In the debate of Gaggia Anima Prestige vs Breville Barista Touch, I have picked out the winner after considering their coffee flavor, stability, milk system, cleaning, and additional features. Breville Barista Touch is our worthy winner.
Thanks to its PID technology that maintains the water temperature stable, Breville Barista Touch never fails to extract the most even, rich, and aromatic coffee. With its touchscreen that offers easy control over the settings, I believe this product will satisfy even first-timers. The quality is no joke with this device.
As for the runner-up Gaggia Anima Prestige, I adore the nuanced and creamy coffee that it delivers cup after cup. Cleaning also is an easy task with this machine. But some features make this machine unable to surpass Barista Touch in this debate.
Gaggia Anima Prestige vs Breville Barista Touch: Comparison Chart
Last update on 2023-03-02 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Gaggia Anima Prestige vs Breville Barista Touch: Differences
Breville Barista Touch wins 3 – 1 in the debate against Gaggia Anima Prestige thanks to its robust coffee flavor, stable temperature control, among other convenient additional features like super quick heat-up time or diverse one-touch drinks.
Coffee Flavor: Breville Barista Touch
Grinder
Both machines are designed with a conical burr grinder to grind beans evenly without heating the grounds. For me, this is the best type of coffee grinder on the market. Gaggia Anima Prestige and Breville Barista Touch are designed with variable grind setting as well to accommodate different types of beans.
Here is my experience with the grinder on Breville Barista Touch: amazing! This grinder works smoothly and I always get even grounds, which is very important to achieve a balanced and robust coffee flavor. But I notice that the machine can get noisy sometimes during the grinding process, though it’s not a common problem.
As for the Gaggia Anima Prestige, the operation is not that great. In the first 2 months, I didn’t notice any problem, the grinder was working smoothly and even made less noise than the Barista Touch. But later, I started to find uneven lumps in the coffee grounds, and the grinder jammed once or twice.
I had to send the machine back and thanks to the warranty I got a new one without trouble. So far the new device has been working great and I don’t encounter the same problem as the previous one. So it seems that the jamming situation is not dueled to the product line but to defective ones.
Dosing + tamping
Both machines control the dose automatically and precisely, so I don’t have anything to complain about when it comes to dosing. We can even adjust the dose thanks to the variable customization of these models.
Personally, I prefer the dosing and tamping operation on the Gaggia Anima Prestige since they are entirely automatic. The machine grinds, doses, and stamps the pucks without requiring my assistance.
As for the Breville Barista Touch, we have to tamp the puck manually. So if you don’t have experience with espresso machines, you have to investigate a bit to achieve the best puck.
Anyhow, this is not a difficult task. For users with experience and those who enjoy the art of coffee, it doesn’t take more than a few brews to master the tamping technique. Just make sure that you don’t tamp with too much pressure the first time.
Heating system
The pair is designed with a single boiler, but surprisingly they heat up to brewing temperature very quickly. I recommend these espresso makers to any users out there who enjoy brewing a quick cup of coffee.
But, the water temperature is much more stable with Breville Barista Touch, which I believe is thanks to its PID technology. The water temperature easily reaches 195F to 200F without losing intensity during brewing processes.
Thus, I always get a nutty and slightly bitter (in a good way) espresso flavor with a full-bodied texture. So I’m quite satisfied with the heat control of Barista Touch and its 67oz water tank.
As for the Gaggia Anima Prestige with its 61oz tank, it isn’t equipped with any precise-temperature technology. But so far, I haven’t caught it in bad condition where it delivers a weak or bitter coffee taste. The flavor is very nuanced and rich, and the texture is creamy and full of crema.
Brewing technique
Thanks to the low-pressure pre-infusion technology, these machines can bring out all the notes and aromas of the coffee beans that you choose.
However, if you are interested in brewing coffee with one touch of a button, here is what you will get with each model:
- With Breville Barista Touch, you get 5 one-touch beverage options that make espresso, americano, latte, cappuccino, and flat white quickly and easily. The coffee volume, milk temperature, milk texture can be adjusted according to your taste.
- With Gaggia Anima Prestige, you get 4 one-touch options which are espresso, lungo, macchiato, cappuccino. All are famous drinks, though I have to admit that they seem less creative than those of the model above.
Utilities: Breville Barista Touch
The interface of the Breville is what caught my attention. I really like the touchscreen that we have with this model. It is much easier to control since it is so similar to our smartphones. The settings for coffee volume, milk texture, and milk temperature appear when I press on any drink. So I would say that, convenience-wise, Breville Barista Touch is the winner of this round.
