Shopping for a brand new espresso machine? I check them for a dwelling, and the Sage Luxe Brewer Thermal is my favourite up to now this yr
As TechRadar’s resident barista, I’m lucky enough to test a new coffee maker every few weeks. There have been some real stars so far in 2025, but so far one has really stood out – the Sage Luxe Brewer Thermal, which I gave a full five stars in my review.
If you’re outside the UK, this coffee maker is called the Breville Luxe Brewer Thermal. They’re exactly the same, just sold under different names to avoid confusion with an unrelated British company named Breville.
This drip coffee machine doesn’t just look good, it’s also solidly made and thoughtfully designed. Furthermore, it’s the machine I’ll be watching out for in the upcoming Amazon Prime Big Deal Days and Black Friday sales.
It keeps your coffee piping hot
One of the most important features of a drip coffee maker is its ability to keep your coffee warm, particularly if you’re using a timer to prepare a brew ready for breakfast, but surprisingly, not all models offer this.
Before the Luxe Brewer Thermal, I had the opportunity to test the Fellow Aiden Precision Coffee Maker. It’s a very high-quality, thoughtfully crafted machine that’s a favorite among many coffee roasters I’ve met, but is tragically let down by a carafe that lets heat escape much too quickly.
I knew something was amiss during testing when I could feel how much heat was radiating off its surface, and my brewed coffee had cooled off noticeably within 20 minutes of brewing. The pitcher is meant to be double-walled, so it was puzzling.
That’s not the case with the Luxe Brewer Thermal, though. Its pitcher might not be quite so stylish as Aiden’s matte black jug, but it does its job exceptionally well. My coffee stayed at the ideal drinking temperature for over four hours after brewing, and the outside was totally cool to the touch.
Usually, when I’m testing coffee makers, I have to shift various items off my kitchen counter first and shuffle things around awkwardly to make room for a chopping board when I want to make dinner. That wasn’t the case with the Breville Luxe Brewer Thermal, which has a footprint of just 14.7 x 7 inches / 37 x 18cm.
It’s super slim, which meant I could just tuck it beside my toaster and still have plenty of space to cook. It’s fairly tall (16 inches / 41cm), but it still fits under my kitchen cupboards.
It makes old-school cold-brew hassle-free
At least half the espresso machines I’ve tested this year have offered some sort of cold-brew function, using ambient-temperature water and an extended pre-infusion time to extract a smoother-tasting shot. They generally work rather well (the Jura J10 being my favorite), but it’s not so common with drip machines, and sometimes you just can’t beat a big pitcher of old-fashioned cold-brewed filter coffee.
For me, there are two things holding me back from making cold-brew more often: space and mess. Like my kitchen counters, my fridge is quite small, and I usually don’t have room for a big jug of water and coffee grounds to sit and infuse overnight. I’m also not a big fan of having to pour the brewed coffee through a filter afterwards.
With the Luxe Brewer Thermal, brewing cold is just as easy as brewing hot. Just add your ground coffee and water, select the ‘cold’ option from the menu, and the timer will begin counting down from 24 hours. The next day, you’ll have all the cold brew you want, with no fuss.