam. The thermojet system in this machine essentially makes The Bambino a faux dual boiler. There’s no wait time to transition from brewing to steaming. On a machine like the Rancilio Silvia, you have to wait up to 75 seconds for the boiler to be fully heated up for steaming. Same goes for hot water. Wake up in the morning, and you want a tea without waiting? Power up The Bambino and put your mug under the steam wand and hit the hot water switch: The Bambino will deliver pretty much unlimited hot water out of the wand to around 180F peak temperature. Instantly.
Last, but not least on the hot water function: it is legit hot, and hotter than several other machines I’ve tested recently, including the much more expensive Barista Touch Impress’ hot water wand. Keep the cup close to the steam wand tip as you’re running hot water, and you’ll get up to 85-88C (185F-190F) water out of it. In the example below, the temperature was just below 180F because the cup cools the water a tad. That’s good enough for a lot of tea brewing, and also good enough for americanos. Toss the kettle!
Workflow WithThe Bambino
I covered a lot of the workflow on The Bambino above, with the preheating “blank shots” and access to hot water. But how is it in day to day use, doing a variety of coffee based drinks?
Pretty good, actually. I do notice the lack of a 3 way solenoid valve quite a bit, because removing the portafilter right after pulling a shot can be a messy affair, but the way around that is just to wait a few minutes, or do it after steaming your drinks.
Though small, it can bang out shot after shot, and steam up milk for a bunch of drinks. My stress test for The Bambino was to build four drinks: a double shot, an americano, a cappuccino, and two macchiatos, all back to back. Here’s the process, with step comments
Double Espresso
Americano
Cappuccino
Two Macchiatos
Total time to build the five drinks above from start to finish, including various wipe downs, clean ups: Just over 15 minutes. Not too bad at all.
Volumetric Controls
The Bambino has a pretty advanced feature for its pricepoint: programmable, volumetric controls with a manual mode. Most machines in this price range claim to be “automatics” (a category The Bambino is in) but their shot buttons, programmable or not, are timer based, not flow volume based. That’s high end.
As an aside, when I mentioned I was reviewing The Bambino on the Mastodon social network, I got a message asking me to check and see if programming the buttons actually works, as they had followed the advice in a very popular (1.3 million views!) video on The Bambino by Morgan Eckroth, but the next time they brewed a shot, it went back to the default, essentially “ignoring” their programming attempt to change the output volume.
Turns out Eckroth provided the wrong information in her video about how The Bambino is programmed, and also missed that the machine has a full manual mode. Here’s how both work, the correct way:
If you want to program either the single or double shot button, when the machine is powered on, press both at the same time and hold for a few seconds, until both are flashing. The machine is now in programming mode. If brewing a double, press the double shot button (and release it). The machine will begin brewing as if normal, with the pre-programmed preinfusion. Once you get your desired volume of liquid from that double shot, press it again. Your new volume is programmed into that double button. Do the same procedure for the single shot button.
What Eckroth described in that video is actually the manual shot mode The Bambino provides, allowing you to control both the preinfusion time, and the total shot time for that sole shot you’re pulling at that moment.
To activate The Bambino’s manual mode, press and hold the single OR double shot button. Keep holding as the machine starts the shot, with the low pressure preinfusion. Release the button to end the preinfusion and go to full pressure. Once you get your desired shot volume, press the button again to end the shot. This timing only works for that one shot pull: if you press and release a shot button the next time, it will revert to its standard 8-10 second preinfusion, and preprogrammed total shot volume.
A Pressure Hack Trick
Normally I save this kind of thing for the Full Review, but it’s a nifty hack I discovered for the Bambino Plus that also translates well to The Bambino. You can actually trick the machine into downshifting the pressure towards the end of your shot pull. And this hack works even better on The Bambino because the machine lacks a 3 way solenoid valve. Here’s the steps:
- Brew your shot as normal: either automatically via a single press of the single or double shot button, or manually, by pressing and holding the double shot button until you’re happy with the preinfusion amount.
- When you are about 10-15ml (or grams if you’re using a scale) away from your desired shot volume, press the lit shot button to end the shot.
- Immediately (like within a quarter second) press and hold the double shot button. This puts the machine back into the lower-pressure “preinfusion mode”, completing your shot at a lower pressure.
- When you are at your desired full shot volume, let go of the button, and immediately press and release it again, to end the shot pull.
You just did a pressure profile shot, ramping down the pressure on the last 10-15ml of the shot, on a $300 machine!
(There is one caveat here: the Bambino will think you just pulled two different shots, and count that towards its total shot count. So if you do this for every shot pull, the Bambino will pop up its descale notice in half the time it normally would).
Steaming with The Bambino
You’ll often read advice that you should steam first, then brew shots on single boiler machines.
Don’t do that with The Bambino. The transition time is under 5 seconds (or about 15 seconds if you include the purge of the steam wand) between shot pull and full power milk frothing and heating, and the thermojet system is fast. Really fast when compared to most other single boiler espresso machines.
Unlike the Bambino Plus, The Bambino’s steam wand articulates and rotates in various directions. It is a lot easier to manually steam on than the Plus’ wand is. It is a single hole tip, which is a lot easier for newbies to use, but you can easily swap out a third party 3 or 4 hole tip and take full advantage of the thermojet’s steaming power. I wish the machine had a steaming knob, instead of the all-or-nothing steam button, but you get used to it quick.
Just remember to always wipe the wand right after use, and give it a good purge.
As for the steaming ability itself: it is impressive! On par with the Bambino Plus (which is also very good), and even faster than the Barista Express. Microfoam is definitely achievable, and there’s sufficient force in the steam to fully swirl and amalgamate the milk froth into the whole pitcher, giving you that lovely sheen on top when you’re done, and ready to pour.
