javabass wrote: Then there's still the idea of paying $900 for - CC1/vario.....ugh. It never will be an easy decision will it? Thanks for all your input fellas!

FWIW, I would make a list of your priorities and figure out their strict order of importance to you. Even with unlimited budget, the options are overwhelming: lever vs pump, do I need pressure profiling?, grinders... But fiscal realities make the attempt at balance that much harder.

A variety of people have suggested hand grinders. I have the Vario and the Pharos. The Pharos is a great grinder, but I think it is a bit of a pain to use, especially compared to the user friendly Vario. For me, the tastes are similar enough that I far prefer using the Pharos. Others may disagree, but my point is to consider what matters to you.

Same goes with levers. I also have a La Pavoni (besides a QM67). It makes great espresso, but can be a bit unwieldy for making milk drinks. Others levers are easier, but there is the budget issue and finding used ones can be tricky or require a fair amount of work in restoration.

I suggest considering another option. Minimize your spend and go with a Pharos and CC1 or a used lever. It will save you money and allow you to experiment and learn and better understand your needs. If you can live with hand grinders, you might upgrade to a HG-1 or might just stay with the Pharos. If you find that hand grinding is not for you, you should easily be able to resell the Pharos and not lose any money (or only lose very little).

If you can find a good used lever, I might go that way. You may love the espresso and flexibility or you'll discover levers aren't for you. But you'll be able to resell without losing any/much money. But if the lever search doesn't work out, the CC1 will also let you experiment and you could resell, if necessary, without losing too much money.

Basically, unless there is a clear option, I am advocating minimizing your spend and maximizing resell options. It will delay being settled, but you'll learn a lot and no one is really settled once they go down the espresso rabbit hole

Problem with the Pharos grinder, you never know when it'll be available, it could pop up on their site tomorrow, 5 months from now, or a year from now and when they do they sell out immediately, they were just available quickly a few weeks ago. You literally have to keep checking multiple times a day every day in hopes it pops up for sale randomly like it did last time and jump on it.

I posted the following to a different thread, but seems like it may be helpful here.

I set a notification action via IFTTT.com. If the webpage for the Pharos changed to In Stock, I get an email. I was able to order one this way, but I can't vouch for 100% reliability on the notifications. So your mileage may vary with this approach.

I've shared the ifttt recipe, in case it is useful to anyone. (Requires gmail email address, though you could probably modify/create similar for other email).

https://ifttt.com/recipes/223314-notifi ... os-grinder

I read your post thinking Elektra with the Microcasa a Leva being at the top of the list. But looks like plenty have already recommended that.

Really, in terms of aesthetics, Elektra is pretty far ahead of most other makers, everything else is just a stainless steel box as a friend of mine puts it (he loves Elektra).

That is, unless you get into Kees van der Westen machines...but short of those two makers, I don't see a whole lot of aesthetics going into machine design, arguably most people don't really value it all that much and aren't willing to pay a whole lot more for it.