Flair Espresso - Flair 58

I am using a Flair 58LE and a Nanofoamer Pro v2 I love it! Would recommend it 100%

Flair 58, done heating up just about the same time the kettle is up to temp.

I have a flair 58 and drink mostly straight espresso but will sometimes have a Cortado or latte on the weekends. For that I picked up the Dreo barista maker and it does a better job texturing milk than I was ever able to with an entry level home espresso machine. Very happy with the combo. And to answer your question, while milk can mask many defects, better espresso certainly makes better milk drinks.

I'd be mostly concerned with adequate, consistent, and stable brew temps. The Flair 58 is better than the Robot and other Flair models for back-to-back shots IMO, and you have access to more accessories. The Robot can also be difficult to come by.

This is the best explanation. My E24 with Gaggimate probably cost about $700. $1100 for the Profitec would be the better option for someone who doesn’t want a project.  Since OP mentioned espresso only: For a wildcard I will recommend a Flair 58 (or a Robot if you prefer dark roasts) Similar cost to the Gaggia, very simple, and you have total control of your shots without any mods needed. 

I consider myself pretty nerdy. I use an Argos as my daily driver, but I also have a flair 58 on the bar. I wouldn’t buy a BBE, but I’ve seriously considered going back to a BDB, which I consider easily the best machine in its price bracket, particularly when you can find them used around $1k, factoring in the slayer mod to give you flow control. Some days I’ve even entertained selling the Argos, which is a very fussy machine, and keeping the F58 for making fancy espresso and supplementing it with a bambino for when I want a milk drink. I think Breville makes some very good machines, and they take an awful lot of flak from armchair experts for not feeling premium enough or using plastic parts. Having owned a bambino, a GCP, a BDB, an E61 machine (QM Anita Evo, with added flow control), a F58, a Flair GO, and an Argos, I would consider the BDB the perfect sweet spot as far as features and value for money, if you don’t mind the form factor, and the bambino the ideal entry-level machine for almost anyone, although I will concede that a direct lover is a delightful experience and if you don’t want steam, a Flair is an amazing choice.

I will jump in and say that I love my Flair 58.  There may be some concerns over temperature stability but I get A+ shots all the time.  The learning curve on how to get there was about 6 months and I usually use medium roast coffees.   The big drawback is that you have to get another tool for milk foaming

You can get a flair 58 right now for under $500, too. If you really want good espresso and don't mind learning on a lever, the flair 58 can go toe to toe with multi-thousand dollar machines. The flair 58+ is my daily driver and my first choice for the best possible espresso i can make

Flair 58, hands down

Flair 58 it's a joy to pull back to back shots. It's become my daily driver and I pull around 4-6 shots on it a day.

Flair is still worth it for half the price. There is also less that can go wrong or break with the flair, so i believe it will outlast the new fellow. Honestly, I love my flair 58 so much if anything ever happened to it, I would just buy another one instead of a possible upgrade. I really don't see a need to ever have to upgrade from my flair 58 because the espresso quality is that good.

My hot take: Short answer is no. Even as a moderate discretionary expense, it did not represent great value for home use. It's very limited in capability (flat 9 bar, no pre-infusion without plumb-in, don't blather about pre-brew), but it does what it does extremely well. However, unless that is basically brewing a dozen shots back-to-back while steaming milk simultaneously on the regular, I don't see the value. So I installed it at the office, where 20-30 people abused it to the tune of 50+ shots per day and it was a champ. Easiest -- and the most heroically consistent -- with medium/dark italian style spro and milk drinks. On the other hand -- anyone who says the price premium is for the brand/badging alone hasnt looked inside. It is an exquisite piece of intentional and at times clever engineering. From the quality of the fittings and valves to the self-cleaning gicleur and cold water mixing at the grouphead -- this thing will outlive you if it's maintained well. It's just a pity that it seems to lack even basic modern niceties (proper pump pre-infusion, shot timer) There are other annoyances that soured me personally: the La Marzocco Home app and cloud integration is stupid stupid stupid. I mean just stupid. Why do I need the cloud to be able to schedule power on or set the fucking brew temperature? Don't bother, we all know the answer, and it is tragic that marketing dunces convinced someone at La Marzocco that IoTing appliances is a good idea. To add further (perhaps controversial) perspective: I had the LMLM on my bench alongside a Slayer Single, Flair58, and Londinium Vectis. Best in cup (but worst workflow): Flair58 for all roast levels. Next was the Vectis (for medium and light roast coffees), followed very closely by the Slayer. LMLM trailed except for darker italian style ristrettos that explicitly preferred flat-9 extractions. /end rant

