Have 15 year old Mazzer Mini with doser. And got NZ this year. My answer is strong YES. Sadly the tariff bumps it to a more expensive category. But still worth it. They hit the mark on this piece. And it looks great on the counter.
Glad you are exploring the world of espresso. The Niche Zero is so cool looking. And at your current and aspiring level of skill, should satisfy for a long time. I have an old Mazzer Mini. The Niche is so much easier on the eyes and quieter and so user friendly to dial in for different beans. Plumbing in takes you to next level of convenience and water managment. The better machines are monsters. So what?! A heat exchanger may be smaller. I think they are great. Other than the cooling flush, they do the job. Nuova Simonelli has a nice look. I am partial to Quick Mill, or Izzo. LIke the Vivi.
Keep in mind its a a bit of a messy hobby. Grinding coffee is messy. You need a space that isn't taking up other kitchen areas. Have fun. Home Barista has great forums. And many useful tips
Consider this and the link to "choosing an espresso machine rationally"
[https://www.home-barista.com/advice/izzo-alex-duetto-iv-4-year-review-t102661.html](https://www.home-barista.com/advice/izzo-alex-duetto-iv-4-year-review-t102661.html)
Plus, you have to get a good to excellent grinder. Another rabbit hole for you. As important or more so.
I have a Quick Mill Vetrano. My first one lasted almost 20 years. Another great unit that doesn’t get enough chatter on these forums is the. Izzo Alex Duetto. It’s a tried and true built like a tank. I had the Bianca for a couple weeks. It felt flimsy to me. So I exchanged it for the Vetrano 2B Evo. Chris Coffee has a one month return policy they honored with zero friction. Mark over there is a really good advisor. Their customer support is next level. So keep in mind the Vendor you are buying from. And think about what water you will be using.
I agree with this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3-ixio7fSg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3-ixio7fSg) and to me flow control adds unncecessary complexity. Beans and grinder way more important
Maybe a Quick Mill Silvano with thermoblock for steam will fill the bill. Get an excellent grinder. I have a Niche Zero and an old Mazzer Mini.
Another plug for Chris Coffee
I love the Niche Zero. Had Mazzer Mini for twenty years. Not a fan of light roasts. It defeats purpose of coffee and taste is like grassy or grainy. Niche is great for normal coffee. Amazing taste. With my E61 Vetrano
Get a Mazzer Super Jolly with manual doser off eBay, buy a small hopper and cleaning supplies and a good little scale for weighting your shots.
This fits your budget squarely.
The Super Jolly easily produces a grind quality with stepless adjustments on the same level as a 2000,-EUR Mazzer and fits the ECM perfectly.
The only inconvenience will be either manually dosing (weighting) or living with grinding a quarter doser and using 1 or two day old grinds.
A Mazzer with electronic doser is out of budget (those usually go for 300+), have a weaker motor than the Super Jolly, grind slower and come with a PCB that just about now can go bad and is very expensive to replace (if you can find spares).
The Super Jolly will last forever and once you are ready for the next upgrade you will easily sell it on for at least what you paid for it.
I keep one of them on the counter just for French Press but have used it for espresso before getting another Mazzer with electronic doser.
Congrats on the machine. This one is nice.
When preparing coffee like French press or even drip filter machine coffee any 20 EUR bladed plastic grinder (chopper) can get you a reasonable cup of coffee.
When preparing espresso though this all falls apart entirely.
You need a very consistent, fine grind that is also prepared in a way that prevents the coffee beans from excess heat from the grinding action and ideally you want that grinder to last forever a veeery long time without needing spare parts, repairs and servicing.
Consumer grade grinders that partly fulfill the requirements needed to produce the necessary quality grind start somewhere around 100-150 EUR (manual grinders) or electric grinders at about 150-250 EUR.
These are consumer grade.
Gastronomy grade (and luxurious consumer grade) grinders will typically start at about 450 EUR but more typically range in the 650 - 850 EUR price range.
They are usually dimensioned significantly larger, using larger, slower rotating grinding disks or conical grinding mechanisms with slow rotating, high torque large motors, are made from premium materials with very durable construction (usually die cast housings over heavy duty metal chassis), high end models nowadays come with electronic precision dosers that precisely dose the ground coffee to fine adjustments of +/- 0.1g …
These things are not trivial when aiming to produce consistently the best espresso based coffee possible.
Unfortunately, this costs money.
i have an atom 75 and i love it. better shots than i got from my mazzer mini plus its quieter and much faster. love the setting knob for grind, and the controls.
Your OXO grinder is going to be the bottleneck here, more than the machine as you start to scale up. I started with an old Breville myself and didn't start pulling shots the way I actually wanted them until I upgraded to a good grinder, I splurged and bought a Mini Mazzer grinder - it was a big purchase at the time but I've had mine for 20 years now and it's been flawless through multiple espresso machine upgrades. For your budget, I'd grab the Bambino Plus and put the rest toward a quality grinder like a Eureka Mignon Notte (on a budget) or used Mazzer if you can find one. The grinder is honestly where much of the magic happens, and like buying guitars, once you get the bug you'll keep wanting to upgrade anyway so might as well invest in something that'll last.
DrMushie
