I was born in Italy and I lived there, both in the South-East and in the North (Bologna) until I was 26. I left Italy several year ago, and realize that a decent espresso or cappuccino are not a given is many parts of the world. In Tokyo, you can find decent espresso coffee bars, with some effort. Likewise, in U.S. in the major cities you can sometimes. However, in U.S. there is also Starbucks. Some people think that that is good coffee. So be it.
My short quest for a good coffee started after I realized that the Mukka express just did not deliver on the promise of a decent cappuccino. After some study of the large literature available on the web, I figured out that an E61 based machine would probably do. I looked at the Giotto, but it seemed overpriced. During this stage I came across to Chis’ web page, which mentioned the QuickMill. I discarded it at first thinking that it was a U.S. clone. Then, I read the material in their Italian web page, and it seemed sensible.
I was looking into the Andreja premium, and I liked also the mods that Chris’ suggested. When I was ready to buy, I spoke with Maria mentioning that I wanted to hook it up to the water supply, she suggested the Vetrano instead. And Vetrano it was.
The box came in very well packed with double boxes.
The set up was easy as the piping can be done by anyone minimally handy.
As for the coffe, I am no “coffe geek”, but I have a clear idea of what type of coffee I like. Being raised in Italy, I think, my standard is high.
This is information should help to put my comments in perspective.
All in all, I have had the Vetrano for a few months now. It has performed very well.
No issues whatsoever. Should you decide to buy I suggest getting a deeper single shot filter as the standard one needs to be overfilled to get a decent single, and the cleaning is becomes a mess. The double is awesome out of the box. As for getting from no experience to a decent espresso, with all the tamping stuff and powder quantities, it took about 5-10 trials to get the thing right. This also took care of some learning with the mazzer mini.
The quest is over. I get Italian coffee bar quality espresso and cappuccino right in my home. |