Milk system: Tie
With the Gaggia Anima Prestige, we get to use a milk carafe that does all the work for us. The carafe can hold up to 0.5L so we can store it in the fridge without any problem. With the Breville model, we get a powerful steam wand to froth micro-foam milk in a more manual way.
Even though the introduction of Gaggia doesn’t mention anything about micro-foam, I can easily pull a cup of thick, creamy, and airy foam for cappuccinos as well. So overall, I love the milk system on both machines.
Cleaning & Maintain: Tie
You can count on this pair to clean their steam wands or milk path automatically. So it is not hectic every time you do a deep clean. However, Gaggia is slightly better in this aspect since it can descale the boiler quickly as well.
Gaggia Anima Prestige vs Breville Barista Touch: Similarities
Flavor-wise, I enjoy the performance of both Gaggia Anima Prestige and Breville Barista Touch. And the low-pressure pre-infusion plays a huge part in this matter. Find out more about the similarities between 2 models.
Low pressure pre-infusion
Instead of forcing pressure on the coffee puck immediately when entering the brewing process, these espresso makers take time for the hot water to sip through the puck evenly before slowly increasing the pressure to extract every note of flavor from coffee grounds.
15 bars of pump pressure is more than enough to pull espresso shots, and it helps with thickening the crema layer as well.
Quick heat-up time
There is a difference in the heat-up time between our candidates but since both are quick, I suppose it’s fair to say that they perform wonderfully at heating water to brewing temperature.
With the Breville Barista Touch, we can start the brewing process after only 3 seconds of waiting because that is the time it takes for the machine to heat up. The Gaggia Anima Prestige takes slightly more time, but the amount varies from 10 to 25 seconds only.
Quick Rundown Of Breville Barista Touch
- Note: 1)Too coarse a grind, too little coffee, or insufficiently tamping the grounds before brewing can all lead to inadequate pressure for a proper brew. 2)It is important to note that the amount of espresso extracted will vary depending on the grind size and amount and reprogramming may be needed when the size and amount are adjusted
- SINGLE SERVE COFFEE and ESPRESSO MACHINE: Single serve coffee or espresso at the touch of a button. Innovative programs and features such as 25 sec heat up and energy saving automatic shut off.
- COFFEE FOR EVERY OCCASION: Brew better coffee at home with Nespresso's coffee espresso machine. Drink your coffee bold, mild hot, or iced.
- VERSATILE COFFEE MAKER: Brew 4 different cup sizes at the touch of a button (5oz and 8oz coffee, single and double espresso). Pour over ice to create your favorite blend of iced coffee and lattes.
- INCLUDES: One Vertuo Nespresso coffee machine with a large 40 ounce water tank, a 10 count used pods container.
Last update on 2023-03-03 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Quick Rundown Of Gaggia Anima Prestige
- Note: 1)Too coarse a grind, too little coffee, or insufficiently tamping the grounds before brewing can all lead to inadequate pressure for a proper brew. 2)It is important to note that the amount of espresso extracted will vary depending on the grind size and amount and reprogramming may be needed when the size and amount are adjusted
- SINGLE SERVE COFFEE and ESPRESSO MACHINE: Single serve coffee or espresso at the touch of a button. Innovative programs and features such as 25 sec heat up and energy saving automatic shut off.
- COFFEE FOR EVERY OCCASION: Brew better coffee at home with Nespresso's coffee espresso machine. Drink your coffee bold, mild hot, or iced.
- VERSATILE COFFEE MAKER: Brew 4 different cup sizes at the touch of a button (5oz and 8oz coffee, single and double espresso). Pour over ice to create your favorite blend of iced coffee and lattes.
- INCLUDES: One Vertuo Nespresso coffee machine with a large 40 ounce water tank, a 10 count used pods container.
Last update on 2023-03-03 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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References:
- Breville Barista Touch: https://www.breville.com/us/en/products/espresso/bes880.html
- Gaggia Anima Prestige: https://gaggia.com/automatic-machines/anima-prestige/#
I am a passionate coffee drinker. Since I left my job as a barista a few years back in 2012, I’ve been sharing my expertise on coffee and buying the best coffee equipment online. That’s how Wild Boar Coffee came to life.
I write about everything coffee-related under the sun. Where to buy the freshest coffee beans from? How to test coffee beans based on texture, aroma, and acidity?
I know all this from scratch – all thanks to my years and years of experience as a barista. So I’ve gotten real up-close-and-personal with coffee beans and different brewing techniques.