A blockage in the tip definitely could, especially if it’s inside behind the holes! If you have an outie tip and not an innie, it can make it impossible to see any crap caught behind the holes and difficult to clean.
When steaming, it’s very very important to always have the tip slightly angry and hissing before it enters the milk and as soon as it enters, you should be opening the valve. When finishing steaming, always blast steam out of the valve, close gently, submerge in the milk jug full of cold water, wait for the suck and then expel the water sucked up with more steam.
Even more important with the kind of valve used on the minima…close it super gently, with a jug under it. it will drip after minute or so and you will think you didn’t close it…but you did. As it cools after a minute or so…the metal contracts and the seat lifts off allowing steam through, just close it again super gently until it goes quiet. It won’t drip again (we still steam the old way). If you do this, these older valves have an almost infinite life.
Most people just close them really hard so they won’t drip and need to replace the stem with teflon pad in it after 3-5 years.
