Semi-Automatic Espresso Machines
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Great products very tasty
It’s a La Marzocco if you know you know. it fetches a premium because everything in it is premium. From the unboxing to the daily back to back shots and the ease of use i cant recommend it enough for home use.
DF64 Gen 2.5 Single Dose Coffee Grinder (Yellow)
After Van Houtte discontinued their dark chocolate & coconut iced coffee k-cups, I discovered Choconut from Java Factory, but it’s kinda hard to find - especially at a reasonable price.
So glad I found this site! Now I can keep up my addiction without breaking the bank.
Nice addition for the quick mills pop up. Fits snug solid build.
Top Class is our go to for a traditional espresso. The Kitchen Baristas delivers excellent shipping times and fresh product. We will continue ordering Top Class through The Kitchen Barista.
It replaces a 10+ year old barista virtuoso that had bungee cords on the hopper to keep the cutoff switch activated for the last few years, and finally failed.
I love how quiet it is, the absence of fines even though I’m using quite a fine grind & a metal aeropress filter, the low clumping in the grinds, and the poofer that gets the last bit of grinds out. The build quality is very good and I had zero problems/effort setting it up & using it.
I recently purchased a Flair 58 Plus 2 lever pull espresso machine and paired it with an OXO Coffee Grinder. It was soon apparent to me I needed a better grinder to produce the results I was looking for. After evaluating entry level through higher end grinders, I came upon this fantastic machine. It's well built, heavy, and looks great in my kitchen. The burrs have a huge range on it, making it my go to for espressos, french press, and drip coffees. The only downside was waiting for this package to clear customs from Canada to Chicago. But after 2 weeks, it just arrived yesterday. Hoping it will last a long time!
illy Intenso iperEspresso Capsules - Dark Roast (18 count)
I’ve had this machine for over a year now and here are some of the issues I’ve seen:
1. After the machine has gone into standby, it seems to delay the pre-infusion phase. Meaning I could start pulling a shot but it takes longer as there’s a delay in the water. The fix is that after being in standby, I simply initiate an extraction without the portafilter and get the water flowing. Then I place the portafilter and pull a shot.
2. Occasionally the portafilter basket dislodges from the portafilter as I’m removing the portafilter from the machine. I believe I may have just received a looser spring…? I keep the machine very clean/flush after every shot and use the acidic cleaner regularly so I believed the issue is with the spring itself.
3. The steam wand on my machine is the newer shorter “not cool touch” variety. My boyfriend has an earlier model Popup where they were installing much longer but cool touch variety wand. I much prefer my shorter wand as otherwise it is really cumbersome to get your pitcher in/out from under the wand! Both machines however have the same finicky steaming action (see next)
4. Frothing took me forever to master!! What is shown on YouTube for frothing does NOT work with this frother. After a million cappuccinos, what I finally realized is, yes you must get a a good consistent vortex going and yes you should angle the wand in the pitcher, but being that the wand is rather short, you need to use the smaller sized pitcher for frothing, a maximum of 120ml or so. However the most important frothing suggestion I can give is to keep the frothing tip at the surface of the milk for the entire time of frothing, until the end when submerging the tip will help blend the foam/milk mixture. If you submerge the tip too far below the surface of the milk, you will end up with hot milk—no foam!! It’s as if the steam is too powerful for this wand…? I don’t know; all i know is once I corrected this tiny but important issue, I had consistently excellent foam/steamed milk.
5. For back to back cappuccinos, the problem isn’t waiting for the machine to reach steaming/frothing milk temp. The problem is if you make one cappuccino (extract then froth milk) there is quite a delay in getting the machine temp back DOWN to extraction temp. You can flush/release the excess steam but it is quite a flush of steam and it still needs some time to get the temp back down. It takes maybe 5 min to cool down… ? The best way I found to make two cappuccinos is to extract both drinks back to back, and then froth the milk, even froth in two batches so there’s enough milk. If you’re efficient (also preheat your cups with hot water) then the cappuccinos won’t be terribly cold. But it’s doable to make two cappuccinos at a time. If I’m making 3-4 cappuccinos then it’s quite cumbersome and for those folks if they are routinely going to make multiple cappuccinos, this might not be the right machine for you. For me, where I’m making myself a cappuccino or an espresso or maybe an additional one it’s the perfect machine for me.
All in all, I would buy this machine again. It has a more than sufficient water tank, which is easily accessible for filling which is great!. The machine is compact enough for a kitchen that already has plenty of appliances and limited counter space. It’s light enough to move around if needed (one of my criteria at the time of purchase)
It’s been a great machine!
Wanted a case of the Intenso and found it here at a good price. I had the shipment in hand 7 days later, in USA, Southern state. Great job.
Decided to got for Meraki after watching many barrista review videos and seeing that the espressos came out pretty well and that you could fine tune it to your liking. As I am Italian and love creamy short espressos this machine has given me exactly what I want. Perfect espressos and pretty close to mess free. With the integrated grinder and its settings you can go from pretty much a filtered coffee taste to intense ristrettos which makes it practical for a home with different tastes. The flow on the machine spares you from the visual messes when making manual espressos with portafilters. For now I am loving this machine.
Consistently good coffee flavour.
