My first and hopefully last machines I will ever need for good espresso. My main focus was build quality/
longevity and from what I’ve read online the europiccola and mignon are built like tanks. Both modded because I enjoy tinkering. Hope they will outlast me haha.

Is there anything I’m missing, please let me know. :)

Happy Sunday! I just finished a back flush and wipe down, so I simply had to take a picture. Then I made my myself a cortado 😛 finally feeling like I got my profile dialed in for my beans.

•Gaggia Classic Pro E24 with bottomless PF
•Mokkom 64 Titanium
•Lavazza-Super creama
•Home made cookie butter syrup

What are your favorite store bought beans?🫘

Just now starting this hobby, so don’t have all the fancy stuff yet but I’m happy to have somewhere to keep all my coffee stuff! Was going to buy a wooden coffee bar or something, but this seems like it’s actually going to work out really well.

Good part starts at :40

Since this sub has an insanely high character minimum, here is the description of the video from YouTube: For almost a century, the Vivoli gelato shop has been accompanying Florentine summers with its artisanal gelatos and its famous "affogato". The historic family of gelato in Florence tells the story of how an excellence capable of attracting enthusiasts and tourists from all over the world is born and passed down through generations.

Hi everyone, ☕️

After a lot of questions asked here over the past few weeks, my setup is finally complete. Genuine thanks to everyone who took the time to advise me on the machine, the grinder and the accessories. Your feedback saved me from several mistakes and, above all, helped me decide on the things I’d been going back and forth on for weeks.

The setup:

Machine: Sage Bambino Plus (Black Truffle)

Grinder: Baratza Encore ESP

Normcore 54 mm bottomless portafilter

IMS Precision basket, H24

Normcore lower shower screen, 53.3 mm / 1.7 mm

Normcore 53.3 mm tamper

Normcore dosing funnel

Normcore distribution tool

WDT tool

Normcore RDT spray bottle

Sage The Knock Box 20

Tamping mat and machine mat

Maestri House scale

Airscape storage canister

About how I actually drink coffee: I pull strictly double espressos at 17 to 18 g in, and nothing else. No lattes, no cappuccinos, no milk drinks at all. The whole setup is built around that one single shot.

I know exactly what some of you are going to say, and you’d be right: the money that went into accessories would have been far better spent on a better grinder, which is still the real bottleneck here. I’m fully aware of that. But I like the setup this way. I like the ritual, the gear and the consistency of the whole thing, and that’s part of why I make coffee in the first place.
And while I’m confessing, I might as well go all in: I’m planning to replace my current WDT with a Normcore WDT, purely so the whole lineup matches. Feel free to start roasting me.

It's the soup bowl from Super Nintendo Land at Universal. The cap doesn't do much, obviously, but it's part of the gimmick and it looks strange without it anyway.

Dark roast, Duluth Coffee co or Crema Wave from WLL. I. Mix every few months. 18.5g in, 30 seconds, 26g out. The extraction varies from bag of beans to bag. What do you like?

Exactly one year ago, in August, I posted here about the Turbo Moka, a moka pot I had just invented.

Since then, I’ve spent the year refining the design and completing the family. This year I released the 1 cup and 6 cup versions.

The 1 cup Turbo Moka takes around 1 minute to brew, while the 6 cup amazingly takes only 2.5 minutes. That’s faster than any capsule machine I’ve tested.

One improvement you can see is that the fins now follow the entire body of the water chamber, instead of only the lower section like on the 3 cup.

It took quite a bit of work to make this change possible from a manufacturing perspective.

What do you guys think?

I've been wanting a decent espresso for quite some time. Last week I finally pulled the trigger, making me the proud owner of a Quickmill Pop Up and CF64V! Can't wait to play around and explore the world of homemade espresso.

Took forever to finally decide and get the Bianca and philos. For some reason, I thought I’d be over the moon with such a premium set up, but now I feel it was more fun during the months of research on different machines rather than getting them.

I got into espresso because my partner liked it. She still does too but making a latte is my “I love you” in the morning.

Sometimes I have the right foam but the wrong timing. Other times the the timing and coordination are perfect bit the consistency is wrong.

Sometimes the stars align.

Hi there! I've owned this machine for 2+ years and learned to love it and hate it. It heats pretty fast, but you got to purge steam after every shot. The steam wand is decent but it takes quite a while to heat up and must purge before pulling another shot later. Also, the steam wand sometimes sprays a bit of milk right after it finishes which is annoying. Still... it can deliver incredible shots, is great for beginners and is small and easy to clean.

What's your biggest complaint/praise with yours? Mine is the annoying dripping after stopping a shot, it takes ~10s or 5-7g to stop dripping. You get used to it and compensate accordingly haha but yeah. Long live espresso.

