MACHINES · STARTER STACK · $600–750
This is the stack for people who want real espresso and would also like to keep paying rent. Nothing in it needs an apology, a mod kit, or a forum account.
Three things. A machine, a grinder that can actually do espresso, and a scale. That’s the whole list. Everything else is optional, and most of it is optional forever.
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The math, honestly
The headline makes a promise, so let’s show our work, in price bands. The Bambino Plus falls in the $400–500 band. The Encore ESP sits around the $150–250 band. A decent 0.1 g scale is in the $15–50 band. Add them up and the stack lands roughly $600–750, depending on sales.
So where does the headline number come from? Machine prices move. When we checked in October 2026, Breville’s own site had the Bambino Plus marked down below list. With the machine on sale, the stack lands in the lower part of that range, which is the target in our headline. Pay full price for everything and you’ll be near the top of it. Either way, check current price before you buy. Prices change faster than blog posts, and we’d rather tell you that than pretend.
The headline is a target, not a promise carved in granite. Prices move. Check current price.
Why this machine
The Bambino Plus is small and quick. Breville says its ThermoJet heater is ready in 3 seconds. It uses a 54mm portafilter built for an 18 g dose, does a low-pressure pre-infusion, then extracts at 9 bar. The steam wand can texture milk automatically, with three temperatures and three texture levels, or you can take over and do it manually.
The box also covers your day-one accessories: a 54mm tamper, the Razor dosing tool, a 16 fl oz (480 ml) milk jug, and both single wall and dual wall baskets. Fewer things to buy is a feature.
Skip it if you want a 58mm portafilter and a machine you’ll tinker with for years. That’s the Gaggia Classic Pro (E24) lane, and it costs more once you add a grinder. See our Gaggia pairing.
Why this grinder
The Encore ESP uses 40mm steel conical burrs and splits its dial in two. Settings 1 to 20 are small-step espresso settings. Settings 21 to 40 are for filter coffee, so it can still make your weekend pour-over. Baratza includes a dosing cup that fits 54mm portafilters, which happens to be exactly what the Bambino Plus uses, plus a 58mm adapter if you upgrade later. The burr pops out without tools for cleaning.
This is the part of the budget we’d defend hardest. Based on specs, owner reports, and price, a grinder that can make small espresso adjustments matters more than anything the machine does. That’s our whole site, really. Grinder first.
Why a scale
Espresso recipes are written in grams. Breville sizes the Bambino’s double basket for 16 to 19 g. Eyeballing that range is how you end up chasing ghosts.
CoffeeGeek’s Natia Simmons wrote that before she got a 0.1 g scale, her espresso doses were off by as much as 1 to 1.5 grams, and that a cheap scale improved her espresso more than almost anything else besides a good grinder. You don’t need a fancy one. A basic 0.1 g scale that fits on the drip tray will do. Here’s an Amazon search for 0.1 g espresso scales.
What we left out on purpose
- A knock box, a WDT tool, a bottomless portafilter. Nice later. See the accessories hub when you’re ready.
- A second tamper or milk jug. The machine already came with one of each.
- A milk thermometer. In auto mode the Bambino Plus lets you pick from three milk temperatures.
Two other ways to spend about the same money
One box instead of two. The Breville Barista Express has a built-in conical burr grinder with 16 settings. It sits in the $500–700 band, depending on sales; check current price. It’s tidy and it saves counter space. The tradeoff is that the grinder lives inside the machine. We walk through it in Barista Express vs a separate grinder.
The 58mm route. The Gaggia Classic Pro (E24) sits in the $400–600 band; check current price. Add a real espresso grinder and you’re well past the headline number. It’s a different, more manual machine for a different person. Details in the Gaggia pairing.
Basis: manufacturer specs and manuals, the references linked below, and price. We have not run this gear through our own testing, and we won’t pretend otherwise.
Sources
- Breville: Bambino Plus product page
- Breville: Bambino Plus instruction booklet (PDF)
- Baratza: Encore ESP product page
- Baratza: Encore ESP operations manual (PDF)
- Breville: Barista Express product page
- Gaggia North America: Classic Pro E24 product page
- CoffeeGeek: Want to Improve Coffee? Get a Scale (2024)
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