I’ve always enjoyed good coffee, and as coffee and cycling have long enjoyed a healthy relationship I thought I’d write about my experience buying and my first three months using an espresso machine at home.
I enjoy a post ride latte in Tuscan Cafe in my home town of Northville, MI, where I’ve been a regular customer since 2000. I would visit there with the family at the weekend, or grab a coffee on the way to work at least once a week.
At home I’ve used a Keurig machine for the past ten years, which I always thought made decent coffee and was very convenient. I’ve also used a cafetière (French press for my American friends) and a typical American drip coffee machine in the past, these are certainly less convenient when you just want a single cup.
In December 2001, my wife mentioned she’d been considering buying me an espresso machine for Christmas. The one she’d been looking at was expensive ($1,600) and she didn’t want to spend that much if it wasn’t what I’d want. As I’m better at researching such things, she suggested I should do the research.
An initial Google search came up with this article, which was interesting in that it suggested that espresso was best left to the experts in cafes and shouldn’t be made at home, but then went on to give some good advice.
An initial search for espresso machines in a similar price range to the machine my wife had been considering (c. $1500) came up with the Rocket Appartamento. Regular retail price was $1,850-$1,900 but there were deals available for around $1,750.
This seemed ideal. It looked the part – I wanted a traditional looking Italian espresso machine – and with my limited knowledge at the time it fit the bill and would do the job.
I discovered that this kind of machine is referred to as a semi-automatic, prosumer machine, meaning that it doesn’t grind the beans and prepare the coffee for extraction as a fully automatic machine would, and that it shares similarities with the commercial machines you’d see in cafes, but is intended for home use.
Further research taught me about the different kinds of espresso machine, which essentially fit into three categories: single boiler, double boiler and heat exchanger.
Espresso machines essentially have three functions 1) brew coffee by passing ‘brew water’ of between 195-205 degF through a prepared ‘puck’ of coffee under pressure (nominally 9 bar) 2) provide steam to heat and texture milk to prepare latte and cappuccino based drinks 3) provide boiling water to make drinks such as hot tea.
The Rocket Appartamento is a single boiler machine. As they are the simplest of the semi-automatic machines, with fewest parts, they are the cheapest typically costing around $1,800 – $2,000.
With a single boiler, water is heated in the boiler and the same water is used as the source for steam, boiling water for tea, and to brew coffee. To produce steam, the boiler must heat the water above boiling, but if boiling water is used to make espresso, then the coffee will end up over extracted which would make it taste bitter. Therefore with a single boiler machine, the boiler temperature must be changed between brewing coffee and steaming milk.
This introduces inconvenience and increases the time required to make a milk based espresso drink, and certainly a nuisance when making multiple milk based drinks back to back.
At the other end of the scale (and budget, costing $2,500 and up) is a double boiler machine. Here two boilers are regulated to different temperatures, one boiler provides steam and boiling water, and the second boiler provides brew water that can be set to a lower, optimal temperature for coffee extraction. Commercial espresso machines have two and sometimes three boilers to provide the correct temperatures to steam milk and brew coffee and to keep up with the demand of continual use.
In between single and double boiler espresso machines are heat exchanger machines. These provide a cost effective compromise costing in the range $1,900 – $2,300. A heat exchanger machine has a single boiler that provides steam and hot water, but a brew water circuit passes through a heat exchanger located inside the boiler. This heats the brew water to a temperature lower than the water in the boiler. This allows the water in the boiler to be set to produce steam, while providing brew water at a lower temperature optimum for coffee brewing. It also allows milk to be steamed and coffee to be extracted simultaneously.
Now that I understood the differences between the types of machine, I decided that I didn’t want to put up with the inconvenience of a single boiler machine, but didn’t need to extra expense of a double boiler machine so I was looking for a heat exchanger machine.
I found there was plenty of useful information on the internet. The two top online retailers in the US seemed to be Whole Latte Love and Clive Coffee both of which had extensive stock and provided lots of useful information both on their websites and and their own YouTube channels. There were also plenty of other YouTube channels providing lots of information about espresso making and espresso machines, one of the best being James Hoffman, who I think has one of the best YouTube channels I’ve come across.
Based on the reviews, the Profitec 500 seemed to be one of the best heat exchanger machines, and it was readily available (many weren’t, I assume due to COVID related parts shortages) and could be had for around $2,000.
To control the water temperature in the boiler of an espresso machine, there are two options. The basic option is a thermostat that switches the boiler’s heating element off when a preset temperature is reached, the water then naturally cools and the thermostat then turns the heater back on. This cycling of the heating element causes fluctuations in water temperature. The other option is to use a PID controller, which maintains the water at a more consistent temperature. Most of the heat exchanger machines I was looking at either had a PID controller as standard or were available as a slightly more expensive PID equipped model. As water temperature is one of the variables that affects the taste of the coffee, it seemed I should buy a machine with a PID for temperature control. The Profitec 500 was offered as a PID model:
The only thing I didn’t like about the Profitec, was that it was made in Germany. While that could be a good thing as I’ve always respected German engineering, the sentimentalist in me wanted an Italian espresso machine.
After more searching, I came across the Bezzera Magica which is a heat exchanger machine that sells for around $1,850 with a PID. Bezzera is one of the oldest espresso machine manufacturers dating back to 1901. Their founder, Luigi Bezzera patented a number of improvements to the espresso machine as is credited with inventing the modern espresso machine. Bezzera hand make their machines in a factory in Milan. Nothing seemed more Italian than this, the specifications seemed to fit my needs and the price was good.
However, it seemed there were none in stock in the US (again assuming this was due to COVID parts availability issues).
During my search, I came across an online retailer called Italian Bean Delight, they had Bezzera Magica machines listed on their website so I contacted them to ask about availability. They were very responsive, and I spoke to the owner Andreas later that evening. He explained that in addition to his retail company he also owned a company that serviced and repaired espresso machines. He advised me against Profitec machines as he’d seen too many at his service company with corroded boilers. He explained that while the boilers are made from stainless steel, they suffer from galvanic corrosion at the fittings. In his opinion, when paying $2,000 for a machine I should expect it to last 20 years and none of the Profitec machines would last that long due to the galvanic corrosion issue. He also advised against the Bezzera machines, stating their quality wasn’t what it once was. Instead he recommended an Izzo Vivi machine, one I hadn’t come across during my search.
This was a PID machine and also hand made in Italy that retails for $1,890. I ended up negotiating what seemed to be a very good price on the machine and a Macap M2 wormdrive coffee grinder (that Andreas highly recommended – with a normal retail price of $769). Andreas also included everything I’d need to get started (two latte cups & saucers, a milk thermometer, milk frothing jug, water hardness tester and 1 kilo of Italian espresso coffee beans). Also, due to a delay in shipping, Andreas included a Geisinger brew head thermometer worth $145. I got all this for $2,500 including delivery and highly recommend Andreas and his company, Italian Bean Delight.
