Breville Barista Express vs Baratza Vario Coffee Grinder

I don't think this is essential for a latte, but if you drink espresso your first cup will be lukewarm unless you let the machine fully heat up (which is long after all the lights are on). - The default recommended settings on the grinder are working like a charm, so we probably won't mess with them much. We are using whole bean Starbucks espresso. - The manual doesn't explain the grinder mechanism very well

I have been using the Vario for over a year, here are my observations: (+) There is negligible "holdup" in the burr chamber, if I put 18 g of beans in the hopper I get 18 g of ground coffee in the basket. Some grinders keep a significant quantity in the grinding chamber which mixes into successive grinds and, of course, becomes stale. (+/-) The grinder stops dead precisely at the preset grind time (to 0.1 s) allowing very reproducible dosing WITH DRY BEANS in the hopper

Buying those same 62 drinks at Sbux would have cost $415 (not count tip I always leave so actually closer to $500 for 62 triple venti Ice lattes at Sbux costing nearly $7 each + tip. So I figure I when just considering supplies I used $30 in beans and syrup and at around $4 per gallon, I have used maybe another $20 in Milk so $50 total in supplies about vs. around $500 for buying the drinks at Sbux including tip means I paying 10% what I used to and have saved $450 ($150 less than I paid for the machine) in a single month on the drinks for me and my daughter. As I started off saying, it does take me 15 minutes from start to finish of cleanup to make those two drinks but it could be half that without cleanup every time but I also never wait in a drive through line

The settings switches are a joke and very vague in the grind you get. Set at full espresso grind it easily clogs my Quickmill and my Solaris. I have to use a drip grind setting for espresso and it can not be adjusted in spite of the "adjustment tool". For the hefty price this is not grinder I would recommend to anyone

The expectation for a great tasting espresso is quality water, give our well water source we purchase water for cooking and consumption. Would be nice if there was a better way to recover the dispensed water after use to be reused but since the tray also traps grounds, it's useless for reuse. For now I save this for watering plants.

With oily beans, particularly, I must always take off the lid and push one or two beans with my finger. Another little thing is that the grounds hopper is highly prone to static cling. I have to smack it hard, repeatedly as I empty it into the press pot. But those are minuscule complaints compared to the glory of the coffee we can make with it

For me that's hitting the espresso jackpot each and every time! What about you? Are you interested in dialing it in too? https://www

Eventually I my tastes "matured" and I could taste subtle differences between coffees and methods of making them...so I took the next step and got a grinder