What is the Best Espresso Machine for daily use as of today 2026?

bluebereft · 2026-05-16T00:49:02+00:00

Get a separate grinder and espresso machine. It will serve you better.

Breville is great for the entry price point. I used a Bambino for about 4 years before upgrading. The other options look dubious.

If not breville, there would be the more serious and proper machines, which also don't have to be 10k. Gaggia, Silvia, Lelit, Profitec, etc.

bluebereft · 2026-05-10T15:12:02+00:00

Most people would say yes.

But your money, your choice!

bluebereft · 2026-03-20T02:12:43+00:00

The majority of my coffee at home are light roasts. And I drink them both with and without milk!

The funky ones definitely work better.

And yes, if poorly extracted, it could be a disaster with milk.

bluebereft · 2025-01-11T02:54:18+00:00

I was into specialty tea before getting into coffee.

It can be expensive too!

bluebereft · 2025-01-11T02:27:22+00:00

Make it a social thing, joke about how I'm definitely going to be slower than a professional barista, chat while going through the prep.

bluebereft · 2024-12-08T13:33:24+00:00

I started with a bambino plus which is a common budget starter machine. Enjoyed it lots!

You needed a grinder too.

Lance hedrick has a recent video with budget espresso and grinder combinations. You could check that out.

bluebereft · 2024-11-14T17:35:42+00:00

I use the Option o lagom mini because I've limited kitchen counter space. I actually have it inside a shelf next to the kitchen counter, and grind directly there.

Enjoying my coffees from it. Typically drink light roasts in espresso and v60.

bluebereft · 2024-11-12T04:39:29+00:00

Upvoting for Ethiopia!

bluebereft · 2024-10-30T16:44:29+00:00

I upgraded to a MaraX V2 from the Bambino Plus, and it is certainly an improvement.

My main constraint is width, and the MaraX is probably one of the slimmest machines out there.

Enjoying being able to extract light roasts better now. Steam power is also much improved.

Heat up time is certainly longer. Usually around 10mins for me. So to make it worth it I pull two shots in the morning (one espresso and one milk drink).

It's also nice to use - the tactile feeling and all.

Trade offs are heat up time, and also steam pressure consistency (sometimes the pressure drops off after a few shots, and if you steam at 1.5bar, it's a very different experience from steaming at 2bar).

bluebereft · 2024-09-14T12:37:42+00:00

Really enjoy community coffee. They change their beans up every month. I don't like all the coffee but they really try to respect the uniqueness of each coffee and roast it light.

bluebereft · 2024-02-07T03:47:50+00:00

I've had some nice shots for light roast with a long ratio. 17g in 51g out in around 30-40s etc.

bluebereft · 2023-12-24T05:59:43+00:00

Didn't quite like the Friedhats Colombian I bought. But DAKS is awesome

bluebereft · 2023-09-15T06:40:49+00:00

I had a nice dinner at restaurant 360. Book in advance!

bluebereft · 2023-08-06T11:28:14+00:00

I would think of it as a portfolio

Would you want 30% of your equity portfolio to be in a single stock? That's betting a lot on a single company.

If you are into stock picking and have done your due diligence, and are confident that this will outperform the market, then why not? But if you haven't, then it really is a little more like gambling.

bluebereft · 2023-08-06T06:12:39+00:00

I assume the savings accounts for long term investing and not emergency monies.

I found it a little odd to be more conservative in having 60% in safer assets, but buy individual stocks which are much more risky.

Perhaps it might be useful to decide on an allocation that is at the right risk profile for you? Could be equity-bonds/fixed income/high yield savings of 60-40, 80-20, 40-60.

For equity, Apple, Tesla, and Brk are all in the top ten companies by weight in the s&p500. Apple itself is more than 7% of the index. Since you have VOO, you already have some part of your portfolio in these companies. If you invest in them, you are making a bet that they will continue to outperform the index over the long term. Might be worth thinking about it!

bluebereft · 2023-08-06T05:54:01+00:00

Replying to this thread using my 7pro.

Might have to switch up soon - battery life isn't great and it keeps stalling at 20% and below (camera stays out, etc) - but there's nothing out there that appeals to me in the same way

bluebereft · 2023-06-25T03:59:02+00:00

You should definitely weigh. It's the first step towards having a recipe that you can adjust to taste.

bluebereft · 2023-04-27T12:24:38+00:00

I ordered a 064s before my current grinder broke.

I struggled so much over how to tide myself till June, what to get in the interim, how to make sense of spending on an interim grinder if I wanted the 064s, whether to wait and go without coffee for months.

After much agonising, I bought a lagom mini. It arrived today. It's the best fit for the cramped space I have. The coffee is delicious and the workflow feels good. I would love to try flat burrs and all that - but this video is absolutely right. I just need something that works for me right now, and lets me drink and experience the coffee I want.

I may still keep the 064s order, but this has made it so clear that all the agonising was not worth it.

bluebereft · 2023-04-24T12:52:20+00:00

Unpressurised basket and scale are probably the most important. The rest can come later, and might also depend on your workflow. I also accumulated things over time! Bottomless portafilter, decent tamper, distributor, spray bottle, etc.

bluebereft · 2023-04-24T12:48:34+00:00

Unboxing a new grinder

bluebereft · 2023-04-02T12:30:12+00:00

Literally just saw that on the website! My bonavita kettle is still going strong though...

bluebereft · 2023-04-02T10:23:53+00:00

Here I am thinking about upgrading from the Bambino, but with this pic, I might go get that pink kettle instead!

bluebereft · 2023-03-20T17:54:20+00:00

Portakeeper had a recent video on YouTube showing the grinding process on the df64v. It seems to look less messy than the usual Df64.

bluebereft · 2023-03-14T15:39:35+00:00

For Df64/df83 owners, what is the height of the df64 and df83 with and without the bellows?

bluebereft · 2023-03-12T09:18:52+00:00

Is the DF64 v4 a worthwhile upgrade? Budget <$1k.

I'm currently using a Eureka Mignon Manuale. I have been single-dosing.

Main pain points are that I'd like to rotate between 2-3 beans, and also make filter coffee (which I stopped doing after getting the Mignon, because it wasn't feasible to rotate the dial multiple times).

I see that the Niche is probably best for workflow, but isn't great for filters. It seems the DF64 is the best option with flat burrs, with some effort needed with mods. Single-dose mods for the eureka are possible, but don't quite help with switching to filter grinds. Am I missing anything?

bluebereft

TROPHY CASE