I know it is not the machine that many if not most on here would buy for a whole host of reasons, but when I bought mine over a year ago after owning a Gaggia for years, it was being offered at a price for a dual boiler machine that was impossible to resist, but more importantly, was what I could afford and still allowing me to at the same time to upgrade to a Niche grinder, both of which I thought I would never be able to afford.
So far I have no complaints. The tweaks available on it such as adjusting water temp, pre-infusion timing, timing of shot etc all work as they should and I have no trouble to get it to produce a shot at 9 bar, especially with the adjustability of the Niche on grinding duty. Even steaming milk is a doddle and if I don’t get the foam just right, it is down to user error and not the fault of the machine.
So, overall I am very pleased. Admittedly, I do not go into the minutia of coffee making many on here do and I never will, as I just don’t think I have the ability to taste the difference or capture the nuances that those sorts of tweaks can make.
However, I do want to get the best out of my machine (without having to pull it apart and retro-fit it) so if anyone has any tips that may be worth me trying I’d be grateful for your advice.
I like to try a variety of beans from either Rave or a local Roaster near me in Malton North Yorkshire called Roost Coffee. I usually use Tesco Ashbeck but recently have been using water from Waitrose only because it was mentioned on here. But to be honest, I can’t taste any difference and whether or not it is better for my machine I don’t know.
As Frasier would say…. thanks for listening.
