Currently have a bambino plus and fellow opus. Primarily drink iced lattes/americanos or just plain espresso. I’m still practicing hot lattes. I love to do research normally, but all of the options honestly has me overwhelmed. Based in the US.
Obviously very familiar with the retention issues on the opus and, while I would love to drink some decaf in the evening, I hate changing it once I’ve dialed it in for my everyday rider beans. I only drink medium/dark beans as I abhor fruity coffee and much prefer chocolate notes. So I understand I probably want to stick to conical burr grinders. Sound and look is unfortunately very important to me.
Machine wise, I don’t think I want to tinker with much. I think I just want good, consistent, easy espresso. My annoyance with the bambino plus is that randomly it’ll sometimes throw a weird shot out. Like I won’t have changed my grind or prep and it will randomly throw one out that is basically coffee water or choke up. And then it will go back to normal. Or, worse, I’ll adjust my grind to the shot and then it’ll swing in the other direction when really if I just pulled another shot it might have gone back to normal. And then I have to dial in all over again for no reason. Also having to hold the machine to put the portafilter in which is a silly annoyance but still exists. If it behaves, I can make pretty great espresso.
I’m normally try to be an informed consumer and am really looking to invest in something that will last while also not being excessively high maintenance (I understand I need to do maintenance). I also fully understand this is a vanity purchase, I do not need it and the combo I have could be driven to the ground. I plan on keeping the opus so I could have a decaf specific grinder.
I really just don’t know how people narrow this down. I spend a ton of time researching here and articles and YouTube and then I get overwhelmed. I’ve been thinking about this for months. There’s so many options and opinions and everything feels more complicated than I need. I don’t see myself switching out burrs or messing with flow control. I just want it to look nice on my counter and be reliable. Like I understand it’s paying for the name but the LM Micra is attractive cause it seems so straightforward in comparison to others.
When choosing to upgrade, how did you go about deciding or did you know immediately?