Though at first I thought I had gotten a defective machine, because I didn't know that you are supposed to toss the first 3-4 cups it makes while it initializes and calibrates (I thought, wow, this coffee is so weak and diluted, is something wrong here? Lol). But after that it got really great. Also I agree with you about the cleaning regimen, I do a complete machine cleaning every 3-4 months. But so worth it.
Fortunately, I had read about that in my research so knew to expect and just blasted a whole bunch of cups through. It still wasn't perfect but it didn't take long to get to where it's good. I usually go for Lavazza Espresso beans. It's that good that my wife is now a coffee drinker where she wasn't before.
Yes, those Lavazza beans are really good.
And same on the wife! Mine said the other day, "You know I really didn't care much for coffee when I was younger, but now with this espresso machine I feel like I've become the biggest coffee snob... but in a good way."
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