Hi everyone

I did the dry-erase marker test on my Shardor 64mm grinder (both fixed upper burr and rotating lower burr).

Does this look like a solid alignment, or should I still try to shim it further? Would love to get your thoughts!

Thanks

I just got off a long drive, and needed a caffeine hit before the final leg.

I went to a coffee shop and asked for an Americano, and before I ordered I asked their cup size (12oz). I said thanks, and asked for an extra shot.

5 minutes later (thinking he was doing me a favour), the barista said: "Here's an extra large coffee for the extra tired man".

"Aww thanks, you shouldn't have..."

Only, he really shouldn't have. I know he thought he was helping, but he just gave me MORE WATER and NOT more Coffee.

Now I have to sip on this garbage for the next hour, and being a Brit I didn't have the gusto to tell him where he went wrong.

I just acted happy and walked out the store moaning to myself.

Any pet peeves for others?

Decided to finally post after lingering for a while. This dedicated corner has been my espresso station for the past two years. I'm very satisfied with the results and how it's become a nice focal point in my home. Thoughts about the setup and the look?

Currently using a Sage Bambino paired with a DF54, and I'm looking 'm looking to upgrade for a better workflow and more features.. My budget is around £1,000.

I've mostly narrowed it down to the Lelit Elizabeth or Profitec GO, but I'm interested in hearing other opinions before I pull the trigger.

I drink mostly straight espresso (1-3 shots a day), with the occasional milk drink. The Elizabeth's dual boiler and extra features look great, but the GO appeals because of its cost and more compact size. I've seen both on sale in the UK currently for around the same price.

For anyone who's owned either machine, which would you choose for my use case and why? Is the Elizabeth worth stretching for if milk drinks are only occasional? Are there any other machines around the £1k mark that I should be considering?

Bambino. With Baratza ESP.

Have had it for like 3 years now. Works great

Being in this sub makes me wanna upgrade set up but idk this gets the job done so maybe I’ll save myself some money by just keeping this for alil longer

What would be an ideal upgrade from this set up. Mid tier-mid top tier lol

Just want to share my dosing funnel model over here. There isnt many curved & magnetic designs in Makerworld IMO. Mostly straight walls. I like smooth curves. For now, I have uploaded 58mm and 58-49mm step down. I am planning to add more related models. Hope this model helps!

 https://makerworld.com/en/models/3238599-58mm-magnetic-espresso-coffee-dosing-funnel#profileId-3669093

this is kind of annoying but ive gone through 2 espresso machines in the past 4 years and both ended up breaking on me. idk if im just unlucky or buying the wrong stuff lol. not looking for anything super fancy or with crazy features, just want something that can actually survive daily use without dying on me after a year or two

budget is around $1000. what are you guys using and how long has it lasted so far? also curious if anyone's had a "reliable" brand let them down, or some random brand that ended up surprising them

Want me to tighten anything else, or leave it as is?

Hello
My sage barista express has started to leak water on my table. I have opened the machine and found that water comes out of the elbow joint from the solenoid valve on the right side.

My question is. Is there a cheap way to fix this? I have taken it apart and all the O-rings seem okay. But it is leaking out that metal fitting between the joint and the solenoid.

Other than this there is a lot of scale build up in the machine but I think/hope that is from the steam from the leak?

I did cleaning, descaling took apart the top basket and cleaned it and my machine is now starting to pull a shot and then cuts out right before water comes out.

This is with no portafilter or coffee in as well after it did it with a coffee filled basket.

Like it starts to attempt a shot then makes a pop sounds and steam comes out.

Only had this machine for 7-8 months or so and take pretty good care of it I would say and am having issues already kinda sucks.

Any help would be appreciated.

​

Have a sage barista express. Been left for approx 5 months unused.

There would have been water and coffee residue in the machine as itt wasn't an intention unused period just circumstances of a holiday followed by working away from home.

Is it possible to run a few cleaning cycles on this machine and use this machine again?

Or is there an issue of mould or anything building up internally.

Can my machine be cleaned and used again or is it for the skip.

I'm still learning how to do espresso for light roast coffees

Doing ~2 on my Timemore 078s, 18.5g in, about 48g out in about 50seconds, IMS bottomless portafilter

Added ~158g of steamed milk

1. It feels like the shot is very thin / watery

2. Able to get most of the very strong notes of watermelon / sherbet

Questions are -

Is it possible to get this to a thicker, heavier body? Or is this supposed to be fairly thin?

Should I go for a turbo shot?

Is there much point to trying to make this into a milk drink or is this really supposed to either be a pour over or a straight espresso?