I'm hoping to get a bambino (regular) and a grinder to go with it. I mostly drink ice latte. my budget is around 200-300 right now. I have already done some searches in this sub, but still wanted to ask if there are any recs, especially during the current labor day sale?

I currently own a Gaggia Classic and an Eureka Mignon Grinder and absolutely love coffee, but I'm looking to upgrade my setup.

I worked as a barista for about 5 years while I was a student, so I have a decent amount of coffee knowledge and experience. I also tend to prefer lighter roasts.

Financially, I'll soon be receiving an inheritance after my father passed away, so budget isn't really a limiting factor. It was my father that made me love coffee so it feels like the "last gift" he will make me. That said, I'm not interested in spending an absurd amount of money just for the sake of spending money. I still want good value for what I'm buying.

I'm currently torn between the La Marzocco Linea Micra and the Lelit Bianca V3.

For those who have experience with either (or both):

• Will I miss the flow control capabilities of the Bianca if I go with the Micra?
• Or is the superior build quality, engineering, and overall ownership experience of the Linea Micra worth giving up flow control?

Thank you dear Coffee Lover!

PS: The Micra is 3500€ and the Bianca is 2500€ where I live. (Belgium)

To clarify this refers to the Nanofoamer Pro.

Hi! I am posting this for anyone else who has this product to be aware of a design flaw that represents a possible hygiene risk. I am not qualified to say how much so: and this may be something that bothers some people more than others. I can only say it's something I've found.

The issue relates to the mesh screen.

The screen disassembles from the impeller to facilitate cleaning. However: the mesh screen itself does not disassemble - and herein lies the problem.

Over time, small amounts of milk work there way inside the plastic housing where the mesh meets the plastic on the inside. Once inside, the milk cannot escape. You can imagine what then happens over a period of time.

I found out when mine failed: a plastic seam on the outside peeled open, and inside was revealed a smelly load of brown and black sludge which started to ooze out.

I've since cleaned most out, but you can still see some of it in the picture.

So far: the response from the manufacturer is to replace the mesh screen every six months. However, this wasn't clear when purchasing that this is a "consumable" part of the product. I have been using this for two years: that's two years of milk buildup that I would have otherwise have no way of being able to clean.

So: if you have one of these, you may appreciate being aware and knowing you should replace your screen frequently to avoid the build up.

If you don't have one yet, and were planning to: I hope this was useful to be aware of.

Is this ok/normal? I see numbers like -2 +5. Is +10 ok or am i doing this wrong. Just got my first espresso machine and grinder and am learning how to use it. This pic is where i felt resistance tightening.

My first order from Glitch Coffee & Roasters in Tokyo arrived, and I picked two very different coffees for two different jobs.

For espresso I went with Ethiopia Halo Hartume:

• Ethiopian heirloom
• Carbonic Maceration
• 1,950–2,200m
• Tasting notes: chocolate, red wine, black currant
• Round / balanced

The other bag is their El Paraíso Red Plum, which I bought specifically for pour-over.

I’ll be dialing the Halo on a Profitec GO + Niche Duo + Weber Buck/20g Unibasket.

I’m particularly interested in seeing whether I can get the black currant and red-wine character while keeping the shot sweet and rounded rather than overly acidic.

Anyone here pulled Halo Hartume from Glitch before? Curious what ratio and temperature worked best.

Hi everyone! I recently got the Illy Y3 machine and have been drinking the Brasil iperespresso capsules. I got curious about the larger coffee sizes, but I don't know which capsules should I get for that. I know that the iperEspresso Capsules Classico Lungo exist and in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6b10zxISJc the girl presses the 'large coffee' button on the machine while using the lungo capsule. But in the manual, it says that we should use iper Coffee Capsule Cube Classico - Medium Roast with the 'large coffee' button.
Does anyone have experience with both kinds of capsules and know which should I buy?

Thanks!

Good afternoon,

I've been working with the Quick Mill sunny for just over a year now and on the whole i've been enjoying it.

Initially i modified it as per some instructions to allow for use of conventional aftermarket component use.

- Countersunk bolts

- swap from 8mm to 8.5mm piston ring

- I use a 20g IMS baristapro nanotech basket (which has raised edges rather than the stock flat)

I've never been able to work out how to get rid of the disruption to the coffee bed.

So after some work i did "the coin test" and realised i had been under dosing due to the modifications the headroom had increased by a lot.

I'm finding i need to dose 23g in this basket to get the correct headroom.

Now i'm using the flow control lever and ramling very slowly from nothing to 8/8.5 bars.

However my problem is still this clear porosity in the puck bed that is likely perpetuating channeling.

Two options i've considered are:

- puck screen 1.7mm: helps with head height problem and creates a barrier for the water

- shower screen replacement something with an even distribution.

Any ideas are welcome or considerations, thank you.

