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The Mia has the potential to produce great espresso under the right circumstances. That being said, the right circumstances are a set of constraints that need to be fully understood and respected if you want to achieve this goal.
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Introduction |
Over the course of this test, five different baristas pulled shots of fifteen different coffees from six different vendors. Stumptown Hairbender was the most common espresso used due to my familiarity with it. The baristas who pulled shots on this machine included one absolute beginner that I trained over the course of the test, Bronwen Serna (professional barista and 2004 USBC champion), Kyle Larson (professional barista and 2005 NWRBC champion) and Tonx (professional roaster). These four people also were amongst those who generously gave their time and expertise to test, taste, and sample hundreds of shots pulled and provided much of the feedback on quality.
Each and every one of the baristas pulled some
shots that were very good, and all of the professional baristas pulled
at least one really great shot. That being said, as noted above, we all
immediately realized that there were some constraints that were new to
us.
First—as noted earlier, managing temperature control and stability are vital to producing good espresso on this machine. With top commercial machines, control of brew temperature is managed by the machine. With the Mia, this is another one of the variables that you, the barista, need to control and attempt to reduce to a near constant.
Second—it pays to choose your coffee wisely. Unless you feel very comfortable with the rigors of temperature control, choose a coffee that is flexible and tolerant of a wider range of brew temperatures and avoid coffees that are very temperature sensitive or have specific requirements. For example, coffees from Espresso Vivace will be more challenging to work with than the coffees from Intelligentsia Coffee Roasters. In general, I would suggest starting with coffees that have a target brew temperature between 198°F and 201°F and which are not finicky when it comes to dose or extraction volume. As you come to know the machine better, consider branching out into more challenging coffees.
Third—be willing to invest time and energy into understanding this machine. Assuming that you'll set it up and immediately start pulling consistently good shots is simply unrealistic. You should plan to pull shots, taste, experiment, evaluate and deduce for at least a week or two (assuming you're a skilled barista) before you can start making consistently good espresso.
Finally—because you have added an additional variable to your control (brew temperature), the skill requirements compared to commercial equipment have gone up. Plainly stated, being a barista on the Mia is harder. Your technique and methods must be rock solid and consistent. If you're trying to tune brew temperature and your dose is inconsistent, you're navigating the Autostrada by Braille. Same goes for distribution, tamp, you name it.
If you manage these constraints then yes, you can make very good and even great espresso with the Mia. Over the course of this test, I pulled a couple dozen shots that were as good as if not better than shots I've pulled on stock Lineas. This is a huge compliment and a major achievement for the Mia; it continues to reinforce the point that the barista's skills are, for most of us, the limiting factor in our espresso.
After the first couple days of settling in with the machine, I was consistently pulling shots of Hairbender that were on par with what I'd get from a stock Linea. Initially, I was finding the mouthfeel to be less syrup-like and buttery. However, after those first few days, I began to understand the machine a bit better and was able to produce very dense and rich espressos. The shots accurately recreated the flavor profile of the beans, producing an espresso with rich, heavy crema, a thick mouthfeel, volatile dried fruit aromatics and wonderful sweet dark chocolate in the finish. I did notice, however, that the shots did not have the definition and clarity of flavor that I'd come to know from the Mistral.
This was something I'd noted previously when comparing shots from the Mistral and a stock Linea. The shots from the Mistral have clearly defined flavors whereas the shots from a Linea are a little "blurred" and end up having one overall "blended" flavor rather than a collection of distinct and different flavor components. The only machines that managed to get that level of clarity have been the Mistral, a Synesso and a heavily modified Linea. So the fact that the Mia doesn't produce this same separation is hardly a damning comment, though I'm interested in trying to discover the cause.
There are espressos that I've found to be profoundly unbalanced when pulled from a Mistral. Such a blend pulled from the Mia became dramatically more rounded and the "blurring" covered some of the jagged peaks and strange holes in the profile. So the blurring is not, a priori, a negative attribute. In fact, I think that many people would prefer the flavor profile from a Mia as it is less idiosyncratic and less "demanding." The shots from the Mia tend to be more "comforting" in flavor.
An additional consequence of this trait is that it's hard to play the game of trying to extract different flavor profiles from one coffee with one brew temperature. Small changes in barista technique do not seem to result in different (positive) flavor profiles, but rather in superior or inferior versions of the same profile.
I honestly don't know what the cause
is. My first thought was that it was related to temperature stability,
but it's also possible that it is more complex and has to do with a
combination of variance in temperature, pre-infusion and the vibration
pump. On that topic, with the naked portafilter you can clearly see the
difference between this vibration pump and a commercial rotary pump. With the
Mia you see clearly defined "pulses" in the flow that are never present
with a machine like a Mistral.
I had different results with other espressos. The Intelligentsia Black Cat, for example, was fabulous with the Mia. It was a bit more fault-tolerant than the Hairbender and easier to work with. In addition, the "blurriness" was less distracting with the Black Cat. And several of the single origin coffees were really amazing. The Intelligentsia Brazil Organic Profundo, for example, really blew our minds. Both Bronwen and Tony were amazed by the sweetness and the absence of any significant negative flavor traits. The shots of the Stumptown Las Nubitas were better than all but two or three I've ever tasted (and those were all pulled with a Mistral). They exhibited all the flavor traits, reproduced those flavors perfectly and showed great finesse and complexity.
