woo - espresso machine is back and working, just need to redial the grinder back in - 60 turns back from pourover and its still too fast I wonder if this years the year to swap out the MC2...
Anyone had any experience with the Sage Barrista Express? Seems to review really well, looks well built.
Currently using a Gaggia Baby Class but looking to upgrade to something a bit more less hassle. My current grinder is crap looks like a mini blender (some delonghi one) and the milk steaming is crap on it. (although ordered the rancillo wand to mod it, before I seen the sage unit)
Can get the sage for under £400, built in burr grinder, good steamer all in one package.
So had some vouchers to use at Waitrose before they expire, picked up some of these to try. Looks interesting.
I definitely have to recalibrate when moving from bean to bean (or even from bag to bag if they weren't ordered together) but not whilst on the same bag of beans. I have reasonably high standards but probably not quite as high as yourself I guess
uv has one and seems to like it. I imagine it will be a billion times better than a Gaggia Baby
Gaggia Baby is basically a reskinned Classic with a very slightly small pump, so I doubt the Sage one would pull a much better espresso in fairness.
On this note, this is probably very obvious to a lot of people but I've noticed a huge difference since I started storing my beans in a sealed bag from Rave and only putting them in the grinder as I need them. It doesn't really add much hassle either as you can weigh the beans as the machine warms up and you can ensure you are grinding the right amount each time. As you say, it then means your grind stays right for the whole bag rather than getting worse every time you use it.
Hopefully this is helpful to someone else that was a bit stupid like me!
That looks like a lot of coffee!
That was my favourite but the last bag I tried I didn't really enjoy, may be my tastebuds has changed but I found it kinda ordinary.