By Claire Reilly

SYDNEY, NSW: It took 3.5 years, dedicated designers and engineers, and many sleepless nights, but Breville has finally unveiled its most ambitious coffee machine with the launch of the Dual Boiler espresso machine in Sydney last night.

Inspired by the twin-boiler design of many commercial machines, the BES900 gives consumers the opportunity to take complete control over their coffee experience. The water temperature is programmable to within 1° Celsius, the heated group head keeps coffee hot until pouring and the dual-boiler design allows for simultaneous coffee extraction and milk texturing.

The result is a “world-first release [that] compresses the benefits of a large-scale commercial machine into a home-friendly footprint with an affordable price tag for passionate coffee enthusiasts,” said a Breville spokesperson.

Breville’s beverage business manager David Gubbin insists that this project had “no previous platform”. Rather than adjusting existing models and machines to achieve a new design, the project team built the machine “from the ground up”.

Breville said the design team were concerned with “making the process simpler for the budding barista” (with features such as a simple lever for activating steam and a cute “empty me” tab that pops up when the drip tray is full) as well as ensuring the consistency of quality in the final cup.

But it’s not just the engineers and designers who had a hand in creating this new machine—the coffee die-hards were involved in research and development too. Coffee aficionado Phil McKnight (under the official title of “Coffee Guru and Beverage Specialist”) was involved in tasting and tweaking during the design process.

“We’re tasting the coffee at the end of the day,” Gubbin said, insisting that it took many sips to get the final product just right. Gubbin said that by building the machine from the ground up, Breville had the opportunity to create a machine that was innovative and unique, and one that would make a consistently great cup of coffee.

The Breville BES900 has an RRP of $1,500.

The Breville BES900 Dual Boiler espresso machine.