My first setup…thanks to this Reddit!! Here we go…

I finally bit the bullet and invested in my first setup after months of reading this Reddit page, learning about this new hobby and slowly buying all these accessories. Thank you to this whole community, I couldn’t be more excited!!

The Breville Bambino seemed like an easy decision, as most posts seemed to reaffirm this is the best entry-level machine (not the plus, don’t think I’ll be making much hot lattes). The Opus fellow grinder, however, was the much tougher decision. I ultimately landed on this since I drink homemade cold brew pretty much daily, so being able to grind for both brew styles (cold brew and espresso) at this price point was huge for me. I do see a lot of problems with retention already (I’ve been using it for cold brew for about a month already), so I’ll definitely be upgrading in the long-term. I’m pretty set on keeping the opus for my regular coffee as it works for the French press well, but i do want to invest in a niche duo down the road for espresso exclusively.

I wanted to post this to see if anyone had some advice for me to help with the learning curve. I already tried my first shot, and didn’t get much crema on the first pull, which seemed to come out a little fast (even on the 1 grind size). I did only do a single shot with very old espresso beans (like a year+ old), so wasn’t expecting to nail it. That being said, I still got very close to a quality shot.