I'm sharing this quick look at my one month old BZ10 as a way to return some info to the group and to anyone considering this machine. This post is also a chance to thank the regulars, as well as the contributors to the existing Bezzera threads, who have made my life easier.



The BZ10 shares nearly all components with the BZ07, and from reports here mine behaves the same way. Primary differences include the symmetrical layout of the steam/water wands flanking the group and a dual boiler/brew-pressure manometer vs the single gauge on most North American BZ07s. The switches and indicator lights are moved away from the drip tray to the top of the front panel, and there is a very nice cast/raised logo panel on the back (too bad mine faces the wall).

Design

To my eye it's a fantastic looking machine. Fit and finish is near perfect, materials are top-notch, and it's a very compact, balanced design. I've added some felt feet to the water tank cover to eliminate the only potential rattle. The two switches are chromed plastic, and are the only component that seem a notch below perfect. An easy upgrade that'll wait until they start to look scruffy (which may be never).

Ergonomics

Steam and boiling water are controlled with multidirectional joysticks. Firmly sprung, they can be moved in any direction for fine control, or the steam side can be lifted to a toggled position for on/off full steam. Other than needing two hands for anything but full steam, they work perfectly, and it's nice to have "instant" off to cut the steam - no fumbling or guessing when to start turning the knob. The seating of the valves and any play in the joysticks can be very simply adjusted as posted here and by various vendors, and I did snug my steam side up a tiny bit. There's a bit of a trick to using the hot water side, as the short wand puts flash-boiling water quite close to the hand that's holding the joystick. I direct the wand to the left a bit and bump the stick to the right and no longer steam myself. Having boiling water on the machine is really nice. Apart from topping off the odd americano the super-hot water makes cleanup a snap - baked on milk disappears with one wipe.

My machine shipped with 14g and 8g 58mm baskets, which snap firmly into the nicely finished portafilter. Like many others have noted about Bezzera machines in general the initial lock-in is tight. After a month of use it's still firm but quite smooth. I'm pretty certain that as the gasket "ages" it'll get even smoother, and I wouldn't start tinkering with the portafilter ears etc. Headspace is low, and it's relatively easy to end up with impressions on the puck.

Tech

Bezzera uses a pressurestat paired with a relay to run the boiler, which in theory should prolong the life of the pressurestat. Deadband is a little under one bar, and my pressure/temperature overshoots slightly. Total swing amounts to a couple of degrees. The clunk-clank of the p-stat and relay add a nice rhythm to my day . Stock setting for my boiler was ~1.15 bar, and the OPV set to ~11.5. The group is thermally separate from the boiler and heated electrically.

The boiler is autofill, and so long as you have water in the tank everything takes care of itself. The tank refill light seems backwards to me (orange on means you are ready to go, off is empty) but makes the machine look nice with both lights on. Sensing is by sprung platform under the 3L tank. The whole machine powers down when the tank is empty, so it's worth keeping full.

Operation

Steaming is everything advertised here. Steam power to burn - bubbles don't stand a chance. Using the stock burn-me wand and 4-hole tip everything happens *very* fast, and I've adjusted to incorporating air very quickly in the first few seconds and then letting the steam power liquefy the microfoam into glistening perfection. The quantity and quality of steam seems to call into question some of the conventional wisdom about what makes for a good steamer. The BZs certainly don't have huge thermal reservoirs - maybe the relatively short and unrestricted steam path make up the difference? Recovery is also very fast, and I'm never going to come close to running out of steam. I can see why some opt for a more restrictive tip, but I'm more than happy with the speed and control of the stock setup now that I've had a bit of practice. Easy thing to play with in any event.

Operation is about as easy as it gets after a short warmup, and as a Hx machine it's always ready to go. You get a single manual button to run the brew pump. Flush (or not), insert loaded portafilter, push the button to start the shot and again to stop it. Don't walk away!



Brew pressure is nice to have while dialing things in, and adds some visual excitement to the process. I ran the machine using the stock OPV setting for the first couple of weeks before my taste-tuning experiments led me to a wall . I've dialed the brew pressure back to 10bar vs the blind filter (~9.5 pulling a shot) and the gauge no longer tells me as much, but singles and ristrettos are more reasonable.

Yeah, but how did it taste?

Right. This has been fun. I'm pretty sure that many new-baristas get led off track by diverging solutions when it comes to dose/grind/temperature. Leaving measured temps/weights out of the discussion for now. Tuning by taste works perfectly.

I'm using an Ascaso I1 flat-burr grinder. It's a small (my wife wasn't there when I passed on the K7) home-use grinder with some good features and a few bad ones. Foremost for me comparing it to the usual "domestic" level grinders was the all-metal-innards construction. The idea was that there's nothing in there that some time in the shop couldn't tweak. Taken apart, some soundproofing, burrs were checked for alignment, and a tiny amount of slack was taken up using ptfe tape - real grinders would use a sprung upper burr. Grind is good, and most importantly consistent and repeatable: at one point moving between freshly roasted beans and stale decaf was taking 3 1/2 full turns of the worm-gear adjustment knob, but getting back to the dialed in setting was a snap. I'm single-pull grinding with measured beans dosed directly into the portafilter. It's very definitely an espresso-only grinder.

