Nuova Simonelli - Oscar

I've owned quite a few machines in the past: started with a Gaggia Classic and added PID myself and left it with a friend when we moved. Then I went for a Barista Express because we were expecting a baby and I stopped fussing over shots... then near the end of my PhD I wanted to treat myself and also dive down the deep end again and got a Brewtus (dual boiler e61), and then moved again during COVID and sold that machine. Currently I'm running a Mini Vivaldi II at work where there is more counter space, a Bambino plus at home, a KitchenAid (Gaggia) dual boiler at my parents and a 1st gen Oscar (Hx) at the in-laws. I've also in parallel owned a few manual devices including a handpresso, robot, and currently have a flair 58. The Bambino is probably one of the most well thought of devices that punches way above its price and weight class. If you're making milk drinks, and mostly just for you and one more person (no need for Hx/DB turnaround time for steaming+shots), then the physical and mental space it takes up is hard to beat. If you want to go for straight shots, it will be limiting for sure, but so would most grinders 😅 I've had maybe less than 10 amazing straight espresso shots in my life (from home and cafes). Sometimes I wonder what I'm doing with espresso lol... We also home roast and go through maybe 20kg of green per year (we supply to a few friends and family), and our best coffees are roasted light and brewed using pourover or FP.

> to allow brewing and steaming at ~~different temps~~ the same time. We had an Oscar 1 for a few years. It's a neat concept that can make great coffee, but the brew temp is tied to steam pressure, which isn't always ideal. It didn't take long to heat the boiler, but then you had to wait 10 more minutes for the group and associated piping to heat up. Edit: [talking to the voice in their head] ok yes! Also at different temperatures. Obviously. But that's not the *point*.

Everyone is telling you to get a bean to cup machine, but I think it depends a lot on your company and who works there. I work at a big tech company, and we have plenty of manual Simonellis and LMs which seem very popular. I think there are instructions available for people to learn how to use them. That said, we also have bean-to-cup machines for people who don’t want to learn to manually pull shots. 

I have owned several machines of different boiler configurations over the years. I currently have a dual boiler at home (Profitec Pro 700) and a single boiler (Gaggia Classic w/ Gaggimate PID) at work. If you’re doing 1 drink at a time, single boiler is totally fine and the time it takes to be ready to steam isn’t bad at all especially if you use that time to prep your milk or do some cleaning. The dual boiler is really nice for making drinks for multiple people and the steam power is just better. I have owned a HX machine in the past (NS Oscar) and the steam was amazing, but the lack of PID on that machine made it harder to get temps in the right ballpark and coffee was probably over extracted most of the time. A newer HX machine with more temperature control might be a solid option, but there are so many good options for less expensive dual boiler machines (Lelit Elizabeth for example) that I think make HX machines a little harder to recommend at the moment.

I’d continue saving more. 5 grand for a commercial capable setup is gonna get you some haggard nuova simonelli or la spaziale that’s seen better days. You can find rebuilt La Marzocco linea classics (assuming you have access to 220 volt) for 6-10 grand. Have a tech run through it and tune it up. Grab a mazzer Kony/ super jolly or major used for another grand and you’ll be dialed with workhorse gear for 10-12 grand based on your budgeting.

La Marzocco Lineas are workhorses. They're nice because they have that saturated group head and dual boilers. But there's nothing wrong with Rancilios, Nuova Simonellis, etc. At our coffeehouse we used a Rancilio for five years before we upgraded to a Linea. The main reason we did was that occasionally we would run out of steam when we were very busy. But we were doing more than 30 pulls per hour. You're mostly going to be making milk drinks, many of them involving syrups, so the goal is consistency, repeatability, and good quality. If you work with a good roaster, especially one that offers maintenance services to wholesale customers, ask them first. One of the used Lineas that I bought was sitting in the basement of a wine store because the owner had changed their mind, got a good deal. Another was at a bookstore in Boston that had just gone out of business. I found about both of these from our sales guy at Intelligentsia. They have an incentive to help you as you'll be buying beans from them. Some roasters will even lend you a machine, at least they used to. I sold my coffeehouse in 2019, so I've been out of the game for a few years. At our coffeehouse, our drip brewers and drip grinder were lent to us by our roaster. If that doesn't yield anything, I would try cold calling espresso techs. They tend to know where disused commercial machines are located. Cut them in on the deal. If/when you succeed, try to have a tech look at the machine before you purchase it. Send them to it and get a report. Make sure, especially, that the boilers are in good shape. Replacing boilers is expensive. You don't want any surprises. For a grinder, get a Mazzer Super Jolly or similar. I don't know if $5k is possible these days. I'd feel confident you could do it if this were 2013 or so, but I don't know the market any more.

I would take the simonello, get it dialed in, and rarely change things so it's relatively dialed in in-between usage. You would want to check to make sure shots are pulling correctly before first use on the daily and make small tweaks if necessary, but if you're using the same machine, grinder, and beans, keeping things in parameter should be relatively easy  If you're working in a semi commercial setting, the vast majority of coffee drinkers will be drip or milk based beverages. Milk beverages are far more forgiving toward mediocre shots--evem bad shots.  Rarely do people order straight espresso as a single or doppio. Realistically, you'll need to make sure your machines are maintained properly and that your baristas know how to steam milk correctly. As a side note, you do not need to be able to create latte art to make a delicious beverage.  If there is no dedicated barista to make drinks, I'd probably go full automatic and make sure the machine is properly maintained.

I own a coffee shop and love making espresso there when I'm working, using a Nuova Simonelli machine with a great steam wand and everything set up for fast efficient workflow. At home, I go between a l'Or pod machine, a Moka Pot, French Press, and one day I'll add a V60 Switch to the collection to experiment with Pour Overs. When going for a leisurely drive with my wife, we grab a sugary fun flavored frappe loaded with whipped cream and caramel chocolate drizzles and crumbled cookies sprinkled on top, at one of the many shops around here that specialize in that kind of thing. I don't make that kind of thing at home or my shop so that's $12-15 I'm not saving. When my wife wants to go on a date, it's usually at a coffee shop. It's a different experience than making it yourself and sitting in the kitchen. My point is that, just because you CAN make it yourself, and maybe what you make yourself is "better," it doesn't mean you will ALWAYS make it for yourself. Don't look at it from 100% cost perspective. For cost, my $10 Moka Pot is the best $10 I ever spent. If I couldn't afford anything else, I would have a Moka Pot and live a happy life. But, for the joy of learning a new skill, and developing a new hobby that can be upgraded and improved and refined for as much money as your credit card will allow, a higher end espresso machine is a lot of fun. You will become so automatic and efficient at using it that it doesn't really take much more effort than a Pod machine.

If you want reliable, decent drinks with almost no training go superautomatic (Jura etc.), they cut out most user errors. But if you can really train that one person and care about top-notch espresso, the Nuova Simonelli will make better shots — juste plus de taf. For an onboarding area I’d lean superauto for consistency.