For travelers who've visited Europe, LaCimbali will be one of the few names that they can rattle off as automatically associated with espresso bars. From the expansive cafe machines to their logo on espresso cups in Rome, there is an unmistakable association in their name. I suppose this shouldn't be a surprise, afterall, the company has been in business since 1912!

For espresso aficionados throughout the world, LaCimbali additionally means uncompromising quality of materials and workmanship, and unparalleled temperature stability among heat exchanger espresso machines. Given the Cimbali Junior DT1's reputation and its ardent followers who expect in-depth treatment for their hero, this Buyer's Guide goes to greater lengths than the previous reports, featuring a side-by-side group taste comparison against another espresso industry icon, La Marzocco.

I logged more than four months of daily use of this machine before arranging the test to be certain I had a firm grip on the nuances of operating Junior. Frankly, the tallied votes surprised me. But before getting to the results of the shootout, allow me to first introduce the LaCimbali Junior DT1, whose nickname is simply "Junior".

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No comments . . . no feedback?

I find this lack of "current" feedback -- both here and on CG (in terms of individuals posting their own reviews) -- rather surprising.

Anyone else?

Here is a link to coffeegeek consumer reviews on the Cimbali Junior DT/1

http://www.coffeegeek.com/reviews...al/lacimbalijunior

The number of consumer reviews posted on an espresso machine is a numbers game. What I mean by that is simply there are only a certain percentage of people that will post reviews therefore the more of a specific machine that is sold the higher the number of reviews you will find. We do not sell Juniors everyday like we do other machines. Not everyone is willing to spend $3,000.00 on an espresso machine, they value their marriage too much.

zin1953 wrote:I find this lack of "current" feedback -- both here and on CG (in terms of individuals posting their own reviews) -- rather surprising.

I wouldn't read anything into the lack of posts to this thread, most of the "feedback" threads on HB have few responses. The feedback forum is for commentary on the article itself, not general discussion of the reviewed machine, which typically occurs in the Espresso Gear forum.

I can only theorize why there are fewer La Cimbali Junior consumer reviews than other espresso machines. Chris' explanation is the most logical. Another possibility, albeit a slightly cynical one, is that the typical La Cimbali Junior buyer already knew what they wanted from years of experience, were less likely to be online researching reviews, and therefore less likely to contribute them.

I think it is also related to "experience level" Although I wrote consumer equipment reviews years ago, I haven't written any for years. This is not because I have not acquired any new equipment, which I have, but rather because I consider the topic to be "mundane."

Most people do not start out with espresso on day 1 and buy a $3000 espresso machine on day 3. By the time they get around to buying a Cimbali Junior or something else similarly priced, their interest in writing about equipment purchases will likely have waned. I don't read every coffee-related thread I encounter on the internet, either, and in fact one thing that makes it more or less certain that I won't read it is a title such as, "I just bought a blank blank blank." How boring!

Although I enjoy playing around with equipment, and god knows I have a lot of it, I'd rather comment on the equipment in the context of a thread about coffee than simply write something about gear in a vacuum.

Plus, no one is paying me to write anything, so furthering equipment sales is not something that really motivates me unless the piece of equipment really strikes a chord for some reason or other.

I think there are a lot of people like me, which probably accounts for the absence of very many reviews about equipment that is priced like a Cimbali Jr.

ken