XL

I just bought an LX Italia Edison 65 Single Dose. It’s marked down from $829 to $525. I LOVE it! A Florentine company with ties to Eureka.

The Flair workflow is a pain, especially when making multiple drinks. I have one and a La Pavoni and the Flair only gets travel use. (Edit: Didn’t realize the 58 has a more “normal” workflow than the classic Flair). I bought my mom a Bambino Plus + Sette 5 years ago and she absolutely loves the setup. The machine hits a real sweet spot as a step up from a Nespresso, as the instant heat is EXTREMELY practical for exactly your use case (early morning pre-coffee caffeination), to the point where I’m shocked that nobody has really nailed that in the “step-up” machines. There are better grinder options today, and you have some choices with the machine (you can find a second-hand La Pavoni around that price range, or any of the options you listed). If I were to swap pieces of my setup for my mom’s, I’m fully confident I’d get a similar (or perhaps better) shot out of her machine with my grinder, but the gap between her Sette and my Mignon XL is serious (though the price sweet spot may be somewhere in the middle).

I just keep my old Baratza for brew and use a Mignon XL for espresso. The Eureka’s adjustment mechanism is great for small adjustments within espresso, less good for being able to make a major adjustment and get back to where you were. It’s generally nice having the espresso adjustment stay put — getting things dialed back often burns a shot or two of beans. I think the Baratza Forte is basically designed for what you’re looking for, though I can’t speak for it personally.

I have an Eureka Mignon XL. No frills, low noise. Very happy with it. I have the drop box made for it. A drawer placed under it. Like it a lot as it saves a lot of space. Would buy again.

Eureka XL, Eureka Libra, and Weber Key M1 are the 3 grinders on my bar now and it’s what I found on the secondary market for good deals. If you are patient you can find some killer deals. I won’t say how much I spent on each one but I’ll say that I usually don’t buy a grinder unless I can get it for 50~% off. This way if I decide down the line to sell it I can usually easily recoup my money and pass on the deal to someone else. I have had a bunch of other grinders on my bar over the last few years but they come and go depending on what I can find. I’ll likely swap out one of my Eureka grinders in the near future Iv seen a lot of grinder go up for sale in my area and the two Eureka grinders are to similar in taste. For now the XL serves as my daily, the Libra as my decaf, and the Key is mostly used when I try out some new beans. But I also really like to brew my daily beans with it but it requires more time and energy to deal with vs the 6-7 seconds from the XL.

I „downgraded“ from a Mignon XL to the Lagom Casa. Very happy, capable SD grinder with great versatility. I don’t mind the longer grindtime at all. Footprint, ease of use and aesthetics sold this one for me. I paid ~650€

If you don´t need single dose: I am happy with Eureka Mignon XL. The shot timer is working quite well and extraction is consistent enough.

That was my plan, but if I am gonna open it, gonna lose at least 10% of my money. I went into this rabbithole for my limited budget, was essentially between vs4 and casa, if not for the bad quality control of vs4, I would have picked it up, while asking this sub last week, I came to include 78s too because it is great value. But Casa is too damn easy, beans in, beans out, very simple, no retention, no kilos of seasoning. That was my usecase, "decent quality effortlessly". Few years ago, I chose "sage barista touch" because it was "a piece of mind process with great results" then went into gaggia classic for 2 weeks, I was like what is the HELL even that? All that time for a cup of cappuccino", sent it back.. went again the coffee machines rabbithole, from rancillo, ascaso, bezzera, ecm.. then settled for lelit. I was about to buy the mara, then realised the pump noise and the choice to make between espresso or steam priority, so I went more than double my budget for lelit bianca v3 that was the end game for me, machines wise, even if i have the funds, la marzocco linea micra or mini is not an option, because I see no value for it. For the grinders, I went for the most famous at the time, mignon, wasn't happy about the aesthetics nor the coffee that comes out heated too much, so I replaced it by XL, was decent till it broke after 2 months. Then I decided no more on this regard to invest and try, I went for a sturdy commercial tank sort of grinder, euereka helios 65. Straight forward, in 4 to 6 seconds, I get 18g. It has been two good years, my only 2 complaints. It is LOUD, so I lose the benefits of my quiet rotary pump lelit bianca, second, 13 kgs to move around to clean is a troublesome. Casa is way quieter, even with weird chin sound as reported by many in this sub reddit, and easy to move around like a toy. It just gives me this novelty feeling again to try new stuff with my setup. By that people who wonder why some are obsessed by having high end or end game coffee machines, despite the grinder is more important, understand the mobility dilemma(size, weight) matters! Getting high end coffee machine is a smart move so you don't have to be annoyed by changing it or sending it to service because it is problems prone. While the grinder is managenable and easy to resell by the way. My next move will be something like zerno (z1, z2) or lagom p80, or whatever a grinding disruptor in two years.

That was my plan, but if I am gonna open it, gonna lose at least 10% of my money. I went into this rabbithole for my limited budget, was essentially between vs4 and casa, if not for the bad quality control of vs4, I would have picked it up, while asking this sub last week, I came to include 78s too because it is great value. But Casa is too damn easy, beans in, beans out, very simple, no retention, no kilos of seasoning. That was my usecase, "decent quality effortlessly". Few years ago, I chose "sage barista touch" because it was "a piece of mind process with great results" then went into gaggia classic for 2 weeks, I was like what is the HELL even that? All that time for a cup of cappuccino", sent it back.. went again the coffee machines rabbithole, from rancillo, ascaso, bezzera, ecm.. then settled for lelit. I was about to buy the mara, then realised the pump noise and the choice to make between espresso or steam priority, so I went more than double my budget for lelit bianca v3 that was the end game for me, machines wise, even if i have the funds, la marzocco linea micra or mini is not an option, because I see no value for it. For the grinders, I went for the most famous at the time, mignon, wasn't happy about the aesthetics nor the coffee that comes out heated too much, so I replaced it by XL, was decent till it broke after 2 months. Then I decided no more on this regard to invest and try, I went for a sturdy commercial tank sort of grinder, euereka helios 65. Straight forward, in 4 to 6 seconds, I get 18g. It has been two good years, my only 2 complaints. It is LOUD, so I lose the benefits of my quiet rotary pump lelit bianca, second, 13 kgs to move around to clean is a troublesome. Casa is way quieter, even with weird chin sound as reported by many in this sub reddit, and easy to move around like a toy. It just gives me this novelty feeling again to try new stuff with my setup. By that people who wonder why some are obsessed by having high end or end game coffee machines, despite the grinder is more important, understand the mobility dilemma(size, weight) matters! Getting high end coffee machine is a smart move so you don't have to be annoyed by changing it or sending it to service because it is problems prone. While the grinder is managenable and easy to resell by the way. My next move will be something like zerno (z1, z2) or lagom p80, or whatever a grinding disruptor in two years.