and also thanks by default to John, who keeps mumbling about lever but at this rate I might have one before he does and that's almost enough incentive for me to look a little harder. ;-)
I'm sure you will beat me..... and I hate you.
But I'm on the way.
I'm not sure I will beat you, but I'm thinking about heading down that path. ;-)
My conflict is over the Brewtus II. I'm not sure I can justify keeping two espresso machines on the counter as much as I would like to. I don't want to give up the BII for several reasons, primarily it's great microfoam abilities, it's ability to deal with 10 adults wanting drinks on a Saturday afternoon and of course it's dependability to put out good shots. If I knew there was a lever machine out there that could allow for the creation of the same milk, same espresso demand and repeatability my decision would be easier.
I understand from quite a bit of reading over at HB that a lever and a rotary produce two different kinds of espresso's, I'm ok with that. Maybe, just maybe, it's time I dipped my toe into that stream. I also understand reading over at HB that the lever guys seem to feel the espresso is superior in ability to demonstrate the subtleties and many layers within the coffee, maybe add more clarity to the shot, etc and I'm down with that. Which of course brings me back to the discussion you and I have had many times which is 'What is espresso?' and I have a few opinions on that one, but none of them preclude shifting to a lever.
Hanging onto the BII and a lever would allow me to compare, create baselines and then after a period of time of learning enough on the lever I could pull shots on the particular machine according to the need/feeling. But that's a bit of a luxury for me I think and that's what's causing me to question what to do.
If I flip the BII locally, the cash flow would make a lever purchase more palatable and I could execute on the machine of choice in a quicker fashion - whatever that machine might be.
No answers yet, mostly just questions rolling around in my head. ;-)