Fantastic Machine.
Great machine from Breville.
One makes 30ml shots of rich espresso, then I add 70ml of hot water to each shot from the machine to make rich strong coffee that my wife and i really enjoy.
Done this way, one avoids the slight bitterness in making 100ml of coffee in other cheaper espresso machine ( I tried doing 30ml in them then adding water, the result just wasn't the same as that from the Breville).
The only problem isn't actually with the machine, but rather with the instructions. The machine comes with single wall filter cups and with dual wall cups, and the instructions say to use ground fresh beans for the single wall filter cups and to use the dual wall filter cups for store bought packet ground coffee.
I also have the Breville Smart Grinder. It became immediately apparent despite varying the grain size, that unless one has really, really fresh beans that are ground for the single wall filter cup, one doesn't achieve the 8 bars of pressure necessary when making the espresso shot. Old beans and even not so old beans have to be ground and used in the dual wall filter cup to get rich espresso - else one only gets something stronger than the coffee from a stove-top Moka pot form the single wall filetr cup.
Anyhow, I think that the only slight obstacle to achieving fantastic rich espresso from this fabulous machine.
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