Sunbeam Barista Max Espresso Machine Review: Is It Worth It?

Friends, prior to scoring ourselves the Sunbeam Barista Max Espresso Machine, our share house was living off sunshine, instant coffee and a $30 milk frother. Which was fine, but also made for an easy case of buying a coffee the minute you leave the house. So to say we were excited to unbox the Barista Max was an understatement.

In case you too aren’t a fancy coffee girlie household, but dream of that delicious, creamy brew, we’re going to do a little share house review of our experiences for you. We all take our coffee differently — dirty chai, cap, americano, chai etc. — but we’ve all been waking up to this baby for the last few weeks and have some thoughts.

Here we go!

Firstly, let’s take a look at some specs, shall we?

I’ll start this review by saying that the minute I unpacked this, I was impressed. Not only by the quality but by how simple it was to set up. I reckon it took us five minutes (ten if you count the minutes my boyfriend spent looking for the plug in the water tank) before we were ready to brew a beautiful drop.

The instructions for your first brew are super straightforward to follow. It does take the machine a minute or two to heat up each time you switch it on, but if you factor that into your morning, it’s a pretty easy fix.

One of the biggest perks about getting the Barista Max over the smaller models is that it comes with a built-in grinder. You can choose how coarse or how fine you want your coffee to be ground down to before using the tap-and-go grinder and popping it into the group head. Once you lock the head into place, select either one or two cups, place your mug under neither and watch the good bean juice flow.

While you’re waiting for your shot(s) of coffee, you can use the steam wand to make some silky smooth milk. I’ll admit, our household froths alternative milk (oat and soy), so it was a little trickier to master the froth factor, but with a few practices, we’re almost at barista level now. The machine also makes it very easy, you simply turn the dial to steam and hold your milk jug correctly and off you go. It can get a little screechy if you’re holding the jug incorrectly, but you’ll know almost immediately by the sound and can easily adjust it. If you’ve never frothed milk before, you can find our handy how-to guide here.

Since this is a sharehouse review, I’ve asked my roomies to kindly send me their thoughts and feelings after spending two weeks on the grind.

“As a very amateur barista, I have zilch to compare it to, but I would say it’s beginner friendly! When it’s been made for me, I’ve definitely enjoyed a good frothy coffee and the double shot feature is nice for the extra-strong coffee lover. I would recommend it to a novice barista for sure.” — Emily

“Considering I get to use a fancy machine at home I have zero complaints (laughs). It’s super easy to use and feels fancy. The only thing I’d change would be to have the coffee ground release thing start by pushing the holder to the back, not pulling it down, because I worry that would break eventually.” — Bianca

“It’s very aesthetic, and a good size! I like how the milk frother is attached so there’s something for everyone including the non-coffee drinkers. Plus, it’s very easy to use.” — Jess

“First of all, it was a super easy set-up. I loved the simplicity of it, it really caters to all skill levels and isn’t overwhelming if you’ve never made a barista-style coffee before. It also makes a good, strong coffee that’s full of flavour if you like the bean. My only gripe, and it’s not machine related, is that if you were fairly fresh to making coffee it can take a bit to get your head around the milk frother and is super screechy if you’re not frothing it correctly. But after a few uses, you’ll pick it up. I also liked that it was really easy to clean post-coffee. I rate it!” — Blake

Honestly, there’s very little about this machine that isn’t good, and any minor things we’ve noticed, can all be easily fixed by making slight changes to our coffee routines. If I had to pick out some improvements though, I’d say the heat-up time at the start can be a little long. So turning the machine on first thing and then doing something else in the kitchen is an easy way to avoid waiting around.

I think the only real issues you’d have with this machine would be user error ones, so all easily fixed. And, if you do any mechanical issues, just make sure you’ve registered your machine for warranty via Sunbeam to ensure it’s covered by a replacement or repair guarantee.

Honestly, it does what it says on the tin (and more). We’re all super chuffed with how good the coffee has been, and how silky and smooth the milk froths. It’s really easy to use even if you’ve never made a cup of jitters before, and everything about using the machine is pretty straightforward.

In terms of price, I’d say this machine sits on the more affordable end for a bigger, barista-quality machine ($565 average). If you’re like me and you live in a sharehouse, it would be easy to get everyone to chuck in it to make it even more affordable. There are also a few good sales on them floating around the internet, so be sure to do your research like we did.

You can buy one for yourself here.

Turns out, Lifehacker Australia has more than a few coffee fiends among us, we’ve got a whole stack of coffee machine reviews over here if you fancy a read.

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