Demi (TK Demi)

For other people that are looking and may want some guidance or experiences (I don't know why no one here is going into detail on grind sizes, strength, etc). I've tried two different beans with the machine (a medium espresso roast and TK's light roast option, I guess dark roasts are more traditional for espresso but I like light roasts). IME it definitely needs the max setting for espresso. I don't know why this is (maybe to do with the coffee to water ratio - I kept it at default 1.6 oz), but the "high" (and I assume lower strengths) taste overly acidic with both roasts I tried. I've tried grind sizes from 1-4 on high and didn't notice much of a difference at 3 or below. Greater than 3 was definitely too coarse for espresso. Only thing to really dial in now is grind size, on max. I've tried size 1 on max so far and it was significantly better than 1-3 grind size on high. 2 or 3 on max might be better than 1, it may be very coffee dependent, IDK. Main takeaway for me is I wouldn't go for anything less than max for espresso / lungo options. High just tastes bad. It tastes similar to some bad espresso I've had in the past. The machine is beautiful (definitely the most elegant at this price point, and probably more beautiful than even much more expensive espresso makers), and the UI is excellent / cool. Not super impressed with the espresso so far even at the "deal" for $500, there may be better makers at this price point especially if you want to go into less automated options. I really want to love the machine because it is gorgeous and has a great UI (and TK has had great customer service so far), hopefully it can deliver. I could tell smart people spent time designing it, but the coffee is just ehh so far. I don't know why the default settings on this thing were so bad. Not sure why there is a low, medium, high when only the max tastes any good (though maybe I should try below high at least once...). Also the hot water is only 150 F which is too low for the tea I like, unfortunate. Maybe needs more experimentation. I don't like experimenting with coffee that much, beyond trying different methods (have done a lot of pour over, cold brew, and moka pot - mainly preferred moka pot). I'm not really a coffee snob, I just like decent actual coffee. I wanted a beautiful, simple (no wifi enabled junk or apps), milk-less automatic that doesn't require much fiddling or experimentation. IDK if I'll keep this. The ninja luxe is semi automatic (maybe not the right term for it) that guides you to quickly find "good enough" settings. That might be more my speed. I don't mind doing more physically, I just don't want to spend time fiddling with settings, manually grinding, or learning fine motor movements to make a decent espresso.

Yeah from what I gather, the brew ratio (ratio of coffee to water) is an important variable. I've found max strength (which uses the max amount of coffee) to be a must. I did try lowering and increasing the shot volume to also affect the ratio that way at max strength, but it didn't do much so I kept it at 1.6 oz. I kept grind size at 1 because even at this highest grind size the straight espresso shots taste somewhat acidic (I'm guessing under extracted but I'm a noob to espresso). New thing I found is that using a medium roast makes a big difference compared to light. Light roast espresso on this thing tastes like biting into a lemon, horrible (keep in mind I was using the light roast espresso sold by TK in the deal). Unfortunate for me as light roasts are my favorite. I think to do light roast espressos you need a much better grinder setup or something, IDK. I guess you need to stick with medium or dark roasts to get better tasting coffee out this machine.