After preordering the Fellow ES1 back in April of last year I’m so stoked this thing finally arrived.
Ive been rocking a Gaggia Classic Pro for the last 3 years and while it’s a workhorse for espresso, it doesn’t do well with Milk Steaming (esp Oat Milk).
My first impressions are pretty great.
Packaging was well done, made getting everything unboxed quick and painless.
Build quality for a machine with lots of plastic components is surprisingly good. Has a good weight to it, and doesn’t move when twisting in the portafilter.
Adjustments are pretty straightforward and seamless. I was able to dial in a custom profile in 30s.
Most importantly… taste:
Wow, the espresso straight out the gate is excellent and Full-bodied. Very excited to see what tweaks I can make to the profiles to make it even better!
Milk Steaming is night and day compared to the Gaggia CP. Heats up incredibly quickly, stops at the desired temp because of the temp probe, has plenty of pressure to develop great microform (even with my preferred Oat Milk)
Attached you’ll see my first real attempt at latte art, and boy howdy do I have a way to go…
Things I don’t totally love…
The display, while they’ve designed the UI really well to work with a circular screen, it has some pretty bad viewing angles. Would have loved the ability to at least angle it a bit. Definitely wish it was also a bit larger to see the profile graphs more clearly (I’m sure the app can make up for this point though).
Portafilter: I got the black machine and was hoping the handles were modular. I was disappointed to find that the handle is not swappable.
On the bright side though, I put my VST basket in and it has a great hold. The balance of the portafilter is nice as well, not to mention it can lay on a flat surface with no support.
Volumetric Dosing: I really wish there was Bluetooth scale integration. For my first shot I did 20g of coffee in a 1:2.5 ratio. The machine only pushed out 43g of coffee instead of 50g. 14% less espresso than it was set for is a fairly sizable difference.
I just don’t think volumetric dosing is ever going to be as accurate as a weight based.
As I use the machine I may have more thoughts I’ll share in the future.
I do wanna say that I think this one might break the Fellow first gen product curse. I’m stoked about this machine and I think they did their due diligence to make it a true contender for this price point!
by thatstoeupthatstoeup
22 Comments
Good for you mate! I remember when I bought my lelit mara x after a delonghi dedica 😀 feels so good and tastes even better!
You have to dial in the offset and then the volumetric will be accurate for that coffee. It is a bit confusing
that’s some impressive latte art
I know my latte art is very sad, let us all join together and laugh!
I’m just happy to see SOMETHING resembling mircofoam on top, now begins my journey of learning the art!
Nice haul, congrats — looks awesome. Totally with you on volumetric dosing, weight’s king for consistency, and glad the steam wand delivers on oat milk — that latte art gonna come with practice.
No need for latte art when you have plenty of syrups to squirt in🤣🤣
What’s the heat control like? I can never get my milk based drinks hot enough (Bambino)
I was originally planning on getting a bianca but I think this is going to be my purchase. I rarely steam milk probably about 8 times in the past 5 years.
Just wanted to say it’s rad to see posts like this and we’re all happy you’re enjoying the machine. Bluetooth scale connectivity is in the architecture, and we hope to have that feature released in the future. Cheers!
Love your set up. Very zen.
Did your previous butler leave those syrups?
thanks for commenting and giving feedback to other people 🙂
ty for wearing pants
Very excited to see more posts from these machines! This is my top choice in progressing from my Breville Bambino, but I’m curious to see how everyone’s experience is after 6, 12, and 18 months to see how the machines hold up.
As someone who was never good at pulling shots and made my share of shitty sour sewer water, will this machine help me?
Not claiming my latte ‘art’ is good either but it definitely seems possible to get microfoam with the Gaggia Classic. Not tried much with oat milk admittedly.
https://preview.redd.it/lq7nnk2nb4mg1.jpeg?width=2504&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b798988aa1787609b1e41ca87cadbe2266d1ada3
Congrats on the new machine anyway!
Brave to buy a 1st gen Fellow product. I admire your courage, and i hope you enjoy your time with it.
I got my shipping notification this morning! I’m excited!
Exciting times, we’ll all be on the lookout for the hyper caffeinated person walking the streets. Good time to get lots of jobs done around the place. [I say this because I imagine that you know, you’ll be hanging out for every opportunity to dial this in👌]
It makes us so happy to see positive first experiences like this one. Thank you for sharing. Regarding your handle comment, the handle itself isn’t swappable, but you can use any of the wood portafilter with the black model Series 1. I’m sure you realize that, just want to clarify! Ping me privately if you want to purchase a wood portafilter — I’ll get you a discount code to use.
I also wish the portafilter handle could come off, I was planning on turning my own handle for it…
awesome setup! thanks for sharing your experience with us.
Is that a Timemore Sculptor that I see next to the espresso machine? I am doing some research for some time now to decide what grinder would do a great job with both medium, medium-to-dark roast.
Could you please share which model is yours and if is a good option for classic italian espresso, full body, syrupy shots? Thanks in advance!