La Cimbali - Junior DT1 Casa

In my mind, one can hit the diminishing returns of cup quality with machines pretty early. Less so with grinders. But the **diminishing returns with machine workflow and consistency are a much longer trail**. I started on a very old and used Francis Francis from Facebook Marketplace. Occasionally made great espresso with it, but it was really frustrating to monitor and maintain. Now? Thanks to a house move and kitchen renovation, I am unboxing a La Cimbali DT1; plumbed in and hooked into our reverse osmosis water and a drain pipe. It will make consistently excellent coffee and the workflow (I'm hoping) should be incredibly efficient. And I've learned to save bucks by home roasting green beans I buy for $7/lb on a FB Marketplace-bought roaster. Yes, I know that's time consuming; I roast on weekends when I have the time and inclination, but when I want really good coffee at 6:30 am I don't have time to fuss with a fussy machine.

I have a 24 year old Cimbali Junior D1 still going strong. Mine is plumbed in with a water filter though it also comes in a version with a tank. I bought it second hand 4 years ago (I think I'm technically the 4th owner) for a couple of hundred. Technically a commercial machine. Built like a tank. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Any basic commercial hx from the big brands will be perfect. You don't need to spend that much. And you don't need the fancy control of something like a decent or any of the advanced dual boiler machines. The machine you're looking at can control the volume of water which is really nice when you are multi tasking. The rancilio or similar will be pretty temp stable, will give a shit load of steam, and be reliable. You could probably also get something lightly used, like from a home, and save thousands. Thinking like a cimbali junior, Elektra, an Astra, etc. Basically replace the gaskets once in a while, vac breakers occasionally, and the pressurestat/flowmeters every few years, and they all basically run forever. Lots of time people on this sub don't realize that what is great for straight espresso at home is not what is needed to pump out 95% milk drinks at a coffee cart.

We bought an espresso machine and a grinder for our office. La Cimbali. About 40 espressos a day. We put short videos on youtube about how to prepare espresso and lattes: quantities and durations. It is working pretty well. No big mess. We should add a short video about cleaning as well 😉. The surprise was the descaling, it is expensive. But I guess with an automatic you have that as well.