The Sanremo YOU is a premium espresso machine bridging the gap between the domestic and commercial markets.
First unveiled in 2021, the YOU is a multi-boiler, pressure profiling espresso machine with a quiet rotary pump offering a top-end workflow and user experience.
Coming in as the more premium single group head espresso machine from Sanremo, the YOU comes in at roughly double the cost of their other model the Sanremo Cube, starting at around £6,000.
So, let’s dive into all the features, user experience, workflow, design and build to see exactly what you’re paying for with the Sanremo YOU.
Brewing Coffee on the Sanremo YOU
The YOU is a pleasure to make coffee with. The tactile feedback and sounds of the brew process are incredibly satisfying, and you’re able to control every aspect of the coffee brewing parameters.
The YOU features pressure profiling: With the programmable shot profiles and manual paddle, the user can directly influence pressure from 0-12 bars on the fly, during the shot.
With shot volume and pressure, and by extension flow rate, controlled by the user, you can brew every conceivable style of espresso with the YOU. Flow rate topped out at an impressive 17.5ml/s during our testing, which allowed for fast ‘turbo shot’ styles of espresso.
Boiler and group head temperatures are controllable to 0.1 degree accuracy and remain impressively stable, with live readings given during the shot. Shot volumes are measured with water through the group head, rather than by weighing the finished product. This allows for repeatable profiles reducing human error and eliminating the need for an additional scale.
This machine gives you everything you could need to brew delicious coffee in every possible style of espresso, from the modern light roast turbo shots to the short Italian ristretto. With six preinstalled profiles and up to 10 customisable profiles, the YOU lets you record and repeat a manual brew with incredible accuracy or brew to a premade recipe.
With control over each brew parameter, impressive stability and repeatability, the YOU allows the most creative and informed barista to craft a range of incredible coffee styles. Though, with built in profiles and intuitive manual brewing, the YOU also allows a more novice user to brew delicious coffee without the confusion and stress of having to control each parameter.
Steaming Milk with the Sanremo YOU
Once again, steaming milk on the Sanremo YOU is an absolute pleasure. With the 1 litre steam boiler being programmable from 0-2 bar to an accuracy of 0.1, you get a range of steam power options.
Compared to the steaming capabilities of many domestic espresso machines, we were really impressed with the power of the machine. We found great results setting the steam boiler to 1.4 bas of pressure which gave plenty of time to properly texture and swirl the milk without being too powerful.
Those more used to the power of commercial steam wands will be very happy with the power and speed of the YOU when set at 2 bars, steaming a 12oz latte in around 15s.
There’s a few other nice touches around the milk steaming; the cool touch steam wand means there’s no need for a rubber grip, and the automatic steam purge feature just gives you one less thing to worry about whilst concentrating on your tulips and rosettas.
Want to see what comes in the box? Check out our unboxing of the Sanremo YOU
Workflow and User Experience
The user experience is just pure fun. Though the machine is advanced technically and offers a lot of automation, the tactile aspects and sounds of the machine make it feel very hands-on as if you’re actually crafting the espresso similar to a manual brewer.
The machine comes up to boiler temperature in just 5 minutes, but it takes another 10-15 minutes to achieve proper temperature stability at the group head. However, with the energy saving and quality of life features that we’ll cover below, the machine can be ready to brew before your alarm goes off in the morning.
All parts of the machine you interact with feel great, with a responsive touch screen, cool metals and hard plastics. The paddle has a satisfying click when it reaches far enough for the brew to kick on/off, and the steam wand switch is essentially instantaneous.
We should also mention the brilliant hot water dispenser, which mixes a ratio of cold and hot water from the steam boiler. You can set the ratio in the menu, and the mixture means a more constant temperature that rids of the steam and sputtering you typically get with commercial machines.
Software on the Sanremo YOU
As mentioned, the YOU offers a number of energy saving and quality of life features including an auto standby timer, an on-and-off time slot clock, and the ability to turn the boilers off separately.
Brew parameters are directly controlled from the ‘service parameters’ menu, including coffee and steam boiler temperature, group head temperature, hot water ratio and time, and steam pressure. When brewing, you get a live view of the temperature, pressure, time and shot volume, along with a detailed graph and summary after the brew.
The YOU’s firmware can be updated by the user via a USB socket at the rear left hand side for software updates and bug fixes. Sanremo are listening to feedback having already made a number of bug fix and quality of life updates to the machine, and this feature means the machine will keep improving as time goes on.
Sanremo YOU Design and Build Quality
I’ve already mentioned how nice the machine is to use, and build quality is a large part of that. Materials are solid, tolerances are tight, and the machine comes in at a weighty 32kg.
The design language is probably most similar to Sanremo’s F18 commercial machine, looking more sleek and understated than some of their other machines namely the Racer and Opera.
The YOU can be plumbed into a water supply and wasteage, though the 2l water tank and 1l drip tray give you plenty of flexibility in a more domestic setting. The drip tray can be adjusted, but we would like for a little more flexibility here; one of the two settings is only suitable for transport as water spills over the drip tray when flushing the group head at this setting.
The water tank is easy to refill from the top of the machine, though you’ll have to take off any cups you’ve stored. Cup storage is relatively generous considering the size of the machine, easily fitting 6 small cups before needing to stack them up.
So, Who is it For?
This machine is impressive and incredibly capable, with the price tag to go with it. Many home baristas and businesses would be perfectly happy with the quality of coffee from a machine a fraction of the price.
So, who is the Sanremo YOU for? In our opinion, it’s for the coffee fanatics with money to spend. There’s no doubt that the machine is capable of brewing delicious coffee, but so are espresso machines a fraction of the price.
It’s often said that a trained barista on a terrible machine can make better coffee than a newbie on a premium machine. If you’re a newbie looking towards the YOU to solve all your coffee problems, we might suggest starting with something cheaper like upgrading your coffee grinder or watching a few of our ‘Bridge’s Guide to Coffee’ YouTube series.
If you’re strongly considering the YOU, it’s because you want all of the advanced coffee brewing features in a beautifully designed, tactile and cohesive package. For that reason, we see it being popular amongst the well-off home baristas, premium hotels and restaurants, or places like a car showroom where the wow factor is important.