Quick Answer: The Breville Oracle Touch (BES990) is a roughly $2,500 espresso machine that fully automates grinding, dosing and tamping into a real 58mm commercial-style portafilter, then pulls the shot and steams milk simultaneously using two independent boilers. Per Breville, it holds an 84-ounce water tank and about a half-pound bean hopper, and its 5-inch touchscreen saves 5 pre-programmed drinks plus 8 customizable settings. The dual boilers are the entire reason it costs roughly $500 more than the cheaper Oracle Jet, which uses a single ThermoJet element and brews and steams one at a time instead of together.
Breville’s Oracle line is built to answer a specific question: can a machine hand you café-quality espresso at the touch of a screen without sacrificing real portafilter hardware? The Oracle Touch is the top of that line, and it’s the version that doesn’t ask you to compromise on speed for a crowd. Below is our full take on the hardware, what the dual boilers actually buy you in daily use, and how it stacks up against the cheaper Oracle Jet. (Cross-shopping the whole lineup? See our best Breville espresso machine guide.)
Breville Oracle Touch, by the numbers
| Spec | Breville Oracle Touch (BES990) |
|---|---|
| Price | ~$2,500 (Breville MSRP) |
| Portafilter | 58 mm, commercial-style (per Breville) |
| Grinder | Integrated conical burr, 45 grind settings (auto-dose) |
| Tamping | Automatic |
| Bean hopper | ~½ lb |
| Heating | Two independent boilers (simultaneous brew + steam) |
| Water tank | 84 fl. oz (~2.5 L) |
| Interface | 5-inch touchscreen, 5 preset drinks + 8 customizable |
| Power | 1800 W |
| Dimensions | 15.4"W x 14.7"D x 17.8"H (per Breville) |
| Warranty | 2-year limited (per Breville) |
The spec that matters most is the one buried in the middle of that table: two boilers, not one. Where the cheaper Oracle Jet heats a single ThermoJet element in about 3 seconds but brews and steams sequentially, the Touch’s dual-boiler design lets it extract a shot and texture milk in the same window — no waiting for the machine to switch modes between drinks. That’s the entire mechanism behind the roughly $500 premium over the Jet.
The Oracle Touch, tested
Breville Oracle Touch (BES990)
- Automatic grind, dose and tamp into a real 58mm commercial-style portafilter — not a sealed bean-to-cup unit.
- Two independent boilers pull the shot and steam milk at the same time.
- 5-inch touchscreen saves 5 preset drinks plus 8 fully customizable settings.
- 84-ounce water tank and ~½ lb hopper are built for repeated use without refilling.
Stocking up on beans and milk to go with your new machine? Try Amazon Fresh for grocery delivery alongside it. In daily use, the automatic tamp removes the single hardest variable to make repeatable by hand: the machine doses the correct amount of ground coffee and presses it with consistent, even pressure every time, so shot-to-shot consistency stops depending on your technique. Tap a saved drink on the 5-inch touchscreen and the Touch grinds, doses, tamps, brews and steams in one uninterrupted sequence.
Where the dual boilers actually show up is pace: making two cappuccinos back to back, the Touch pulls the second shot while still finishing the first drink’s milk, instead of waiting for one heating element to switch jobs. Shot quality itself benefits from the same 58mm portafilter and commercial-style group head used on the Dual Boiler, not the smaller 54mm baskets on the Barista line — so the extra automation doesn’t come at the cost of cup quality.
How it compares to the rest of the automated lineup
| Oracle Touch (BES990) | Oracle Jet (BES985) | Barista Touch Impress | Dual Boiler | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | ~$2,500 | ~$2,000 | ~$1,500 | ~$1,600 |
| Portafilter | 58 mm | 58 mm | 54 mm | 58 mm |
| Tamping | Automatic | Automatic | Assisted (Impress) | Manual |
| Boilers | 2 (independent) | 1 (ThermoJet) | 1 (ThermoJet) | 2 (independent) |
| Brew + steam together | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Best for | Push-button espresso, no compromises | Push-button espresso, lower budget | Guided beginners | Enthusiasts, manual control |
- Get the Oracle Touch if you regularly make back-to-back milk drinks for a household or small office and don’t want to wait between them.
- Save roughly $500 with the Oracle Jet if you mostly make one drink at a time — you keep the same automatic grind-dose-tamp workflow and 58mm portafilter, just without simultaneous brew-and-steam.
- Drop to the Barista Touch Impress if assisted (rather than fully automatic) tamping is good enough and $1,000 matters more than full automation.
- Want full manual control instead of automation at a similar price? Our Dual Boiler guide covers the enthusiast alternative.
Who should buy the Oracle Touch
Buy it if you want café-quality espresso with essentially no manual technique through real portafilter hardware, you regularly serve more than one milk drink in a sitting, and the roughly $2,500 price isn’t the deciding factor. It’s also the right upgrade path for anyone who already owns a Breville Barista-series machine and wants to remove dosing and tamping from the routine entirely without sacrificing shot quality.
Skip it if you’re usually making one drink at a time — the Oracle Jet delivers nearly the same experience for about $500 less and only loses the simultaneous brew-and-steam. Skip it too if you enjoy the hands-on ritual of dosing and tamping yourself — the Barista Express or Barista Pro cost far less and leave that step to you.
The bottom line
The Breville Oracle Touch is the machine to buy when you want zero compromises from an automated espresso machine. For roughly $2,500 you get automatic grinding, dosing and tamping into a real 58mm portafilter, plus dual independent boilers that pull a shot and steam milk at the same time — the one thing the cheaper Oracle Jet can’t do. For solo, one-drink-at-a-time buyers, the Oracle Jet gets you almost the same experience for less. See our best espresso machine guide to see how it stacks up against the whole field.