Lelit Bianca, Jake Ouellette

This machine brews quality bright tasting espresso easily and quickly. It is configurable and easy to adjust, e.g., temperature or pre-infusion time. This machine is easy for everyone in the family to use, but looks like something out of a steampunk airship.

• Dual boiler / steamer wand works great. Cortados are really easy to make.
• The way the machine was engineered with its basin catching water is super easy to clean.
• The preinfusion settings + flow control helped me salvage many poorly dialed in shots to something at least drinkable, causing me to waste less coffee.

I’m going to be detailed here because I think it’s useful to understand what quirks it has, but none of these have been hindrances on making great espresso:

• I sometimes feel confused by the display: You set the temperature of the machine, and the display seems to show the target temperature and a “loading bar” towards that temperature. When you press the + button, the actual temperature is a little different. I sorta wish it just showed the actual temperature.
• Similar comment about the refill-water on the display: A espresso will fail mid-shot if you run out of water, and the water indicator will turn on, but by then, I’ve already failed my shot. It’d be nice if it had some indicator about water level. I can usually tell by the sound of the machine now how it’s doing on water, but it isn’t simple.
• Since this is a prosumer machine, I’d expect the manual to come with more guidance on best practices for pre-infusion and flow control. The manual is good, but it it felt like I had a lot of options at first for controlling my flow and nailing down what I wanted to do required, e.g., watching a bunch of youtube videos. It’d be nice if it had more detail about expectations.
• Despite owning a niche zero grinder and grinding pretty well dialed in shots, I’ve been unable to reliably get the Bianca to not spray water everywhere when I use an open / spoutless portafilter. I’ve just given up on doing that.
• If I was designing their menu, I’d probably add a couple extra buttons to separate out info from settings manipulation. As it stands, it feels like using a monitor’s controls. The overloaded functions on – and + make it easy to accidentally adjust the temperature

I bought this machine because I was working from home more and I wanted to drink coffee at the level of my work espresso machines — la marzocco machines. I was considering buying a linea mini, but the flow control / preinfusion settings on this machine appealed to me. (As well as its dimensions, price)

When I first acquired the machine I ended up having to upgrade my burr grinder. I previously used an Encore grinder and adjusting the grind setting was just too fiddly. Once I upgraded to a niche zero, dialing in became far easier.

I use this machine maybe 3-6 times a day for the whole family. It is definitely one of my favorite purchases of the last decade.

I drink almost exclusively espresso and my partner almost exclusively drinks Americanos and we both occasionally make cortados, so we use the hot water and the steamer frequently.  The machine has some usability quirks (see negative product points), but they’re minor and more like UX gripes. The machine has been easy enough for my partner to get interested in learning it.

Easy. The vendor has been easy to buy from and I also bought some coffee beans from them later and they were fantastic.