I e-mailed Mr. Massimo Chenda of Caffemotive, regarding additional information about the Bacchi coffee/espresso maker. Below is part of his reply:

From few time we made an commercial agreement with an important and professional company in USA, the ORPHAN ESPRESSO company http://www.orphanespresso.com/. Doug and Barbara Garrott, that they read this mail in copy and are very expert in the world of espresso coffee, they are our distributor in USA.
You can to order your Bacchi Espresso machine directly to their in USA.

Hopefully Doug will chime in.

Would be nice to see an informal review of this machine against some other "real" espresso machines. Looks like an interesting device, and certainly has it's short-comings. But if the price is right and it makes a good shot I know I'd recommend it to a few people. Although without steaming capability it seems a lot like a 1 shot Caravel.

Looking forward to any new info.

Hmmmm, a 1 shot Caravel, would that be so bad? One that has no heating element, that is small, will travel with a small stove, and hand grinder, that you could take anywhere, even fit into your luggage? That makes a wonderful shot? Hmmmm......

The cat's out of the bag! This is the status of the Bacchi, as far as our involvement - there is currently a pallet of Bacchi, along with support parts, in Seattle, and they will arrive to us, hopefully, this week. We have been using one for over over 2 months, testing, evaluating, using different heat sources, beans, grinders, etc. And, frankly, we've been trying to break it, to make it fail, to find something that is, or could, go wrong with it - and we have been unsuccessful - it is an extremely well built and innovative little machine! Everything that Lucio has posted about it is true (but you don't need sugar in the espresso it makes). There are ways to make terrible coffee with it, mostly by misinterpreting the function of the machine, but if you follow the directions, you can make a great shot. And that great shot can be repeated over & over!

As soon as we have them, we'll put them up on the site, along with directions, our personal review, explanation about the function of the machine, and video! A few more days.....

Very interesting news, Doug. Particularly the news about use with a (camping?) stove.

At least it's interesting for me. Not least of all because despite recognising the strengths of the Mypressi I got, and not finding any real temperature problems, I find that the espresso is a bit gassy and I don;t like that. Not too keen on all the cartridges either....

Please keep us posted.

Cheers

Mike

I'm for sure interested in such a machine (mostly for others or as gifts). Primary question is to it's potential quality (shot quality). I think most other things about it are pretty apparent. I haven't been able to find a price on it, any chance to get some advanced info on the price you'll be selling it for Doug?

The street price in Europe is EUR 298...

Ah, geeze, we know lots of people want some details on the Bacchi, but it's screwing up our big roll out party even! That, and the delays provided courtesty the US Gov't, so much so that the hot drinks are getting cold, and the cold drinks are getting warm, the topless Las Vegas Showgirls we hired to serve the espresso drinks are getting really testy...the trained elephant we got to stand on the Bacchi to prove its build quality is eating us out of house & home!

:0 Ok, ok, serious... we get the sense that most people felt like we did - they want the Bacchi to be a great little singleshot espresso machine. But we also recognize a small thread of skepticism about it. I know WE were skeptical! Until about day 4, We flat out hit the shot, and it changed our mind about the whole thing. Now that the word is out that we're the Bacchi dealers, anything we say will be met with skepticism...probably rightly so since we've made an investment in the project! We have demonstrated the machine to one Coffeegeek 'insider', and, after his eyes returned back to their normal position, all he said was "put me down for the first one you get." We recognize that we'll need to have someone do an independent review, and we're open to suggestions - it is the shot that sells the machine, and they're good. Really good, but that's difficult to communicate! LOL - we're pretty good with machines, but not so good with the description of the espresso itself - we're not trained in cupping - we know what we like, and we know when something is good, and when something is bad, to our taste, but we also recognize that before dropping 298 Euro on a single function machine many people will want more consumer oriented information. We're working on it...or will be when the machine shipment finally arrives here!

Well I for one have absolutely no problems with skepticism regarding anything you post.

The fact that it will work with a camping stove is very encouraging.

If you can confirm that I will shoot straight away and then of course ramble on endlessly about what I find...

orphanespresso wrote: We have demonstrated the machine to one Coffeegeek 'insider', and, after his eyes returned back to their normal position, all he said was "put me down for the first one you get." We recognize that we'll need to have someone do an independent review, and we're open to suggestions - it is the shot that sells the machine, and they're good. Really good, but that's difficult to communicate! LOL - we're pretty good with machines, but not so good with the description of the espresso itself - we're not trained in cupping - we know what we like, and we know when something is good, and when something is bad

Well, that is great news. And we trust your judgment. May I suggest Jim Schulman (another Jim) and/or Greg Scace?

Ciao Doug,

Though I'm never thrilled about the euro/dollar exchange rate, you saved me a trip to Trieste! I'm stoked! Cue the dancing girls!

Grazie mille,
Wayne