As the saying goes, You Will Eventually Own a Lever Yes, they seem to make the best tasting espresso. Yes, Achille Gaggia seems to have accidentally hit upon the best extraction profile in the 1940's when he first invented the spring lever espresso machine. Yes, it is notable that the most popular profile on the Decent is one that apes the Londinium's low-pressure preinfusion and declining pressure shot, by a country mile. Yes, I personally think we lost our way with the E61 and its flat 9-bar OPV + electric pump. Sure it improved temperature stability, came with a modest soft preinfusion ramp, and saved barista's shoulders and backs and workflows by replacing the effort with a button. But my favorite reason of all is a giant, steaming pile of irony: the ancient spring lever, it turns out, is monstrously good for ultra light roast espresso. You can prolong contact time with steam pre-infusion to push extraction, and the gentle pressure+temp decline ensures an even flow through finely-ground pucks. Sweet, syrupy goodness rains into your cup. I had a flair58, vectis, slayer and linea mini side by side for a while, with access to an R24 and Decent. The Flair made the best shots, hands down, but had the worst (most manual) workflow. The next best? R24 and Vectis, hands-down.

Welcome to hell! It’ll be helpful to know any preferences, such as light vs darker roasts, fruity vs chocolate/nuts flavors, tea like vs syrupy textures,etc But in general: - K6 is a great hand grinder. In the cup it’ll do you fine for filter and espresso. At some point you might get sick of grinding manually, but outside of that it’s more than competent. - I hesitate to recommend manual levers to beginners. On the one hand, it’s probably the most intimate way to learn the nuances of extraction theory. On the other hand, it is probably the hardest way to learn. In the cup, manual levers in general (with good temp management) are pretty end game. I legit get the best shots out of my humble Flair58 -- yes, better than the Slayer and the LMLM. Such is the versatility of using your arm to read a shot as it happens and applying whatever pressure/flow you damn well please. - Workflow for the Flair is not speedy. While the modern versions of the F58 feature a passable group heater and the warmup time is decent (on the order of minutes), clean up of the puck screen and pump-n-purge of the brew chamber can get old. Couple that with manual grinding, and you might be asking yourself some existential questions. - If you are interested in milk drinks and medium/darker roast espresso, i would say the Bambino Plus hands down. If you can stretch a little bit, the Infuser is actually a more versatile machine, matching or besting the capabilities of machines that are 10x the cost, simply because you can pre-infuse at 3bar for as long as you damn well please. This makes dial in very forgiving for all roast levels, and super helpful for very light roasts. Steaming ain't great (slow transition, kinda weak) but completely serviceable.

For Espresso only, consider the Flair 58 or the Robot. These Lever pull machines can produce exceptionally high quality espresso, even rivalling machines worth thousands. You will also need a really good grinder to get the most from your beans. If you need want other drinks too, then a machine may be easier to manage.

I'm extremely biased so take my advice for what it's worth. If you want something forgiving and simple go for the Robot. If you want something with accessories that will transfer to another machine go for the Flair 58. I can't really speak to the Flair 3 (I know very little about it). Meticulous looks incredible but it's not going to have the durability of the Robot. It is a very interesting interesting machine, no doubt. I hope you find something that fits your needs.