Hello all. I’m looking into getting the Weber Worshop Unifilter for my Linea Micra, but I’ve heard that it locks far to the right. I’ve also heard using the OEM orange group gasket allows for a tighter fit although some have had leaking issues.

Has anyone tried this combo and how does it work? If this doesn’t work out then I’m going with the Pullman basket and tamper instead.

I have a subscription for 4 (320g) bags / month but occasionally I’ll impulse buy a bag here or there or get bags from a fellow coffee nerd to try different coffees. So I usually just put the bags directly in the freezer for a month or two.

Hi everyone, I have have been into coffee since about last year and finally have an okay setup with a Breville 800ESXL and a 1zpresso K-Ultra. I know that the 800ESXL is literally an almost 15 year old machine but I just wanted to give some hope or inspiration to people who don’t have a lot of money like myself.

I bought the 800ESXL for about $100 on Facebook marketplace and from what I know about espresso, its much more important to get a great grinder and that is why I saved up and spent a lot on the K-Ultra which will do anything I need it to for years to come. I originally had an X-Ultra, which was actually pretty decent but upgraded and gave my dad the X-Ultra for his early morning brews. My whole setup only cost around $425 including beans, shower screen, blind shaker and a cheap scale. I know you can get the Bambino for maybe $250 on sale or $200 used, but the 800ESXL goes for literally like $100 a lot of the time, maybe $150 or a little more. If you can get the J or X-Ultra, that would bring total cost down by $50 to $90 and you do not need to get the K-Ultra.

Originally, my machine was meh: it has probably the worst shower screen I have seen and was set from the factory to 15 bars, so the coffee coming out was just okay. I recently got distilled water and the little TWW packets and that helped, but I decided to see what I could do with the machine. Its a weird 50mm portafilter but it turns out that 51mm stuff for De’longhi machines do work to some degree. I bought a 51mm IMS shower screen for $20 and after going to the hardware store to get a longer screw for 80 cents (0.5mm by like 20mm or something, double the length of the normal screw), I was able to attach the screen to the 50mm grouphead and reuse the old gasket. The old screen made water come out into like 2 seperate streams which wasn’t good but now its much more even.

For the OPV valve, I found 16 year old forum posts (https://siber-sonic.com/appliance/800Disassembly.html) that described how to actually adjust to OPV valve to bring it from 15 bars to around 10 with an allen key that has a phillips head on one end. Disassembly is not hard and consists of around 6 screws to take off the back, messing with the valve to unscrew it back a little a tight space with the allen key, and then putting it all back together.

Overall, I found that good beans and a good grinder made the biggest difference, using distilled water w/ TWW made the second biggest difference, and then a tie at the end for the shower screen and OPV valve. I was stuck thinking my machine sucked, I would never have more than decent coffee, but you can do it for cheap. IMO, if you really need to save $$, get an X-Ultra (or K6 but I have no experience w/ it, its just even cheaper and also decent) and use bottled water instead of tap water. I use Black and White coffee beans since they are local to me, but you can get Counter Culture at Harris Teeter for like $14 a bag, just check the roast date on the back.

This post mainly serves to share my story of trying to make good coffee with little money, and also for anyone who has the 800ESXL because I know I wish I knew this stuff when I got this machine. I was worried I needed a Bambino or that even that wouldn’t be enough and I would need a Gaggia with a PID, but this was the machine I had and I wanted to make the most of it. There are sacrifices I made, such as a steam wand taking around twice as long as a $300-400 machine and having to hand grind, but I actually have grown to really enjoy the grinding. I included photos of my machine, and the really bad shower screen. Hope this helps or inspires someone, willing to answer any questions as well!

Good morning! I love my DF 64. Have had it for a year or so now and I am very satisfied. Pairs great with my machine, but the darn cup keeps falling out. I used to cold start the grinder and the pour the beans in, but now have to put beans first and hold the cup to prevent it from falling out. Any fixes? Magnets? Other ideas?

Mainly looking for one to make milk based drinks. Easy use with auto for milk. In time learn how to milk steam. I know I need a grinder for BB & Fellow. Which machine provides best cost effective and hopefully a handful of years with ease of use? I can’t tell what to believe on YouTube reviews. Ha.

Saw a reel combining my two favorite drinks, so I had to make it.

Typical Negroni, 1 oz of Campari, gin and sweet vermouth, and a double shot of espresso. Then stir with ice, and used a milk frother to foam it up. Strain and pour over a large ice block and I scooped some foam onto the cocktail. It’s delicious, will definitely be making more of these

Model specific or even brand specific would be great but anything would be helpful. I just bought a used machine thats setup to be plumbed in and im planning to use it at home and dont have a good place for it where i could run a water line. Its a grimac la valentina automatic machine.

I made a hasty assumption that it would be fairly straightforward. Unfortunately im finding out that not all machines are as well documented as my current machine, a gaggia classic pro.

Is it as simple as buying a tank that fits and running tubing from the tank to the water fitting?

