PRO 2

Workflow is oddly personal so let me preface: I like simple workflows. I want to wake up to preheated machine, grind, slam a portafilter in, brew, and knock. My Flair Pro rarely comes out because I find the whole process to be a little too fussy for most days. So far, the workflow has been an adjustment but it is not nearly as fussy as my flair. I've needed to retrain my routine a bit. You’re single dosing water and purging afterwards, but I’m finally getting used to it. Sometimes the machine will be on and I'll start grinding/puck prep, insert the portafilter, and then realize I haven't added the water yet, which means I'm then waiting 2-3 minutes for heating which is tedious. TLDR: Workflow is fine but there are extra steps that you will be worrying about. Proponents will say: Fussy workflow is the cost of using a machine with less moving parts which requires less maintenance. I don't think we should be considering that until we know how this thing will age in 2-3 years time

Same here. For espresso it was mainly an Expobar e61 and a flair pro 2. Expobar had an awesome cafe-like workflow but it wasn’t great for light roasts so I sold it. Flair pro 2 made incredible espresso but there were days when I got a new bag of coffee and it was 45 min to dial in, make myself an espresso, and then make my wife a latte. That wasn’t ideal. Now it’s in my camping box

The question is not how high or low your budget is. The question is how bad can your espresso taste until you find it undrinkable? Your barista coffee from a coffee House down the street or the city is so good, that it's like having been driving around in a Rolls Royce for years and then deciding that you want to get a car yourself. And you get a VW Up or Polo and complain about how bad cars are. 😁 You cannot get a good espresso machine under $1000 and a good grinder will cost $500. There is very little room to play there, these are rock bottom prices. Sure you can get a good deal here or there, but that is down to luck. 😛 A Sage or Breville Pro machine will make you an espresso and you may learn how to make class 1 microfoon (this is a real thing in the SCA barista courses BTW) but it won't be as good as you're used to. I'm sorry. So ask yourself how bad your experience may get before you decide to ditch the machine again and drive down to your favorite local coffee joint?! PS: yes I'm aware that you can use an espresso machine for 600-700 euro but these are fully manual and often don't have a PID in them. So the learning curve to get a decent cup will be present. Are you patient enough? I'm just afraid you can get disappointed and go down into the rabbit hole that home espresso machines are. Bottom line: - flair pro 2 - 1zpresso k-ultra - subminimal nanofoamer But this is all manually operated. Cost: 500-550 YMMV

What you want is a flair 2 or higher model. It's a manual espresso press. I haven't gone back to areopress other than travelling for over a year now. Just make sure you research making espresso and decide if it's for you or not. It doesn't exactly require much more work than an areopress, but it does take trial and error to get the grind size perfect and can be frustrating starting out. Also you need to dial it in for every bag you get especially if you're changing types of coffee. (Usually just a few minor adjustments to grind size). Another possible obstacle is you might need to upgrade your coffee grinder for finer grounds. If any of that sounds like too much, maybe stick with areopress because it's pretty close to espresso as far as how concentrated it is, at least from my understanding.

The Robot is my third lever machine after Flair Pro 2 and Flair 58 and it's the best. I gave the Pro 2 away and the 58 is archived. I've been using the Robot for year and a half every day multiple times. It is great and close to zero maintenance

I have the flair pro 2 and I am a very satisfied. I got a cheap milk frother for guests.