Joseph Parottino is a quality coffee guy in Canada - and his reputation precedes him. Joe heads up Caffe Tech in Edmonton, Alberta, and since I've gotten to know Joe, I've discovered that other people in the Canadian business of coffee and espresso that I respect also know the guy and think highly of him. That speaks volumes to me.

So when Joe contacted me to say he wanted to get a Junior Deluxe, by Euro 2000 in my hands to test and review, I was happy to do so.

Many feel this is just another "ECM Giotto" knockoff, and I wanted to see if that was true or not. Joe is very confident in this machine and it's ability to be a superior home and office espresso machine. He's working closely with the Italian company Euro 2000 to bring new improvements to their line all the time.

Our machine arrived in October, 2002, but because of overload in equipment for testing, we weren't even able to crack open the box for a few months. Now, we've given it a week's hard use, approaching the machine like a new (and excited) owner would, and on the following page, you'll find the initial impressions.

As always, I need to remind you this is a First Look, not a full Detailed Review. We plan on giving the Euro 2000 Junior a full and complete shakedown over many months - possibly six or more. We'll be putting it head to head with other heat exchanger, E61 equipped machines, and we'll be putting the test groups on it, attacking it like flies.

Until that point, enjoy this First Look at the Euro 2000 Junior espresso machine.

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