lagoon wrote:Yeah threw a wrench is certainly the case. Even if the Mini was cut to the same price it's now a tough proposition, because the Micra has a number of design improvements and a proper saturated group. Plus faster warmup, lower power consumption, smaller footprint.

I guess people after massive steaming or bigger cup clearance would still go for the mini, but we don't do "milkshakes" in our household, so the Micra seems the better offering.

It sounds like the Mini is going to get a design refresh, but how soon?

Can you point me to where you heard about the mini getting a design refresh? I haven't heard anything about that yet!

lagoon wrote:
I guess people after massive steaming or bigger cup clearance would still go for the mini, but we don't do "milkshakes" in our household, so the Micra seems the better offering.

I'd hardly call a 12 oz latte a milkshake

I think this is speculation based upon the many clever improvements made in the Micra.

Jshot wrote:I'd hardly call a 12 oz latte a milkshake

My 12oz latte cups require 3 3/8" clearance, that's including scale. Maybe a little tight but should certainly work bottomless from what I can tell?

Trying hard to decide between this and the Bianca V3. The plus for the Bianca is flow control, plus for the Micra is fast warmup, auto wake schedule, usable top shelf once it's under my cabinets. Pricing is close enough to be negligible ($3400 for powder coated Bianca).

Do you like the design of one much more than the other? The micra will have a flow control mod available in the next few weeks/months although it will probably cost you another £500 or so.

I'm not sure I care too much about the design differences, although I would probably opt for the colored Bianca, which ups the price a bit. I like how the Micra is short, works well with upper cabinets, however it does leave the space for cups tighter.

Good to know that the mod might be available at some point in case I decide I needed a bit more customization.

Hi,
My micra arrived this afternoon ! I love it !
No plastic smell. I tried a couple of shots, the first was not good, the second was great after dialling the grinder.
I'll try the latte tomorrow.

espressoren wrote:Trying hard to decide between this and the Bianca V3. The plus for the Bianca is flow control, plus for the Micra is fast warmup, auto wake schedule, usable top shelf once it's under my cabinets. Pricing is close enough to be negligible ($3400 for powder coated Bianca).

Just my opinion but I tested the Bianca a while ago with the intention to buy it and sell my Strietman but boy that was an eye-opener. The Bianca didn't even come close tastewise to what I'm getting with my saturated group on the Strietman. That was using my own grinder and beans so the only variable was the machine. For me the Micra would be the choice 100% over the Bianca. The Bianca is just a very expensive fancy E61 while the Micra is a full blown commercial grade machine with saturated group. For me the Micra is in a different league.

That's a quite interesting take. But it seems to contradict the review of one of the HB team members:

another_jim wrote:...I did two rounds of blind taste testing pitting the LMLu's shots (our abbreviation for the Micra) against my Bianca's profiled ones. This involved pulling the shots simultaneously, then me shuffling the cups, while my tasting partner looked away, then vice versa, then tasting and comparing notes. In the first round, we used one week old medium to light roasts, and we found no systematic differences. In the second round, we used 3 day old light to very light roasts, and the profiled shots were systematically distinguishable in being softer. This benefitted the more edgy coffees and hurt the mellow ones...

Sorry but there's a big flaw in that experiment when looking at it from a scientifc standpoint, how much I enjoy Jim's great amount of knowledge. Using 3 days old light to very light roast is like using 3 months old stale dark roasts and has very little value. When doing a proper experiment you need to set the parameters right and that should mean 2-3 weeks old light to very light roasts because there's no value in using 3 days old light to very light roasts. Using 1 week old medium to light roast is a bit better but still not a proper resting time.

Besides that it can also be that my Strietman is better then the Micra and thus also the Bianca. It does have a saturated group and does pressure profiling. I'd like to test the Strietman next to a Micra sometime to see how it turns out as I'm really interested in the Micra.