Espresso State of the Union: 2014 vs. 2024
Good Morning, fellow espresso lovers; presiding over the address today is Charles Kelso, president of coffee. Well, there’s no official president of coffee (James Hoffmann, maybe?), but he’s ours, and we love him. Made-up titles aside, let’s get down to brass tacks: home espresso is better than it ever has been. Full stop. Let’s discuss the home espresso landscape of 2014, what changed, and why it’s better for new and veteran home baristas alike.
2014 & Heat Exchanger Supremacy
Back in 2014, to get a more affordable espresso machine that can pull shots and steam milk on demand, you would’ve more likely than not chosen a heat exchanger. Check out this blog if you need a refresher on a heat exchanger and how to choose one. In 2024, heat exchangers are still relatively affordable compared to mid-size dual-boilers. Still, many of them come chock complete with an array of great features such as PID, shot timer, 3-way temperature switch, flow control, automatic pre-infusion, and ECO mode, to just name a few. Comparing the new era of heat exchangers to the golden era in 2014 reveals stark differences. While many of those features we expect to come standard nowadays, they were often completely absent or aftermarket DIY projects. One thing has not changed for heat exchangers since 2014: you still have to perform your cooling flush in order to regulate the temperature at the group head. While a heat exchanger remains a good mid-range option, why settle when you can get a dual-boiler that has better temperature control and more features?
2024: Feature Rich Dual Boilers
While heat exchangers have improved since the Quick Mill Anita and Rocket Appartamento reigned supreme, machines in the mid-size dual-boiler category, like the Profitec Pro 600, have made the most strides. Importantly, they’ve become much less expensive than in 2014 and a lot prettier. Since a dual-boiler machine has a dedicated boiler for both brewing coffee and steaming milk, your PID allows you to be granular about changes and helps you dial in the temperature based on the roast level of your coffee and increase or decrease steam pressure. Having such a seamless workflow, with added precision, makes for an espresso-making experience that is just, well, easy. Enjoying crafting a perfect cappuccino or experimenting with flow control to tease out different flavors in your coffee is what it’s all about for us. Dual boilers often offer more performance than heat exchangers, better build quality, and a more seamless workflow. Gone are the days when you’d have to spend $7k + for a machine with flow control.
Mazzer Kony & LUCCA Atom 75: Grinder Showdown
While the benefits of having an espresso machine with more bells and whistles in 2024 have an up-front payoff, the benefits of dedicated espresso grinders in 2024 represent a much wider gulf. Home grinders are now smaller and quieter, have less grind retention, and have more features like grind-by-weight, timed dosing, and infinite adjustment.
The Mazzer Kony represents a grinder that was 100% meant for cafè use in 2014 and is still used in countless cafès around the world. Yet, home grinders tended to have low build quality and low performance, so naturally, folks gravitated toward grinders that had a commercial pedigree. Still, unfortunately, you often had to shell out over 2k to get a cafè quality grinding experience at home.
The LUCCA Atom 75 is the perfect synthesis of the state of home espresso grinders. It's smaller than the Kony, but still has commercial build quality and performance with it's large 75mm cryo-treated burrs, and 900w motor. It’s quiet and grinds exceedingly clean. The infinite grind adjustment is much easier than the cumbersome gear collar on the Kony, and the timed dosing makes more sense. The grind retention is significantly lower with the LUCCA Atom, so you waste much less coffee than with the Kony.
There are other examples from the time, like grinders produced by Fiorenzato, Compak, and Macap, that boldly attempted to raise the performance of home grinding. Still, none come close to the convenience and grind quality of the home grinders on the market today. To take it to another level, the LUCCA Atom uses a predictive AI that tells you your perfect grind setting based on real-time results when you plug into the grinder. Companies have made huge strides in making grinders more user- and home-friendly while upping grind performance significantly, meaning we no longer have to spend $2,000 or more to have cafè quality espresso at home.
The differences between the home espresso scene in 2014 and 2024 are like night and day. It’s important to remember how far we’ve come as espresso enthusiasts because the scene was scrappy, but we’re just simply stunned by how much the equipment has improved in the last decade. It’s not the companies that make home espresso what it is; it’s you. You are the reason, dear reader, why home espresso has progressed as far as it has. Without your lived experience and feedback, a PID may not be a feature that is expected to come with most espresso machines.
The goal of making espresso at home has always been and will always be to make a delicious beverage for you to revel in and be proud of. Espresso is a craft worthy of note because we make it with our hands. It’s easy to forget that coffee is grown on Earth and produced by people who labor and toil to pick and process it. We honor those who make coffee possible by reflecting on these facts and making the best espresso possible.
Now that you know how much home espresso equipment has improved in the last several years, maybe it's time for an upgrade? Find out if you qualify for our trade-in program!