What is Plenty?

This blog started as an answer to the question asked in a blog here on ROASTe. In short, the blogger asks if someone is ever satisfied with their espresso gear – is enough ever enough? Is enough ever enough? It depends on what you consider enough I suppose.  He has what many would consider enough with a Gaggia Classic espresso machine and a practically step less conical burr Baratza Preciso coffee grinder . He could stop right there and be happy like many people do - if what you make tastes good to you then what else matters?

I took the same set up as his and got very close to the shots I get with my machine and the same grinder.  I think the smaller boiler in the Gaggia affects minimally the flavor over the extraction of a double shot (a less nuanced shot - we can be honest, right?) - if the barista is pulling single shots, then all bets are off - the best Barista will win every time.

PID a Gaggia, adjust the OPV pressure and watch good things happen paired with a decent (matters more than the machine IMHO) espresso grinder - I include the Preciso in this "decent" category - durability is my only concern with this grinder - not shot quality.

I picked my Silvano because I knew it would give the me the practical features of a home machine but with the adjustable parameters found on the only other machine I would consider for my kitchen - the dual boiler Vivaldi...

HX is great but I like the fact I have emptied my drip tray exactly twice since I purchased my machine this past fall - and it is close to empty right now - this would be a session worth of dumping for a consumer non-plumbed HX.