The Breville Barista lineup is undoubtedly one of the most popular and best-valued lines of espresso makers on the market. Certainly, you can use your Breville’s coffee machine on its own. However, if you are a coffee geek who likes to strive for the best cup of espresso, then you will certainly appreciate a few useful accessories.
This list of accessories is not supposed to be exhaustive. Instead, it focuses on the essential tools that will help you streamline and improve the coffee-making process and thus help you get the most out of your Breville!
List of the most helpful accessories for your Breville Barista espresso machine
- Timemore Coffee Scale
- MATOW Coffee Distributor & Tamper
- Hands-Free Dosing Funnel
- Espresso Tamper Mat
- 54mm Naked Bottomless Portafilter
- Espresso Coffee Stirrer
- Single Dose Hopper
- Breville Knock Box
- IMS precision filter basket 54mm
- Dosing cup
Accessories for regular maintenance – filters, descaling solution, and cleaning tablets
1. Timemore Coffee Scale
If you want to enjoy a consistently great-tasting cup of coffee every time, then you need to be consistent while making it. One of the most critical factors in the espresso-making process is keeping your dose and the final yield in check. For this purpose, you need a high-precision coffee scale with an accuracy of 0.1g. If you do not own a coffee scale of any kind already, then purchasing one should be the No. 1 accessory to go for.
If you are wondering why you need a scale for espresso brewing and how to use it, we highly recommend checking out our Ultimate Guide For the Breville Barista Pro, where you can get a good grasp of its importance.
The Timemore Black Mirror Basic (Amazon link) is our favorite coffee scale that fits perfectly with the Breville Barista Pro. It seems almost as if the Timemore was made for the Black Truffle version of the Breville Barista Pro. We love this scale for its 0.1g precision, perfect size that can comfortably fit the portafilter, as well as its beautiful and waterproof design. Another advantage is the built-in battery supporting USB-c fast charging and advanced features such as an auto timing function that will measure the time of extraction from the first drip.
The only downside we found is that there are no button symbols, which means that when the scale is turned off, it is not clear which way the scale is orientated. This could be a minor inconvenience for those who often manipulate with the scale. Some may also lack the possibility to change units to imperial, but in the coffee world, the metric system is the way to go.
Overall we think the Timemore is a great all-around coffee scale for espresso brewing and an excellent value for the price, especially if you compare it to its competitors, such as the Acaia scales (Amazon link), which are almost 5x more expensive.
Budget option
If you are on a budget looking for a coffee scale and the main thing you care about is its precision (which we consider to be the most important aspect of a good coffee scale), then we can recommend this budget alternative (Amazon link). While it doesn’t have any fancy features, isn’t waterproof, and it’s a bit on the smaller side, the scale is precise and will do a good job of weighing your coffee beans as well as the espresso extraction.
2. MATOW Coffee Distributor & Tamper
Thanks to tools such as Matow Coffe Distributor & Tamper (Amazon link), you can instantly get rid of these problems. You can easily adjust the height of the distributor as well as the tamper depth with a couple of turns of the helix, and you’re good to go! Along with the coffee scale, the 2 in 1 tamper and coffee distributor are among the two most essential accessories for making excellent espresso at home.
If you already have one, then we highly recommend you read our dedicated article, where we explain in detail how to properly set up and use this simple yet extremely useful tool.
3. Hands-Free Dosing Funnel
Spilling ground coffee while making espresso is not only annoying but also quite wasteful. In order to solve this problem, we recommend purchasing a hands-free dosing funnel, which in our opinion, is a better option than the classical ring funnel. With the hands-free dosing funnel (Amazon link), you will be able to insert the portafilter into the grinder and trigger the grinder’s start button as it was originally designed. Keep in mind that if you decide to buy a classical dosing ring, the portafilter will no longer fit into the grinding outlet, thus making the grinding process a bit more cumbersome.
4. Espresso Tamper Mat
5. 54mm Naked Bottomless Portafilter
If you love coffee and you are always striving to improve your coffee-making skills, then you may want to consider purchasing a bottomless, aka naked portafilter (Amazon link).
The bottomless portafilter is like a window into the espresso extraction process, which can reveal its potential flaws such as channeling and thus can help you improve your espresso-making technique. On top of that, the “naked” espresso just looks cool!
The Definition of Channeling
“It’s when water finds a specific narrow path through the puck of coffee instead of flowing through the entire bed evenly.” (Source)
Channeling in the coffee puck causes over-extraction of certain parts of the puck and under extraction of some others, which may lead to an espresso with a thin body, unpleasant bitterness, lack of flavor, and sweetness.
6. Espresso Coffee Stirrer
7. Single Dose Hopper
Have you ever noticed the difference between the weight of your coffee beans before you grind them and the resulting weight of the ground coffee in the portafilter? The difference is generally around 0.5g and sometimes even more. As you probably already know, if you have 0.5g less coffee in the portafilter, this will negatively impact the extraction process, likely resulting in a poor taste of the final espresso. This is one of the reasons why zero retention grinders such as the Niche grinder are so popular nowadays despite being an expensive accessory.
Grind retention not only makes the process of espresso brewing more difficult and frustrating but also negatively impacts the taste of the coffee by mixing the remains of the stale grinds from the last time with the fresh ones.
Even though we think the price is relatively high for this particular accessory (Amazon link) due to its newness and lack of alternatives on the market, if you want to get as close to zero retention grinding as possible with your Breville Barista, then this accessory is the way to go!
8. Breville Knock Box
Getting disposed of used coffee pucks can be a messy business, especially if your Breville is not situated near a sink or a trash can. The Breville’s Knock Box takes care of this issue by providing a designated place for you to dispose of your used coffee pucks.
Both of them feature a non-slip base and are made of stainless steel that is durable and robust, but the larger Breville Knock Box also comes with a handy removable inner bowl that is dishwasher safe, so it’s even easier to clean. Finally, if you have purchased your Breville Barista in a stainless steel finish, both of these Knock Boxes will perfectly match your machine.
9. IMS precision filter basket 54mm
IMS precision filter basket (Amazon link) is not your ordinary filter basket. While Breville’s stock filter basket is certainly capable of making a great cup of espresso, the IMS basket is designed for those who want to take their espresso game up a notch.
Wondering what makes this filter basket so special?
As the name suggests, the main advantage of the IMS Precision Filter Basket lies in its precision. Unlike Breville’s original filter basket, the IMS basket has an incredibly consistent size and shape of each hole inside the filter. Those differences aren’t visible to the naked eye, but they certainly make a noticeable difference in the taste of your espresso. Thanks to the slightly larger and more uniform holes, you’ll have to grind a little finer, which will allow you to extract more flavors and aromas from your coffee beans, resulting in a sweeter and overall richer cup of espresso.
Interesting fact:
When you use the IMS basket, you will likely need to grind your coffee a little finer (2-3 steps finer on the Breville Barista Pro) than if you would use Breville’s stock filter to achieve the same time of extraction.
10. Dosing cup
Preheating your portafilter with water is an essential step in the coffee-making process, but did you know that after rinsing your portafilter, it can retain up to 4 grams of water?
Accessories for regular maintenance – filters, descaling solution, and cleaning tablets
In order to keep your Breville coffee maker in the best condition for years to come, it is important not to forget about regular maintenance.
Since the issue of coffee machine maintenance is a broader topic, we have prepared three separate articles for you. In the following articles, you will find all the necessary information about accessories for regular maintenance, such as:
1. Which descaler is the best for you, Breville, and how to descale your coffee machine.
2. How to choose the right filter and how to replace it.
3. How to perform the flush cleaning cycle and which cleaning tablets to use.
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