Beans through so far have been a medium roasted Kenyan and house espresso from the vendors, the aforementioned decaf (actually pretty decent... soft/round/caramel boring, but still), Locally roasted blend, local roast FTO Yirgacheffe and Chiapas popcorn roasted. 1kg bag of bargain "Italian" from Montreal. I'm fortunate to have access to some very good coffee within walking distance. The greens in particular were a nice find - tiny outfit, all fair trade organic, and very very reasonably priced.

The kg blue bag is the kind of thing that'll get me run off the forum . The vac-brick preground version was what I've been feeding my moka (Brikka) since the last disposable grinder packed it in, and although not very challenging it's a taste that I'm familiar with and it's even drinkable... robusta and all. Starting from a known spot seemed like a good plan, and being almost free helped make it easier to sink shots.

Using only the double basket, shots timed out fine but tasted overly "bright". Playing with grind moved the flavours around a bit but didn't dramatically change the balance of the espresso. It was GOOD - but it wasn't controllable. BZ10 was in charge.

It wasn't until I started thinking about the single that I started to recognize signs of being off track. Marked as 8g, it has a tiny volume compared to the (already smallish) double. Combined with a large punched area and proportionally more numerous closely spaced smaller holes, a grind that seemed reasonable for the double flushed through unimpeded.

Reducing the dose and grinding finer started to move the shots the direction I wanted. I can grind repeatably enough to "bracket" shots, and we could generally agree on differences between shots tasted next to one another (rather than "remembering" what the last setting was like).

Finally, splitting the shot into thirds revealed much of what was left (for this coffee, basket, temp). Blending the three cuts was interesting. Things are starting to get dialed in. Grind is basically settled - minor adjustment to dose tweaks things.

In the end, in order to achieve a balance of intensity/fruit/citrus?/salt? and sugars I ended up with a dramatically smaller dose than that the youtube experts suggest. With this coffee I'm currently well below the rim.

It still tastes "cool" to me. This has come up in previous Bezzera threads as well, but nothing I could do by way of flushes seemed to have any effect, and I was miles away from "burning" anything. After a couple of years with a Brikka I know what updosed-hot tastes like. The espresso is good - maybe great, but it's still of a very definite "style". Is this Bezzera's Northern Italian-ness showing through? What do the experts say?

Pulling lots of shots, being consistent, taking notes pays off. When I'd fully explored the flavour-space afforded by the default settings I carefully removed the Loctite and tweaked the boiler to 1.23 coasting to 1.26. The BZ10's pressurestat is adjustable without opening the machine with an appropriately sized insulated screwdriver inserted through the warming tray (use your own judgement).

The very first shot showed exactly the changes in taste anticipated - and I'm off and running! Now to go back and see if I can tame those Mexican beans.

Thanks to HB.com! Would have been a much longer journey without you guys!

-Matthias (promise next post will be shorter)

Thanks for the detailed report. Don't know about the Youtube experts, but for most coffees, IMO, the group Bezzera uses works best at the classic 14 grams -- well below the rim.

The BZ10 looks like a slightly upgraded and larger version of the BZ07; so I'm hoping/guessing you'll grow to enjoy the machine as much as I did the 07

another_jim wrote:The BZ10 looks like a slightly upgraded and larger version of the BZ07

Yes *very* slightly upgraded but exactly the same size. Most of the exterior is shared as well as 99% of the inner works. It's an interesting point for people who might be choosing between the two:

To my eye the 07 looks a bit smaller in pictures because the layout makes it seem like there is more stuff jammed into a small space. The 10 looks like there's room to manoeuvre, implying a larger machine? In person the impressions might actually be reversed. Performance must be identical.

Both Bezzeras feel and measure much smaller (narrower mostly) than most Hx and quite a few SBDU - very tidy/compact machines and pretty easy to sneak into a kitchen.

what flushing routine are you using with the BZ10?

Eight seconds and then go, but more to be repeatable than any reason I've managed to taste. I have some theories about what's going on but haven't had time to do the math. Everything seems very stable.

At that length, a longer flush seems very slightly cooler, but nowhere near the difference I was tasting with the pstat set lower.

NO flush isn't bad. The path between the HX and the PF is relatively long, and the group irons out some of the spikes. Who knows what the flash-boil does when the flow is slowed to extraction rate.

My medium-term plan is to instrument the BZ10 and add microprocessor control. The ability to easily tune grouphead temperatures independently of the boiler is one of the interesting things about this machine. It'll be a curiousity-driven project though - I'm very happy with the stock performance. Watch this space