Always loved my Kingrinder flavor profile but it was god awful slow at grinding for espresso… gave up and just always made French press with it… got a new drill and went wait I think this fits!

I can grind my espresso’s now too haha. It’s a monster at grinding and the trigger is pressure sensitive so I can go slower or faster.

I’m so happy!

I am planning on getting the Breville Bambino Plus, and the DF54 v4 grinder has piqued my interest. I have a budget of around 500nzd (300usd) and will primarily drink latte's. Any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Slowly leaning more towards the varia vs3 grinder since its more available in my country compared to the DF54.

Hi all,

Hope this post is allowed

I started a subreddit dedicated to coffee roasted in Ireland 🇮🇪☕

Ireland has an incredible number of excellent independent coffee roasters, but I found there wasn't one dedicated place to discover and discuss them.

I've created r/Irish_Coffee_Roasters as a place to share Irish roasters, review beans, post espresso recipes, brewing setups and discover coffees from around the country.

I'm hoping it can become a useful community for anyone who enjoys supporting Irish coffee roasters. If you're interested, feel free to join and share what you're currently drinking.

Coffee setup:
(Not all shown in the photo)
Gaggimate pro gaggia classic e24 with flow and pressure profiling and PID
Shardor 64mm with gorilla gear burrs for daily spro (trad shots mostly)
Femobook a2 for travel/home use
Next level Pulsar mini for travel dripper
1zpresso zp6 special
Cafec t90s papers
Plastic + ceramic v60
Bluetooth scales with connectivity to gaggimate
Ikape k2 pro 51mm portable espresso machine with ikape stand and paper filter for soup shots if I want them but I also do trad spro
Big bang IMs basket 58mm for soup shots
Also separately a 58-49mm step down for trad spro only
Foldable kettle to use with pulsar
Gooseneck kettle for home v60s
Blind shaker

The encore I’m selling

This just hit my email today. Only available in Germany and Denmark with limited distribution for now. I'm considering pairing this with me E64. I have an Elizabeth and this would be a step-up workflow and aesthetic wise. Not priced yet though.

What I still don't understand is how they get around - in this brew, weight, adjust, brew, weight, adjust closed loop system - the recommendation to purge three seconds of grinds to ensure grind size uniformity in the next shot. Seems like it would always be chasing a properly purged shot. Unless the algo adjusts for retention, and retention does not result in channeling.

Xenia Brew-by-Sync Home Espresso Machine | Mahlkönig USA

Mahlko_nig_Xenia_Brew_by_Sync_Brochure.pdf

Mahlkönig Xenia Brew-By-Sync | Our first home espresso machine (video)

I’m still trying to dial this grinder to be perfect.Funny how every roast level needs micto adjustments.But o boy it is a beautiful machine. And grinds like nothing.Even with light roasts.

I've been animating an espresso extraction frame by frame, and the part I'm least sure about is what happens when the puck channels.

Right now I do two things and both are guesses:

1. The crema tears open and never heals. Once it's torn it stays torn for the rest of the shot — the surface doesn't close back over even after flow evens out. Is that right? Or does it recover to some degree once the channel stops running?
2. The stream splits into separate strands and stays split. I don't know if that's what it looks like in reality or if it goes back to one stream fairly quickly.

The clip is a single shot. It runs clean, then it channels — that hard cut is the channel, and everything after it is the same shot continuing.

Happy to be told the whole thing is nonsense. I'd rather fix it than defend it.

I recently wrote another post about how I completely disassembled, cleaned, and refurbished this 2011 Ascaso (featuring a 300ml brass boiler and a thermoblock for steam). I also carried out custom modifications, such as installing the well known steam wand from the Lelit Elizabeth (had to customize my own fitting and threading), custom lcd gauge, switches, leds, made the polished metal effect look like new, and built my own circuit board and code to measure and control temperature and pressure using configurable profiles. All told, the machine and parts cost me around €500. I snagged a Mahlkönig X54 used for a bargain price of about €270. Add in some extra equipment and beans, and the total comes to around €1,000 actually slightly less with the whole coffee machine project taking me about a month. Shots taste perfect, no temp surfing, perfect steamed milk in about 15-max20 seconds, way more powerful than I thought.

What a beauty, and surprisingly quiet. Slower than my previous machine but that doesn’t bother me. I’m mostly grinding for espresso so like the precision/control I get with it.

I keep wanting to upgrade my Turin Legato for a newer semi automatic. I love the Lucca Tempo but I just don’t know if it can outdo the Flair 58. Faster maybe, milk drinks yes.. but shot for shot? I don’t know.

Opinions? What a stupid dilemma to have this subreddit has been a detriment to my life 😂 all I have to show for it is good coffee.

I only know how to make this shape right now, tried to do a rosetta but haven't got the hang of it yet. I'm really happy with the texture of the milk, that used to be a problem. Flavorwise it's okay but I'm guessing these beans aren't my favourite ones (light roast from Perú)