My wife and I are, for lack of a better term, addicted to lattes. 2 shots with 12 oz. of sweet steamed milk is our vice. Even though we love supporting our local converse wearing, tattooed wrist, super friendly barista, we are ready to jump into the world of home barista'ing.

A few facts before I pose my question:
1) If my wife could push a shiny red button and out would pop a perfect latte, she'd be thrilled.
2) Thanks to this forum, I know I'll need a decent grinder.
3) We will be drinking lattes 10 to 1 over espresso shots.
4) My budget (based on what I've learned) is under $1,500.

Now the big question:
What machine would you suggest.

Just so you know, I'm currently leaning towards the Expobar Office


PS added by moderator: Cross-posted to Coffeegeek (link).

The Expobar is a lot of work. Um, why not a simple super-auto, since it is just for lattes? Like the Solis 5000?

http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.solis-espresso.shtml

Adrian

If you want something easy for your wife, I think that the Expobar Office will be a horrible choice. If you're not paying much attention, temperature control on an HX machine will be haphazard at best; most likely a horrifying disaster. Also, I should warn you that a lot of home machines, even in the $1000-1500 range, will have a difficult time steaming 8-10 oz. of milk. It will take a long time, I think. I sure can't stand steaming much more than 8 oz. on my Vetrano. If you're making a pair of drinks, it could take quite awhile, not to mention that proper steaming is at least a bit challenging to learn, and requires concentration throughout the process. If you want good drinks, the Expobar Office is going to be a long way from easy.

If you want to be a home barista, there's a choice you have to make: Convenience or high-quality drinks? Getting both, unfortunately, is rather expensive. I am going to assume you will want a healthy compromise.

If I might suggest something slightly over budget, I think in your shoes I would get the QuickMill Alexia and the QuickMill Steamer. I must confess I have no firsthand experience with either machine, so let me point you to the Alexia's detailed review on this site; I would recommend that as a good read. Dan also demoed the auto steamer here. I think the auto steamer might be a convenient way for you to get very reasonably steamed milk without doing any work, which sounds like it would help your wife.

Buying a separate steaming device means that you don't have to buy a HX machine (more work) or double boiler (way out of your price range) machine to get no-wait steaming. You can buy any single-boiler espresso machine you want (they range from ~$300-$1500). This will help you a lot, because it will simplify temperature management without breaking the bank.

Finally, and most importantly, really don't skimp on the grinder or the coffee you buy. The Le'Lit PL53 is probably the cheapest thing you should consider, and you will find nice steps up from that in terms of quietness and ease of use, if you are willing to pay more. If you aren't planning getting a good grinder and using <2 week old coffee roasted by a micro roaster of the caliber of the sites advertised here (PT's, Intelligentsia, Counter Culture, Klatch, etc.), I would not bother with anything beyond the cheapest $300 espresso machine you can find--With bad coffee or a bad grinder, chances are you won't be able to tell any improvement from a cheaper machine to an expensive one like Alexia.

Beware! If you stick with this long enough to learn to make yourself excellent espresso, you may find yourself hopelessly addicted to making the perfect cup. It's not a cheap endeavor.

drdna wrote:The Expobar is a lot of work. Um, why not a simple super-auto, since it is just for lattes? Like the Solis 5000?

I would agree that the super-auto is the ultimate convenience machine for drink preparation, but the super-auto milk steaming quality always leaves a lot to be desired, from what I have seen of them (ultra-limited experience here... pretty much just Williams Sonoma).

Thanks for the feedback!

So if I'm going to "blow my budget", then what about the La Spaziale Vivaldi II. I've only read great reviews and it seems that the controls are intuitive and the steam process is fairly robust.

Any thoughts on doubling my budget to keep my wife happy?

rharlow wrote:So if I'm going to "blow my budget", then what about the La Spaziale Vivaldi II.
Any thoughts on doubling my budget to keep my wife happy?

That is a great machine by all accounts that I have read. I was hoping that Chris would ask me to write the manual for it! In that price range it would be a difficult decision for me to make between the la Spaz and the VBMs. I really like the espresso from my VBM, but have not used the La Spaz to be able to make any comment further on that comparison other than to say that the two machines would look quite impressive on my cart with the Kony between them!

HB wrote:It's rare to read a post of someone who bought a high-end setup and later regretted it.

I agree.

I bought my machine and grinder (~$2200) back in December of 2005. We've used it nearly every day since then, often for 2-5 drinks a day. Until this month I hadn't spent any money on upgrades, which considering how much I normally tinker with stuff speaks to how well the machine performs out of the box. While the machine isn't a "set it and forget it" type auto, my wife can make a cappa/latte is she so desires without too much fuss. You can probably pick any nice machine/grinder in the same price range and have similar results, our choice was the La Spaziale S1 Vivaldi and Macap M4 (at that time stepped, now converted to stepless). Overall it's probably one of the best and lasting purchases we've made.

Good luck in your search.

rharlow wrote:So if I'm going to "blow my budget", then what about the La Spaziale Vivaldi II. I've only read great reviews and it seems that the controls are intuitive and the steam process is fairly robust.
Any thoughts on doubling my budget to keep my wife happy?

I had pretty much tripled my original "budget" by the time I finished researching machines & finally bought my S1V2 & grinder. After 11 months of daily use I have no regrets & plan to keep the Vivaldi for many years. The grinder I bought didn't fare as well & has been replaced by a Super Jolly. Go for the Vivaldi but also buy the best grinder you can afford as it makes a huge difference in the cup.

Check out the: http://s1cafe.com/ if you haven't been there already.

You guys, you're supposed to make this easy (and less expensive). I was hoping to see a post that said "I spent $500 on the perfect setup, blah, blah, blah." We can all dream, right.

So here is where I currently stand after three weeks of research and your wonderful feedback...
Option #1 is Quickmill Alexia + Baratza Vario = $1,580
Option #2 is La Spaziale Vivaldi II + Baratza Vario = $2,625

So is the La Spaziale Vivaldi II worth the extra $1,040???

Remember: emphasis on making LATTES, not straight espresso.