Chicago - La Marzocco Linea Mini Demo, June 4th

#1: Post by **UltramaticOrange** » June 1st, 2015, 5:44 pm

La Colombe Logan Square Roastery
2837 W. Fullerton
Chicago, IL 60647

Thursday, June 4, 2015 from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM (CDT)

Location is the La Colombe training center just a couple doors East of Gaslight Coffee. Click here for full event details and RSVP.

June 4th, 2015, 10:54 pm

Just got home. Very solid, impressive machine. Got some pictures. More details later.

#3: Post by **aecletec** » June 4th, 2015, 11:18 pm

It'll be good to hear about the Lini... I mean the Minea... you know what I mean.

#4: Post by **earlgrey_44** » June 5th, 2015, 10:02 am

Ultramatic and I dropped in on LM's On The Road event - both a fun time, and a great opportunity for hands-on shot pulling and one-on-one Q&A with the new baby.
There was no formal presentation or program, just lots of pizza and beer, with the Linea Mini set up on an island table with scales, towels, and a grinder full of La Colombe Brazil.

My random impressions:

I'd like to know where that pizza came from. Top notch NY style pizza here in Chi-town.
The Mini is impressive in person. Not an unfinished edge or gappy seam in sight. Beautiful fit and finish even on this prototype machine.
Brew boiler is directly over the grouphead. Temp stability seems outstanding - no flush, no wait, no nothing. Load and turn it on. I detected no difference in the cup regardless of different intervals between pulls.
We had itty-bitty pitchers to steam milk in, but even with small quantities of milk the steam was easily controlled and very quick.
Take off the warming tray, remove 4 screws from the top plate, and the internals are exposed. We didn't see this done, but 4 more screws removed from the front and the unitary sides and back slides off to the rear allowing access to everything. So, no quick-release panels but pretty easy access under the hood.

The La Colombe people were gracious hosts, and the LM folks threw a nice party. Thanks guys!
Getting inside:

Whiskey makes an appearance. What is it about the brown goods and coffee anyway?

July 26th, 2015, 12:49 pm

Temp control knob, underside of the warming tray on the left of the machine. I was told by the LM guy that each click is about a 1.3 degree temperature adjustment. (edit: was corrected down-thread: 0.3 degree per click)

Very nice steaming, microfoam.

Large bubbles here because it took me a bit to get close enough for a picture.

refilling the water reservoir

Shower screen

Sadly, my phone died while getting a picture of the guts.

#6: Post by **dominico** » July 26th, 2015, 1:30 pm

LM had both a GS3 and a Linea Mini at Coffee Con Chicago yesterday, and they were inviting people to pull shots on them. I pulled one on the GS3; it was a lot of fun, and the coffee tasted pretty good to boot.

July 26th, 2015, 2:16 pm

Yeah, my experience was that it's a fantastic machine if you want one you can just walk up to and pull a shot. I didn't weigh my dose or extraction and still got a damn nice shot.

#8: Post by **brianl** » July 26th, 2015, 4:31 pm

dominico wrote:LM had both a GS3 and a Linea Mini at Coffee Con Chicago yesterday, and they were inviting people to pull shots on them. I pulled one on the GS3; it was a lot of fun, and the coffee tasted pretty good to boot.

I was also at coffee con and pulled a shot on the linea mini. Didn't do much prep work or worry about distributing/level bed and the shot was still fantastic.

#9: Post by **Marshall** » July 26th, 2015, 4:57 pm

Possibly the most startling new feature is the LM logo lion on the shower screen.

Anyone know when they started doing that?

#10: Post by **dominico** » July 26th, 2015, 6:00 pm

brianl wrote:I was also at coffee con and pulled a shot on the linea mini. Didn't do much prep work or worry about distributing/level bed and the shot was still fantastic.

Cool, did you make it out to the home roasting area? I was out there most of the day roasting on my home-built roasters and chatting with folks about roasting.