[throwaway_au_1]

I've had 2 Barista Express units now. They have lasted me about 12-18 months each before something went wrong. In the recent case, I bought a new group head seal and I got about 60 brews before it blew out again. It has been a good intro machine, and it allowed me to go from using auto mode, to manually weighing 18g ground in for 36g output over ~30s (nb. with a $50 external scale) which made getting reliable results so easy. But now.. I really want a Flair 58, but I can't stomach the $800AUD. I'm stuck somewhere between coffee rookie and coffee snob and can't justify it yet.

Would also recommend finding a nice decaf bean if you are one whom caffeine affects easily. Now I can (did) have 3 great coffees a day instead of 1.