Hello and welcome back to another YouTube video. If you're new, my name's Lauren. Today's video is actually a requested video and I got the idea from my original Breville Brisa Touch video where I unboxed it about a year ago and someone commented saying that I should do an updated year later pros, cons, how I basically figured out how to use the machine, best correctly to pull the perfect espresso shot and I feel like I truly have mastered it. I talk about it all the time in my vlogs how I love my at home coffee. This machine truly makes such a difference and I have saved so much money over the past year not constantly going out to get Starbucks every day or going to different coffee shops. This has made such a difference. I look forward to my coffee at home over anything else and I'm going to share with you guys my tips and tricks to get the perfect espresso shot at home and it took me a long time. So I have my machine behind me. I actually have the box right here from when I first purchased it just to make moving easier on me and so I can keep my machine safe. But this is the machine that I have. It's the touch edition. There's also a cheaper option. It's like a couple hundred dollars cheaper that doesn't have the touchscreen. If you're looking into getting this style machine that is definitely a cheaper option. I don't necessarily think that you need the touchscreen part of it but it does have a lot of characteristics that that machine doesn't have as well. But you guys can do your own research on that if you are contemplating getting one or the other. This is the one that I have. I love it. Zero regrets but it didn't start off that way. When I first purchased it I was pulling the most disgusting espresso shots. I've ever tasted my life. I had instant regret when buying this. I don't think I talked about that at all. I truly regretted purchasing this and I said why did I just spend this much money on something and it tastes so bad. But what I did is I watched so many YouTube videos went through so many different bags of coffee beans and I'm going to share with you guys my top tips for this machine, how to use it, my settings on the machine and what to look for when pulling the espresso shot. There are also other videos that I've seen where people have purchased other little things to try and help make the perfect espresso shot. I personally don't feel like all those things are necessary but if you want to go out and purchase those things you totally can, I just chose not to. I feel like my espresso shot is just as good. So I'm going to walk you through my cons of the machine first. First it was just really hard to kind of master that perfect espresso shot. It took a lot of trial and error. Figuring out what beans to use. The grind size, the water temperature, there's just so many different elements that go into this machine and I'm going to break each one down for you but that's another con and I guess the next con would just be you have to change the water filter every three months and which the three months go by really quick but other than that there's regular cleaning that it asks for every few months, maybe like every six months, you have to clean it so you do have to buy those little extra things for the machine. But I'll link where I get them. I buy the water filters from William Sonoma because it's my biggest nightmare to order off Amazon and have it not be the correct one, have it mess with my machine so I just go straight to the source which is William Sonoma. So I buy my water filters there, my cleaning tablets, other little extra things that you need for the machine but it all comes with a general ready to go kit when you purchase it. So the pros are perfect espresso shot that I'm pulling. I've gotten down the grind size, I've gotten down the water temperature. It pulls a beautiful espresso shot. And just I'm saving so much more money drinking my coffee at home and I really enjoy my coffee beans. So I'm going to share with you guys everything from start to finish and what to look for. With my experience, I have used Starbucks coffee beans before and I've never gotten a great espresso shot from those. I always find it's best to use coffee beans that are roasted pretty close to the date that you're using them. I wouldn't use beans that have been roasted two months past the roast date. You want the beans to be pretty fresh and you want to try and keep them fresh. So I'm using the Lachelom winter toast blend. It's a medium roast. It has notes of roasted almond, chocolate mousse and drum cake. Really, really good. This is how I keep the beans fresh just by a container. I got this from Target. I can link it down below but it helps seal the beans in to keep them fresh for longer. Those are my tips. You have to use fresh beans that you can get local. You can do the Lachelom. I do the subscription service. So I get it every two weeks. But that's how long it usually takes me to go through one of these boxes. Maybe like a little bit over two weeks. So I'm going to walk you through my settings in the machine. So first I'm going to go to the settings gear and then I'm going to go down to brew temperature. I have it set at ideal. I believe it comes at a different setting but make sure the brew temperature is set to ideal. So I have the double shot of espresso in the portafilter. I find that this is the best way to use it. The single shot, it's not as easy to get a balanced pack of espresso grind if that makes sense. So I just wanted to point that out. I have the grind amount set to 15 seconds. I find that that's a perfect amount of ground espresso. And then I have it set to size 11. And I find that that's a good general size for espresso beans. So I'm going to go ahead and grind them. Okay. I also use these towels for my coffee. You'll understand why in a second. But I get them from Home Depot in a huge pack and they just make the cleanup process really easy. So you'll notice that there's a lot of ground coffee that's kind of overflowing the portafilter a little bit. I want all of the ground coffee. And this is where a scale would come into play. But I just, I just don't feel the need to have one. So I kind of cup my hand behind it to get all of that fall out. I put it on here and I sprinkle it on top. It's okay if not all of it gets in there. I try and scoop as much of the coffee beans into here as possible. You want all of this. I know a lot of people. I see them knock it off. And there's just not enough ground espresso in the portafilter to pull a good shot. So you have to have enough of the ground espresso in here as well. So that's another key thing. Okay. So you want all of that extra. I always try to make sure I get an even press for it. And you don't want to use too much pressure or too light pressure. That is just trial and error. So just make sure it's pretty even not too firm a pressure, not too light to where it's packed pretty perfectly. Like that. So you want to make sure when this espresso is coming out, it's coming out between seven and nine seconds after you press brew. And it does have a little countdown on the machine. So it will tell you when it's coming out and you'll see it. So you don't want it to come out too quickly and you don't want it to come out too slow. So it's going to be sour or it's going to be bitter. And you want it to be a beautiful pour. So this is what the coffee coming out is supposed to look like. It's supposed to be a solid stream coming out of the machine. And you'll see here the beautiful foam on top of the espresso shot. So you don't want it to come out too quickly and too watery and you don't want it to come out too slow. So I think this is the perfect espresso shot. That is exactly how it's supposed to come out to achieve this perfect espresso shot. There are so many different things that go into this machine and pulling the perfect espresso shot. So I really hope these tips and tricks that I mentioned and my little walkthrough process of how I get my perfect at home espresso using the Breville Burista Touch helped you. And anyway, I will link this machine down below. It's actually on sale right now at William Sonoma. And also I'll link the couple hundred dollar cheaper option, the Breville Burista Express at William Sonoma as well. And I believe that machine is on sale too. So if you're interested in getting it for yourself, a family member for the households for the holiday season, definitely check it out because they don't always do sales on this machine. So I hope you guys enjoyed this video. If you have any additional questions, definitely leave them in the comments down below. Go ahead and give this video a thumbs up. It really helps support my channel and I will see you guys in my next video. Bye.