Cafelat Tamper: Royal 58.35 mm VST - Strada
VST Precision Insert Baskets
Yep, always use fresh coffee, otherwise, what's the point right? lol Water is filtered water with a Brita pitcher/filter.
Well, I can see the hand of Shrink......
So, first, why upgrade your machine? You are focused on making just one espresso....no more than 30 seconds of flow. But you want that flow to be absolutely as consistent as possible, especially in terms of pressure and temperature. We all have written a lot in this thread about fanatical consistency being one key to making espresso. You want to be fanatically consistent about that water, again, especially pressure and temperature. You want the last drop of your pull to be the exact same pressure and temperature as your first drop. That is harder than it sounds.....and is really the key point of a home machine. I'll bet that if you take your thermocouple and test your water temp at the beginning and end of a shot, on your Baby, the first drop might (big might, actually) be, let's just pick a number, 202.5 degrees, but your last drop is probably 160 or the like. And the pressure drop is probably even worse. Nothing against the Baby, great machine, but the question before us is whether spending up to $2,000 will produce a better pull, and why. (This temperature instability almost always produces a sour shot...so with an upgrade you may have to unlearn some bad habits you learned to counteract that sourness....don't be surprised if the first 50 shots you pull on an upgraded machine taste like crap.)
Many features of machines as you climb up the price ladder don't matter to you. You don't need to pull 30 shots in a row....you don't need to make 10 lattes....you don't need to make a ristretto. So, I would suggest that you keep in mind, as you think "oh, the next machine is only $300 more," that those added features very well mean nothing to the one shot you are trying to pull.
Back to our "last drop same as first drop" issue. Lots of things go into this, the pump, boiler size and material, the brew group, cleanliness, etc. Many, many things. But, in general, here are the major "jumps" up:
1. E61 brew group.
2. PID or something similar.
3. Seriously upgraded machine guts....pump, boiler, etc.
4.
Ludicrous stuff.
There is more to it than that, obviously, but, at a high level, I think those are the four "big jumps" in ensuring the last drop is the same as the first drop.
The Appartemento gives you #1 and #2. I think the E61 is overrated, frankly, and it won't change your life. But, it is far better than your current kit, especially in terms of temperature stability. It really is about as good as you can do, in respect of the brew group, until you get up into #4, where the freaks do things like make the brew group actually part of a big ass boiler....
The Premium Plus has some advantages, but, in my view, nothing that will change your pull of that one shot. Most importantly, it does not give you #3 or #4. It does have a PID, the Appartemento does not, but for one shot it doesn't matter. The Appartemento will take some time to heat up, but, when it does, just flush the group head and that heat exchanger will be more than enough for up to 30 seconds of nearly consistent temp water. I will bet you see less than 5 degrees of drop off, which for a sub $2000 machine is pretty damn good.
So, in my view, as between those two machines, buy the Appartemento, save your $500 and start saving for a grinder upgrade. Once you buy the Rocket, your grinder will become your weakest link. And I say that even though I love the Rocky and freely recommend it. After you use the Rocket for a year or so, you will want to look at something better, such as a Mazzer Mini (hiya Shrink!).
Steve
