I have a few hobbies, and for example, instead of buying another watch, was thinking lately about upgrading my espresso setup. How much better can the espresso be on a, say, 5-10k worth of equipment versus what I have now?
I did the Gaggiuino mod few years ago and been getting consistently good espresso. I travel to Italy regularly and rarely taste espresso better than what my setup produces. Will the famous 80/20 rule apply as an answer to my question or am I just being too uneducated and never really tried a truly great coffee?
by pashtet_pdiddy
32 Comments
Enjoy the slide, get some Vaseline
About 42 better
Grinder makes the biggest needle shift of all the normal upgrades. I wouldn’t even say more expensive equipment makes better espresso, I think it is more accurate to say better gear makes good espresso easier to reproduce.
I feel like it depends. If you’re speaking purely flavor then quality coffee and a quality grinder are about 75% of it. The machine itself is just a hot water pump. However if you’re talking about consistently good espresso then a better machine will help with that a lot. I prioritize in this way
coffee > grind > water > machine > puck prep and tamp > auxiliary
Knowing what you’re doing is step 1, the tools just help you realize them.
Unpopular opinion but its marginal and subjective at best (beyond your setup)
I’d say about a “half rolled croissant made by a blind Japanese baker who thought he lives in Uruguay but actually stays in Argentina due to a cruel joke by his now deceased brother when they graduated from their apprenticeship in Florence” good.
I have the same machine and grinder and feel like I am the point where if I make a big upgrade to either my machine or grinder I don’t think my pallet is refined enough to taste the difference. My wallet on the other hand will definitely feel it.
If you didn’t change the grinder the differences are so small anything you notice could just be confirmation bias or within the margin of error.
My machine stopped working so I broke out the old Moka Pot and it’s different but close enough.
If you enjoy nice things, I’m sure you’ll find value with upgraded equipment. If it’s specifically to improve the espresso, you’re probably good where you are. But someone who collects watches can easily justify an upgrade for craftsmanship & materials alone.
First point is really that if you are happy with the coffee you’re drinking and the workflow you have, there’s really no need to upgrade.
That out of the way, i’d say that with gaggiuino you’re a good chunk of the way there functionality wise tbh. Especially if you’ve kept up with the updates they’ve done over the years.
It also depends on what you want that are not getting now. I feel like the machine you’d get above this may take away some functionality (automated profiling, screen, data – unless you get a decent/sanremo you) but give you others (improved temp stability, ability to pull shots back to back with little degradation and steam power by nature of improved/bigger hardware components). Options here would be a decent, ecm sync 2, lelit bianca or sanremo you (at the very top of your range).
For the grinder, it depends. The eureka you have will be pretty good toward the darker end of the spectrum as far as i’ve read. For lighter roasts, you may want to get something else. I can only speak to the philos but it was a noticeable upgrade over the df64v and the sette. If you’re not interested in those, then no need to change grinders.
More better
Here’s your message with corrected grammar:
Lovely setup! 🥰 But your table surface texture makes me feel stressed, hahaha. Hope it won’t confuse you when you drop some coffee grinds!
Grinder is good but the beans in it look bad to me. Uneven roasting. Also on the light side. (not a bad thing per se, but require more job to extract properly)
Your equipment is very good, keep it
Zero better – you can produce top tier shit with this top tier setup 🥸
I have the same setup as you. For the first 6 months, the espresso I could make was “bearable”.
Now almost one year in, I make the best espresso I have drunk in my life.
I used to look on other grinders machines like you. I just gave it more time and now I don’t care about hardware, I care about trying different coffee varieties.
I had near the exact set up you’ve got pictured. I now have a Lelit Bianca and Atom 75 (have for about 3 years now).
HONESTLY, the only real difference is ease of use with the machine. Having temp control has made my shots more consistent and the dual boiler makes it a lot easier to make milk drinks. I’d say i could get just as good from my old set up 70% of the time.
Grinder is a bit faster but doesn’t really make much difference in a domestic environment. The shots are slightly better from my 75, however the mignon is already flat burr so the flavour profile is very similar. If you make milk drinks anyway, I don’t care what anyone says, the taste is indistinguishable as long as the shot is well extracted.
I loved my GCP and Mignon set up. A friend of mine has it now and I still enjoy using it when I visit them.
EDIT: Just noticed you already have the PID mod, so even temp control won’t be an upgrade. If you’re chasing minimal gains, new grinder.
I recently upgraded from a $600 set up to a $5k set up.
It’s more enjoyable to make coffee and looks better. But in hindsight, was it worth the money? I don’t really think so
No difference in taste just personal preference with that equipment
Is there any problem with your coffee that you are trying to solve?
I believe we have the same grinder (Eureka Specialita Mignon?). I can reproduce any specialty cafe’s unique tasty shots with it (assuming they sell the beans, beans are in date, etc etc). I will suggest a dial mod. You can find 3d printed dials that are larger diameter, which makes dialing in much easier because you can easily make small adjustments.
As for the machine? From what i have heard, your machine is plenty capable. I have a dual boiler machine. It makes hosting others a joy. I can pump out milk drinks for others to my heart’s content. If that’s not a concern (it is a lot of work, on top of hosting duties) then you’re probably in a good place.
Does a Rolex keep better time compared to a Seiko?
Only fix problems you are personally noticing in your cup or workflow.
If you think you’re not consistently extracting that subtle nuance of an after taste of Himalayan cashew that you once tasted, than maybe yes, spend 10k on a setup.
If you’re not noticing problems, there is your answer.
I think at this point, machine wise you’re paying for workflow gains over ‘better’ coffee.
Grinder wise, you’re paying for more breadth and choice of different profiles (body, clarify etc) over necessarily ‘better’ coffee.
Your machine is already best as it can get tbh. Unless you need faster times. Grinder sure you easily could
I used to have the Gaggia and now have a Synchronika. I have the same Eureka. When I upgraded, the taste was a little better but not significantly so. It has better steam power and can brew and steam at the same time. It also feels more substantial/capable and is more enjoyable to use. The quality in cup though is not significantly better than with the Gaggia Classic
Only reason I got rid of my GCP was for dual boiler, the espresso itself with good grinder was amazing quality you’d expect from an Italian machine
Never forget that there’s diminishing returns. The difference between a 3 grand and a 6 grand machine shouldn’t be that large. The difference between a $100 sunbeam and a $3k machine should be massive
Your counter top hurts my eyes
I’ve got a setup that’s not too different to your own, and of all my hobbies espresso is the one where I haven’t for a while felt any strong urge to upgrade. For my record player I want to upgrade my cartridge, for camping I want a new portable stove, for my photography I want some strobe lights. But for my espresso I’m just happy with where things are. There is I think a certain underestimated satisfaction in keeping things as they are. Feels good!
Personally I’d take a trip to Italy over a machine upgrade, mostly because I’ve never been and would love to check it out.
It’s hard to beat your current setup for shot quality. It would be easy to beat it for workflow improvements. For example if you are making multiple milk drinks in succession, you might be happier with a dual boiler.
If you are a light roast fanatic, you might see some improvement with a larger flat burr grinder with SSP or other aftermarket burrs. But with medium to dark roasts, I doubt you would benefit much from a grinder upgrade.
If you are hooked on the Gaggiuino features, then the only machine upgrade that would make sense is a Decent or other machine with similar capabilities.
“if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”!
It’s the same with every hobby:
Difference between a $3 and a $30 dollar cigar is massive, between a $30 and $300 not so much.
Same for $5/50/500 bottle wine and a $100/1000/10000 coffee setup. The list goes on…