The Bambino steams faster than the Gaggia Espresso Evolution, its direct competitor, and even beats the Gaggia Classic and Rancilio Silvia in steaming speed. No complaints here at all.
Compared toThe Bambino
The Bambino is, in my opinion, the class leader in true budget espresso machines; that is, machines costing $300 or less. I have already done a ton of comparisons with its bigger sibling, The Bambino Plus, That said, there are other machines it more closely compares with, at least on price, that I haven’t mentioned yet.
The Gaggia Espresso Evolution
Gaggia introduced the Gaggia Espresso Evolution machine this year. I should say “reintroduced” because Gaggia had a machine called the Gaggia Espresso from the late 1980s through to around 2010, when it was discontinued. The Espresso Evolution machine is around $250USD. We are currently working on our First Look for the machine.
Both the Gaggia Espresso Evolution and The Bambino have a PID. Both have 54mm portafilters. Both have hot water ability, though the Gaggia’s hot water function is a lot more janky. Both are based on thermoblocks (or in the case of The Bambino, a thermojet). Both are designed for beginner home espresso enthusiasts. Both lack a 3 way solenoid valve.
I had the opportunity to have a small focus group of three people work on both machines. Everyone felt as I did: the Bambino Plus was clearly the better overall, more polished package. It steamed better. It brewed better. It came with things the Gaggia Espresso did not. It has the benefit of a wealth of aftermarket accessories that the Gaggia Espresso does not enjoy. They liked the instant on, the instant steam, and the steam ability.
Yet when given the choice, all three said they’d buy the Gaggia Espresso over The Bambino. This confused me greatly, so I asked why. Everyone agreed the fact that the Espresso is made in Italy, the land of espresso, and is made by Gaggia, a brand all recognized as being associated with Italian espresso, was the main factor. One person also appreciated the Gaggia came with a froth aider. Another person believed, being a Gaggia, it would be easier to service and maintain down the road.
I found this very interesting, overall, and will be considering this more in our full review for The Bambino.
Other Comparable Machines
This price point doesn’t offer a lot these days: ten years ago you could find a half dozen machines under $300 we could easily recommend at CoffeeGeek; today, inflation has hit this end of the market.
There’s the Delonghi Dedica lineup, that includes the basic model ($250), the Arte version (with a traditional steam wand, for $300), and the Deluxe Automatic, which is also around $300. These machines and others in their lineup are massive sales juggernauts for the Delonghi brand company; so much so, the brand was able to buy La Marzocco recently. That doesn’t mean they are better than Breville, or better than many consumer espresso machines coming out of Italy.
Problem with them is, they’re made in China, and quality control isn’t the greatest with them. Of course, Breville machines are also made in China, but their QC is leagues above Delonghi. We don’t currently plan on reviewing these Delonghi models because current objective reviews online do not rate the machines highly.
KitchenAid offers their KES line of espresso machines in the $250 to $300 range. I’ve had a chance to use one, and there’s nothing in that machine, except perhaps on deep discount, that compares to what you get with The Bambino.
A new player on the scene, Casabrews, has what looks like a Delonghi Dedica knock off at just $130 (and possibly made at the same Chinese factory where the Delonghis are made). The more interesting machine in their lineup is the CM5030 model, called “Espresso Machine with LCD Display” at $200. I’ve been in contact with the company, and told them this is the machine in their lineup I would like to review; if they send one, we’ll put it up against The Bambino.
Of course, for the $300 range, you could go in another direction. For around $300, you can pick up a Cafelat Robot, an amazing and unique manual espresso maker. In good hands, it will brew shots just as good as The Bambino will. The tradeoff is you won’t get milk frothing with it.
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ConclusionThe Bambino
The Breville Bambino offers a lot for its price point. Considering it launched in 2020 at $350 and didn’t include non-pressurized filter baskets or a steaming pitcher, and today it includes both for just $300, it is even a better deal.
The lack of a 3 way solenoid valve is the thing I miss the most on the machine. The lack of a low water sensor in the reservoir is also notable, but I should point out the $700 Breville Barista Express doesn’t have a low water sensor either.
The workflow is a bit different than more traditional single boiler machines. You absolutely have to pre-heat things to get the best “first shot’ each day out of this machine. Good news is, you don’t have to do it for the next shot you pull (as long as it’s within a few minutes of the first shot pull). Having hot water access is great though, and the ability to nearly instantly transition from brewing espresso to steaming milk is fantastic. Not to mention how excellent the steaming ability itself is.
You also have access to the huge third party accessories market Breville enjoys. Since this machine uses the same (sized and shaped) portafilter the world’s most popular espresso machine does (the Barista Express), there’s a ton of aftermarket tampers, distributors, WDT devices, filter baskets, chopped portafilters and more out there that fit this machine nicely. You could easily upgrade it with a WDT-built-in tamper, and a chopped portafilter for under $25.
This machine has a worthy and earned place on our Best Budget Espresso Machines list. In fact, it is the class leader, standard-bearer machine on our list.
It is available in the USA from Amazon and site advertisers, 1st in Coffee, and Breville. In Canada, you can buy it from Amazon Canada or Breville Canada.
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One Response
It sounds like the Breville Bambino packs quite a punch for its size and price! With its feature-packed design, including PID temperature control and programmable volumetric controls, it offers high-end espresso quality without breaking the bank. Plus, the convenience of instant-on capability and the ability to produce hot water on demand make it a versatile addition to any home barista’s setup. Thanks for the detailed overview!