There were a couple espressos that were more challenging. For example, the Victrola Streamline took a lot of work. And even at its best, it was not true to the blend we would expect from the Synesso. It was still tasty, but not quite the same. We found it nearly impossible to get good results from one of the two batches of Ecco Caffe Espresso. An altered formulation of this blend was dramatically easier, although still on par with the Streamline in terms of both challenge and results. These two blends have a number of common traits, including a high brew temperature, and also have some common beans, which may explain the difficulties we had. The most unusual espresso was the Olympia Big Truck, which was dramatically easier to work with and better tasting on the Mia than the Linea.
I experimented with various types of espresso sessions ranging from pulling a single shot as if I were making a drink before work to "torture tests" where I'd go through a pound or two of coffee in one run. The Mia is no easier or harder to use than most machines when it comes to getting that one great shot. The Mia handled the multi-shot tests like a champ. As with any other machine, you must set the grind and dial in the machine. In one session, I burned through almost three pounds of coffee and the shots were consistent from start to finish. The lack of a plumbed drain becomes the one major issue in this sort of scenario. The size of the reservoir means that refills are infrequent though still a distraction.
I also pulled shots of various styles, ranging from "old school" three ounce doubles down to super short 1½ ounce triple ristrettos. I pulled shots using the La Marzocco portafilter and the naked portafilter using both a ridged LM double basket and a triple basket (depending on the coffee). The Mia handled all with ease and style. As far as I could tell, there was no particular weak spot for the machine in any of these styles or types.
After much discussion and thought, I decided to score the Mia's espresso as compared to the other machines I know best. Admittedly it's an unfair comparison, but the only one I really know how to do. So I'm going to compare the Mia to a stock La Marzocco Linea three group semi-auto, a Schomer-modified La Marzocco Linea two group semi-auto, and a three group Mistral (see comparative equipment for more details). I am basing these scores purely on the opinions of the tasters involved (myself included) and not on any suspected or assumed experience of a mythic "average user." I'll score each machine on a 0-10 scale using the following attributes:
| Grimac Mia | Stock LM Linea | Modified Linea | Mistral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Ease of Use |
5 |
8 |
9 |
8 |
|
Aromatics |
7 |
7 |
7 |
8 |
|
Mouthfeel |
7 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
|
Reproduction |
7 |
7 |
8 |
8 |
|
Clarity |
5 |
6 |
8 |
9 |
|
Flavor |
8 |
8 |
8 |
9 |
|
40 |
44 |
48 |
51 |
This is a pretty amazing result for the Mia. As you can see, the Mia suffers by comparison when it comes to ease of use and clarity, but otherwise is right there with a stock Linea. Given that the cheapest of these compared machines costs more than six times what the Mia costs, this is clearly a major endorsement of the Mia in particular and home espresso machines in general.
First, a caveat—my strength as a barista is with coffee. I'm not a 'milk guy' in terms of either preference or skill.
As with the espresso evaluation, my initial plan was to simply compare the Mia to the machines I know best—the Linea (stock and modified) and the Mistral. I threw this idea out the window within two or three seconds of steaming the first pitcher of milk. It is simply unreasonable to compare this machine to a Linea or Mistral. Instead, I decided to simply evaluate the Mia's ability to produce acceptable milk.
The Mia comes with a one-hole tip. As I said, within a matter of seconds I knew this was going to be a problem. In my opinion, the one-hole tip makes producing good milk nearly impossible and I gave up on it within a couple days. While it was possible for me to steam milk that looked right using this tip, producing milk that looked right and tasted right was not going to happen. The one-hole tip simply does not generate enough velocity to stretch the milk sufficiently before it overheats. As a result, milk that has the right consistency lacks the desired sweetness.
Not only is the steam power of the Mia anemic at best, the tip is poorly designed and the wand itself has a few serious flaws. The one-hole tip simply doesn't allow one to easily texture milk (it requires some significant hand movement). Since the hole is directly on center with no angle, you must hold the pitcher at an acute angle. The wand is very short and has a pronounced S bend. This combines with the lack of steam dispersion angle and excessive hand movement to create an awkward steaming experience.
Enough bad news. It was possible that the whole problem was the one-hole tip, so I ordered a two-hole tip from Espresso Parts. It wasn't a perfect fit and leaves a lot of threads exposed, but I have a ton of plumber's teflon tape, so it all worked out.
Switching to this tip was a dramatic improvement. Beyond what I'd expected or even hoped for. Suddenly I could make good milk with ease. It's still harder to texture great milk with the Mia than it is with most commercial machines, but that's really not a fair comparison. The steam power is still quite low, which makes control when stretching really critical. In addition, the slowness of the steaming results in the wand becoming very hot, which causes some boiling and scalding of milk around the wand.
I found it quite hard to get used to such a low-power wand, but I see the point of this design. You're less likely to create "soap bubbles" with this wand, making it a lot more user-friendly. It's like designing a car that deliberately understeers—the car is safer for the vast majority of people out there and only the serious fanatics and pros will be frustrated by the lack of performance. I only wish that there were some way to override the default beyond switching to a different tip. For someone who is serious about drink quality, the steaming of the Mia is suboptimal as delivered.
Given the strengths of this machine (espresso quality, build quality, ergonomics), the weakness when it comes to milk is very noticeable. To sum it up, I have four concerns with steaming on this machine, two of which are directly related to the wand.
One key additional point—while it is possible to steam well with small amounts of milk (four to six ounces of cold milk in a twelve ounce pitcher), we found that it was difficult to steam any significant amount of milk without running into the same flavor issues. Getting both good texture and taste from more than twelve ounces of milk was seemingly impossible.
In the end, while it was initially challenging to texture milk with the Mia, swapping to a better steam wand tip and learning the quirks of the machine wasn't very difficult. Those who drink straight espresso and short milk drinks will be satisfied with the Mia.
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