Started my real espresso journey at the time of covid. Purchased Rocket Appartamento and Faustino grinder.
I was really happy with my setup and the journey that I took. Machine served me really well but eventually I got really tired doing the cleaning and maintenance. In my opinion E61 might be iconic, but it’s really wasteful and dated.
Takes forever to heat up, you need to do cooling flushes and take the machine apart way too often in order to lubricate that damn cam leaver.
So I decided upgrade to Gaggia Classic E24 and installed Gaggimate. Installation was a pain but really rewarding. Now I can finally do something other than flat 9 bars. It has opened a whole new world of flavors, could not be happier.
I was little pit worried breaking warranty of my brand new Gaggia and if I’m able to do the installation by myself but in the end I was successful and did not break anything and now I really know how the machine works. So future maintenance should not be an issue.
After playing two months with Gaggimate and different profiles I realized that my old grinder is holding me down. After some research I ordered Mazzer Philos with I200d burrs and wow! Now I can taste so much more!
It took me two shots to dial in with Normcore Step-down 58mm to 49mm basket. Used Cremina leaver machine 9 bar declining profile with fresh malabar beans and the results were amazing. 18g beans and 45g out in 40 seconds. I could taste salted caramel and sweetness.
I could not have this kind of flavor separation with my old setup. My advice is to invest a proper grinder and then a better machine with saturated group head.
Also don’t upgrade if you are happy with your current setup. This was my journey and I hope your journey will bring as much joy as it has brought to me.
Happy grinding to everyone and greetings from Finland.
by tuso2
10 Comments
Nice write-up, love the grind of DIY upgrades. Gaggimate + a proper grinder really is night and day, congrats on dialing it in — that salted caramel note sounds dreamy.
I love you describe a Gaggimate as an update from the Rocket
The CoffeeHub sticker is a choice…
Is that the graph stepdown? If so, how are you finding it?
I was thinking to go the same route. What was the main pain with upgrade? How much extra $ for upgrade roughly?
You’re gonna miss the temperature stability of the E61 if you want to explore longer ratios or pull back to back shots.
My Gaggiunio got me into light roast espresso. It took the bigger boiler etc of the Lelit Bianca to explore it with any consistency shot to shot
The Gaggia single boiler is not an upgrade from an hx machine.
the mistake is HX not E61, with my DB P600, i pull the shot, remove the portafilter, pull a short blank shot, wipe shower screen with towel then turn it off. I stopped doing the back flush after a few months of owning it.
I’ve been thinking about doing either Gaggiuino or Gaggimate for a long time. Need to do one or the other.
Uh, yeah. That new grinder is doing the lion’s share of the work at improving your shots, I guarantee it.