The Bottom Line: If you have been intimidated by learning how to use an espresso machine, fear no more. And now we've used it for 3 years- still a workhorse.
Tha good, tha bad and.... there's really no ugly in this story. We bought our Barista machine at a garage sale. For $5. Go ahead and kick me in the shins. I'm sure I deserve it.
The nice lady assured us there was nothing wrong with it except a crack in the plastic sheet in the handle/filter apparatus, which didn't harm the machine's performance much.
So, we happily cleaned it up and learned how to use the machine. It took us ONE 5 minute lesson from a coffee swilling friend to learn the basics. So, that's the good:
1) It's simple, 2) It makes fantastic espresso.
The bad. Not really that bad actually but at one point a coffee ground (so we surmised) somehow got through the filter and was clogging up the filter apparatus. So, I examined it and there were 3 Phillips head screws, all shiny and begging to be turned counter-clockwise to reveal the problem inside. So I unscrewed the bottom and found that indeed there was a little ground plugging the ever-important coffee-pipeline. We're talking about my ability to function normally, here, impeded by a nearly microscopic chunk. Pretty fragile, we can be......
Anyway, I put the whole thing back together. Or so I thought! Turns out that the spring load action wouldn't work any more, which is important for getting the handle onto the machine properly. I tried 20 different times over an hour and finally called Starbucks. The guy said, "Oh, it's literally impossible to put that back together". Dangit. Apparently the spring is factory-loaded and when you pop the cover off- BOINNNNNNNGG. Game over. Why the friggin screws are so apparently there to be removed I'm not sure I understand... Perhaps I should have found the video and watched it. I'm sure they would warn me not to screw with the screws.
So, they kindly offered to sell me a new apparatus for $30. Which might be a good deal to make a $400 machine work, but I paid $5. So, I had a problem. I went to eBay but no one was listing any parts for sale. I finally found a place called "Home Espresso Repair" in Seattle (no website that I could find) and they will sell you one made by the same company that makes Starbucks' for $20. Well, 4x the price of the machine for a part still sucked in principle, but we were talking about going back to drip coffee and we had become, um, quite, um ENAMORED, yeah, (Not addicted!) with the machine.
Home Espresso Repair
6501 Phinney Ave. N.
Seattle, Washington 98103
(206) 789-9513
So, other than that little incident, we love the machine and it's quite simple. 3 buttons- one turns it on/off, one pushes the hot water through the coffee grounds and one runs the steamer.
When you steam milk for lattes, make sure you only steam to 160 degrees (Fahrenheit). We bought a cheap candy thermometer at a grocery store for this purpose.
The machine is easy to clean, looks fantastic on the countertop with its chrome/black combo and we now use it multiple times per day. Seems like a workhorse and from all the reviews I read on this site and others, it apparently is pretty problem-free.
The biggest trick seems to be how fine the coffee is ground and what quality of beans are used also. I can't tell you how fine, but I just listen to my Krups grinder until there are no more "sharp clicking" noises and I know that the coffee is approaching dust in its particle size. If you go TOO fine, the water has a hard time getting through (which probably strains the machine), but if its too loose, the espresso tastes really weak (translation: lame). Just experiment a bit.
The tank holds 98 oz, which is quite a lot and the steam wand rotates 360 degrees, which is nice for moving the head up and down through the surface of the milk, giving that nice foamy......foam. The coffee filter part is a steel mesh, which rarely needs cleaning, which is nice.
Use filtered or distilled water to get good quality espresso and enjoy!!
********************UPDATE
It is now Jan 2007 and the machine STILL is cranking like new. I am so impressed with this espresso maker. And I'm terrible- I never clean it like the video (which I finally got) says to. We've been using it nearly daily now for almost 3 years.
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