How important is the espresso machine?
Totally superficial to the operation of the machine. People will always fall into camps with this. I for one was trained on La Marzocco machines, and believed for a long time that they were superior. I didn’t know why, I just always did. I have now worked on Cimbali, Synesso, La Marzocco and Simonelli. To be honest, there are few differences. A lot of people thought pressure profiling was going to the game changer. You’re right, because now people think that they need it. You don’t. You can do pre-infusion with a semi-auto. You can actually mimic the variable pressure brewing with a $50 modification. Again, much more simple than some would make it seem. If you have the budget though, spring for the Slayer, they are by far the most aesthetically beautiful machine ever created.
