I was able to do decent milk right away with the stock milk - but the Gold Pro tip made it easier still.

HB wrote:...with a straw and some of Houston's hard summer wind (yes, it is that humid).

Hey now! Today was only 82% RH

I agree that with enough practice you can get decent microfoam with almost any tip, but certain steam tip + boiler combinations are easier to work with than others.

I (luckily) got one of those new "Gold" tips, and it has been my favorite lately. Honestly I think there is very little difference in practice between that and the 2-hole tip from EPNW (and the 2HSTP from Chris).

I don't know about all this steam tip stuff... I mean, I understand the Mia just sucked it up with the 1 hole thing, but all these others... After you pass the learning curve on one of them, does it really matter? Do you think that the GP2HST can actually get better results, or just make it easier to learn faster?

I think passed the learning curve on my valentina, been getting near perfect results (for me) in terms of texture almost every time since saturday. It's made me second guess wanting to get the GP2HST or anything like that.

Each tip is different and the results are different for each person in each situation. There is going to be a combination that works best for you.

chris,
just wonder how to enjoy those beans before they got stale? drink it all up?

I switched over to the Intelligentsia Black Cat this morning. As some of you know, I have almost as much experience with the Black Cat as I do with the Hairbender. In addition, I've noted in the past that I think it's one of the most flexible and tolerant commercial espresso blends - and thus ideally suited for home espresso machines.

So I swapped in the triple basket and dialed in the grind.

Lovely. Dark chocolate, malt, pepper and other spices and a slightly soft high-toned fruit note (dried cherry?).

And then a cappuccino.

I love the Black Cat in a 6oz capp. It's my favorite way to consume this coffee. The chocolate softens to milk chocolate and the spice notes soften as well.

But anyway... to the machine...

It's becoming clear that this machine has more ability to reproduce flavours clearly than many home machines. There is a definition on the palate that I really like. Shots are closer in flavour to what I would get from a top commercial machine, though there is still some fuzziness in there that I'm starting to assume is the result of either the small boilers or perhaps the limitations of HX machines.

The tip I swapped in does, in fact, make it easier to produce excellent milk. The stock tip is fine, and with it I can make decent milk, especially milk for lattes. Good, think cappuccino milk is a bit tougher. The aftermarket tip is far better with cappuccino milk as it makes stretching far more controllable. I am going to source a couple other tips to experiment with.

Coming up I'm going to focus on:
- portafilters (stock vs La Marzocco vs crotchless)
- baskets (stock double vs LM double vs triple)
- steam tips
- more on cup character and reproduction of flavours


If anyone has questions or specific things they would like evaluated or explored with the machine just let me know.

This is some interesting reading, Chris. Great pictures, too, as always. I don't know how feasible this is, but It'd be neat if you had a chance to try out the vibe pump version and see if the greater clarity on Briccoletta is, as you suspect, from its uncommon rotary vane pump.

La Marzocco 15degree Portafilter on left, Stock Briccoletta Portafilter on right


La Marzocco 15degree Portafilter at 9:00, Crotchless at 12:00 and Stock Briccoletta Portafilter at 3:00

As you can see, the La Marzocco Portafilter is significantly larger than the stock Portafilter.
In addition, you'll note that the spouts on the stock Portafilter are centered. The drip tray on the Briccoletta doesn't stick out much from the body and the spouts are probably a reflection of this (or vice versa). As a result, you'll see that I've had to rotate the spouts on the La Marzocco Portafilter.


Triple basket on left, ridged La Marzocco double basket in center, stock Briccoletta double basket on right


Triple basket on left, ridged La Marzocco double basket in center, stock Briccoletta double basket on right

The stock Briccoletta basket holds about 15% less coffee than the La Marzocco ridged basket. This is partially due to decreased depth and partially due to the curved sidewalls.


This round of tests was all done with the Intelligentsia Black Cat. The Black Cat seems ideally suited to the triple basket, but I actually enjoy the flavour from the double basket (overdosed slightly) almost as much. I will repeat with several other coffees over the next week.

First I pulled successive shots from the stock Briccoletta Portafilter and stock double basket. As noted earlier, I had stripped the chrome from the interior of the portafilter before beginning.

I initially found the shots to taste quite unbalanced and almost overextracted. I experimented with dose size but could not get rid of the over-emphasized upper midrange flavours. After much experimentation, I was able to get decent shots by slightly up-dosing and pulling the shots very short (1-1.25oz doubles in 28 seconds).



This was a bit dissappointing to me. I couldn't tell if it was the basket size, basket design or portafilter that was creating these issues.

I then swapped in the La Marzocco Portafilter with the ridged double basket. I went with my usual slight up-dosing and 1.8oz double in 27 seconds model. Lovely, rounded profile. Balanced and sweet. Just what I expect.



I decided to see what the crotchless would reveal about the two baskets. Going with the same dose as with the stock Portafilter yielded a shot that was dramatically more balanced and evenly extracted. Hmmm... I repeated this a few more tries and continued to get nice shots. Perhaps a bit lacking in the low end and not quite as sweet as I'm used to, but good shots none the less. And the volume was noticably larger (I could get about 1.5 to 1.6oz from the double with ease).



OK, let's see what the La Marzocco basket is like... same dose and extraction as with the La Marzocco Portafilter... the shots were richer and deeper than with the stock basket, with a heavier bottom end and more sweetness. Volume was a bit larger as well.



Final tests were to try the stock basket in the La Marzocco Portafilter and vice versa. The results were illuminating in a sense. Shots from the stock basket and the La Marzocco Portafilter were noticably improved over the stock basket and the stock Portafilter, though slightly down in volume, depth and sweetness over the full La Marzocco setup. Shots from the stock portafilter and the La Marzocco basket just didn't work out. Taste was off, extraction was weird and unpredictable.

Very puzzling behavior. After some evaluation, I discovered that the La Marzocco basket appears to be too deep for the stock Portafilter. The basket is actually pressing against the bottom of the Portafilter. My theory is that this is resulting in over-saturation of the coffee in the bottom of the basket and possible back-pressure issues.


I will repeat these experiments with other coffees, but my initial tests lead me to believe that the stock basket is probably going to be just fine with most coffees (and perhaps all coffees that are not suitable for up-dosing and/or triple baskets). At the same time, I am a bit concerned about the stock Portafilter. It could just be a seasoning issue - it could just be the Black Cat - but so far shots from it seem to be inferior.

How is the build quality of this machine, as compared to some of its peers, i.e. Andreja, Mia, Expobar? Would this be more machine than the aformentioned for home use? Thanks in advance for your input.

Ben

All these machines are very well built in my experience. They're not "toys" by any stretch of the imagination. Once you get to this "class" of machine, you're looking at a lot of stainless steel, nice welds, clean installation, high-quality components, etc.

This machine is kind of a different beast from many of the home machines. It's not "more of a machine" it's just that the combination (plumbed-in, rotary pump, E61, semi-auto levetta) seems to be uncommon in the market at the present time.