I learned to steam using a Toroid pitcher. It's all I've ever known. As far as me and the cat are concerned I've mastered lattes and caps over the last year and a half with my equipment. Since I only had the single Toroid I decided to purchase an additional steaming pitcher but in the traditional style from Espresso Parts. I think it's whatever their house brand is and about twice as thick as the Toroid. Long story short, using this pitcher feels like I'm a newbie all over again - I'm getting either thin watery steamed milk or thick blobs of foam. Are these two style pitchers so radically different that they require different steaming techniques? I'm at a loss for why I can't seem to use the most common style steaming vessel.

I tried the Toroid on my Gaggia Factory and didn't like it. I attributed the difficulty that I had with the fact that the seam wand on the Factory is set at an angle and the Toroid folks say to shot the steam strait down to the bottom and let the pitcher do the work. maybe if you angle the steam wand and keep the wand closer to the edge of the pitcher than the center to set up the whirlpool it would help you get started. I'm not very accomplished at milk texturing and normally drink straight espresso so take this all with a grain of salt, and good luck.

SonVolt wrote:Are these two style pitchers so radically different that they require different steaming techniques?

Yes. You can use conventional methods in an Espro Toroid, but not the reverse.

I learned on a traditional then tried a toroid, which I found much simpler but incapable of doing small amounts of milk for a cappa. Lots of pointers already on this site about how to steam with a traditional pitcher but you'll need to start all over.