Breville Bambino Plus

Great for the entry level, great for when you don't have much room at home and really does have its place in that journey. Personally, I actually do l...

First, we acquired a Breville Bambino Plus and a JavaPresse Manual Grinder. We used the pressurized spouted portafilter that came with the Breville, but the taste wasn't quite up to what I remembered having at the espresso bar.

It will work much better than your Mr Coffee ever did. It comes with a pressurized filter basket so it will work with pre-ground, or coffee from most burr grinders. When you are ready to take your espresso to the next level, you can upgrade the filter basket to non-pressurized, and get a proper espresso grinder such as a Eureka Mignon Notte. At that point you will be able to make espresso that tastes as good as you can get at your local cafe.

The Breville Bambino Plus wins over the GCP in overall time but I keep reading the machine is more of an appliance, which is limiting.

I prefer the Breville's range of machine because it's very accessible for what it is plus the quick start time. I am very impressed by the auto milk frothing function of the Bambino Plus but I am not sure I can achieve the magic coffee flavour we seek when we are out for coffee. I know Gaggia is a popular machine but frankly I am not keen to deal with modding a newly bought machine and prefer just buying what I need.

It’s been a long road, and ultimately I decided I think the Bambino Plus is the right starter machine for me because of the short learning curve, which I believe will grow my appreciation for the *routine* of making home espresso, and once I need more fine-grained tuning and control (or the Breville breaks), I will move to the next level of machine. So, Reddit, where has my logic failed?