Extremely Satisfied
After 10+ years doing pour overs with some occasional obsessions with mokapot and Oxo Rapid Brewer I was temped to pick up an espresso machine but was on the fence about if it would be worth it. All of my coffee loving friends told me it would not be worth it.
The Go was always at the top of my list. Saw v2 was on the way and I was not a fan of how it looked, especially the ‘GO’ branding while they left of the Profitec badge. I figured it was now or never on the v1 model so I picked up this v1 refurbished from WLL. Everything is great although the pressure gauge arrived with its zero point being stuck at 6 and it has never dropped down. Doesn’t seem to affect anything though, maybe I’ll reach out to them even though it’s been a few months at this point. Not really something I pay attention to.
I was first using my K-Ultra for a few weeks and it was actually surprisingly easy to grind espresso and very tasty, but ended up adding the Lagom Casa from Option-O. Couldn’t be happier with this grinder, super clean. The one very small quirk is that the full rotation of the grind size adjustment ring from pour over to espresso is pretty stiff, but I really love this grinder so far.
Im mostly brewing the same beans I would buy for pour over which here in Chicago is Metric and 4LW. I’ve had no issues pulling something tasty every single shot and I only choked the machine once. I think it might be easier than pour over.
Steaming milk something I do about twice and week, I really do wish that process was faster, but I’m not sure a bigger machine taking more of my counter space is worth the trade for that.
Other upgrades were the portafilter and tamper with Weber Workshops Buck and Really Nice Tamper.
I think I hit the sweet spot of price, performance and aesthetics for myself. All in under $2k USD.