I bought the setup a lot of you recommend and here’s how it went

TL;DR: I bought a flair 58 and a whole stack of other gear. I’m new to this level of espresso making, and getting a recipe from the roaster has been the killer move. Great results so far, and plenty of capacity to grow and improve with this setup.

Coming from a Breville setup that produced acceptable (but nothing special) coffee, I decided to get serious and upgrade everything. I’m a person who seeks out good espresso from cafes in any city that I visit, and I wanted to start producing that level of quality at home.

I purchased:
– Flair 58
– Varia VS3
– Varia smart kettle
– Submiminal nanofoamer pro
– Acaia lunar scales
– a whole bunch of normcore puck prep kit

Everything here works great – exactly as advertised and reviewed.

The really share-worthy part here is the process I went through to start brewing good coffee.

The trick was finding some good quality beans that had a recipe (i.e. grams in and out, temp, and brew time) developed and published by the roaster. This eliminated most if the variables, leaving me with just grind size to dial in. Once I’d found a grind setting that hit the targets for all the other variables, I was producing delicious coffee that I found to be just as enjoyable as the coffee I would go out of my way for at speciality cafes in my country (Australia).

Once I had the roaster’s recipe all sorted, I could start tweaking, and learning about how the small changes in inputs affect the outputs.

I can’t emphasise enough how starting with a recipe derived by an expert gave me near instant enjoyment but also the capacity to learn and improve further.

The other standout observation is how the flair/scales combo allows you to produce a really consistent flow rate. I pre-infuse very gently until the first drops hit the cup, then I start at 8bar and watch the flow rate on my scale. I keep it as constant as possible, which usually involves a gradual decline in pressure through the shot.

It’s quite easy to do this with the flair just by watching the flow rate, rather than imaging some pressure profile and trying to replicate it. If you can drive a car at a constant speed, you can maintain a constant flow rate with the flair 58 with minimal practice.

It’s been a huge thrill to make such great coffee with a fairly low level of knowledge and skill. And the setup really has no ceiling – I can continue to learn and develop as I wish. Altogether, a great experience.

Here’s a few other tips and observations that might be of interest:

– The flair 58 is really easy to use. If you’re thinking it’s ‘too advanced’ for you, it’s not!

– the varia vs3 has been performing beautifully, but the grind setting tends to ‘wander’ a bit – just need to check at the start of every grind. I hear this gets better over time.

– the varia smart kettle is quick and easy.

– the milk from the nanofoamer pro is gorgeous. I underestimated just how much better it is to pour it into another jug before pouring the cup. I thought it would be a marginal difference but it really improves the consistency and the pour.

– I love all the normcore prep kit. It’s more expensive, but if you think you’ll enjoy the (mostly aesthetic) benefits of using heavy and solid metal objects to prep perfect picks, then you’ll enjoy it!

– I’ve enjoyed using a bottomless portafilter for the first time, with a mirror so I can watch the shot. It’s incredibly satisfying.

– I make two coffees every single morning. I’ve ordered an extra portafilter and puck screen so I can get all the prep done, pull two shots, and pour the milk. This makes things a lot quicker, and doesn’t leave one shot during there for too long while you’re producing the other one.

– there is a bit of clean up with this setup. You need a bowl to press the remaining water through for each shot, and the foamer needs a good clean. It adds 40sec or so to the workflow.

– the acaia lunar scales might be overkill. Any scale that shows real time for rate will meet my current needs. But I’m looking forward to exploring it’s capabilities, and I appreciate that it expands the possibilities for me as I get more technically proficient.

Hope that’s been helpful/fun.

by CreativeD3struction