La Marzocco LINEA MICRA Honest Review after 1 Year Ownership Pros Cons Should You Buy

I've now had my Lamazocco Linea Micra for a whole year and I feel like that puts me in a position to give a proper thorough review, answer the question, should you buy one of these? Not a cheap coffee machine at all. Is it worth the money? Should you buy one of these? Should you spend your hard-earned money on this espresso machine? Hello everyone, welcome back to the channel. Welcome back to MoreGeorge, the channel that aims to help you make better coffee at home. Now I'm excited to get into this video. I never thought I would be in a position where I was owning this machine, owning a machine like this, of this caliber, of this well-respected brand in the coffee world. My journey with coffee at home has eventually led me to this machine. I started off getting into coffee, I'm not going to bore you with like a long story, but started off getting into coffee maybe 10 plus years ago and honestly I was going around the chains, Costa, Starbucks, trying like how does a flat white taste? How does a Cortado taste in comparison? Starting to try and find the drinks that I like and then one day stumbled into a smaller local independent coffee shop and discovered specialty coffee and I thought, oh wow, this tastes so much better than the Starbucks and Costa I've been trying. So then every time I was in a new place, I'd be looking up a coffee shop to go to and then my mind was opened up even more because I was like, wow, this coffee from this small independent coffee shop tastes completely different to this small independent coffee shop, but they both taste amazing. I realized how complex coffee can be, I realized how enjoyable coffee is and then started getting into pour overs and other types of brewing methods and all sorts of things. So then when COVID hit and I couldn't go to coffee shops, I was so used to having all these nice flat whites and things out and about that I decided I needed to buy an espresso machine. Did some research, bought the Breville Barista Express, an amazing machine, I've made videos on that as well. Had that for five or six years every day, that was my daily driver, myself, my partner Lucy, friends coming to the house, family coming to the house and then a year ago, things changed, everything changed. I spent about three months putting a case together for why we should buy this machine for our home, why we should make that upgrade, that big purchase. Now this is usually around £3,000, a little bit more, £3,100, £3,200. I'll put the current price today that I'm filming this video on the screen now. I paid £2,700 for this machine. I saw a sale this time last year that Lamazocco had on their website and I have not seen a similar sale since or any time before that. I really don't think they do sales and discounts very often. So I was like, if I'm going to do this, now is the time. I felt like I'd outgrown the Barista Express, still using the built-in grinder. I wasn't quite getting that same taste, that same kind of quality that I would be getting from a coffee shop. I really wanted that cafe feel at home. I wanted more or less the same drink I could get for maybe £3 or £4 in a coffee shop at home for less per cup. Obviously you have to buy the machine and the grinder and the beans. I haven't worked out the maths yet, but at some point purchasing this machine will eventually save me money. It's a long-term play. Anyway, I'm not going to do the whole YouTube thing and kind of keep you guessing on whether I like this machine, whether I don't like this machine. There's not going to be much suspense in this video because I love it. I absolutely love this machine. Best coffee machine I've ever owned, hands down. I'm going to make a coffee in a second and just walk through the process of myself making my favourite drink, a flat white. I've got some gorgeous coffee here from Intermission. If you're in the UK, maybe you've heard of those. Really nice. I like to keep these videos simple. I like to keep them easy to watch, easy to digest. I'm going to give all the pros of the machine, then the cons, then I'm going to make a drink. And at that point, you should be able to make your own mind up if you want to purchase this machine or not. I'm going to go through also why it may not be for everyone because I'm saying I love it. I'm saying it's incredible, but the negatives I'm going to choose to talk about, they might be deal breakers for some people, depending on what kind of person you are, what kind of coffee you want to make, how hands-on or hands-off you actually want to be in the coffee making process. Budget. I mean, the cost of the machine is the cost of machine. You're either someone who wants to spend that on a coffee machine or not. When I told some people, they were kind of like, they could not get their head around why I would spend that much money on a coffee machine. Not in a way that it was just like so much money because these people may, they may spend £3,000 on, I don't know, golf equipment or whatever. They just couldn't relate having a cup of coffee to spending that much money. But I'm guessing if you're looking at videos of the Lamazocco Linea Micra, then you're a coffee person. You already know the price of this machine. And it's up to me just to present the good, the bad, and everything in between. So let's get into the good. Going to start with the obvious. It's a Lamazocco. I can pretty much walk into any coffee shop in the world and if they have a Lamazocco, I'm like, cool. I'm probably, nine times out of ten, I'm in good hands here. These machines aren't cheap for coffee shops to rent or buy. And it feels like, amongst some other brands, don't get me wrong, it feels like if there's a Lamazocco in the coffee shop, on the coffee bar, then that is at least a very good starting point. So a few specification kind of things. This is essentially a more compact version of the Linea Mini, which is a very popular machine, which is a lot bigger actually. So I've got it on a kitchen counter here. And this thing, whilst narrow, it's very long. It does take up a fair bit of room, the Mini even more so. I probably wouldn't want any bigger coffee machine personally in my home kitchen. It's a dual boiler machine, obviously one for the steam and one for coffee. The steam wand is fantastic. It's actually got a more powerful steam wand, I was reading, than some of the bigger Lamazocco commercial machines. And you can also set three different power levels of the steam wand in the app. I'll show you that in a bit. And it's a PID machine, meaning that the temperatures stay very, very stable. There's some clever things going on inside and stable temperature is exactly what you want for consistently good coffee. Some of the cheaper machines, you'll make coffee or two and the temperature dips, and then your second or third coffee suffers in quality slightly. That won't happen with this machine. That's what you're paying for. Hand-built in Italy. The build quality itself is just lovely, coming from the Barista Express, which don't get me wrong, it's a nice machine. But when I upgraded to this, everything about this, like the weight of the portafilter, the way that clips in, how these knobs feel, like the brew paddle here, just everything about this machine, just feeling it and lifting it up, putting it on the counter for the first time, the weight of it, it's just lovely. It's a really, really beautiful thing. I got it in white, as you can see, they do do a range of different colors. And yeah, what you're getting is cafe quality coffee at home. You're getting the best you can possibly get unless, yeah, okay, you can start talking about other brands, but really you are going straight to the top for your home setup. So I will just briefly take you around the machine and show you what we're working with from left to right. So on the left, we have our hot water tap that is boiling water instantly. I would not want to touch that right now. I will say that it is a bit slow. You can probably see it does just kind of drizzle out, but you can see the steam, it's hot straight away, but it is not the fastest to fill a cup, but you have hot water and it works well. You have a pressure gauge here for that boiler. In the middle, obviously, is your group head. And then you have this paddle, very simple design on this machine. And by the way, it's fully manual. So you will start your espresso shot. Obviously, you can see the water pouring out and then you have to stop it yourself. This machine does not stop by itself. Moving over another pressure gauge, you can see under here for the steam wand and then the same exact design knob for the steam. Instant steam, very powerful, very good indeed. One of the most important reasons that I upgraded from the Barista Express, actually have great quality steam to get that perfect milk, powerful enough, instantly on. And of course, dual boiler. So you can have, if you wanted to, all these things going at the same time without any dip in temperature, no issues whatsoever. Up on the top here, this is warm. So I tend to keep, I mean, this is a bit messy. Forgive me, this isn't a studio. This is my real kitchen. So this is actually, ow, this is actually hot to the touch. You really, you can't actually touch that for longer than like half a second. So even these mugs that are on top of other mugs, they're warm. Those are really warm and they're a little bit warm. So that is a really nice feature to have. Also kind of extends onto here so that you can touch that, but that is warm as well. So I thought rather than going through the negatives sat down, I would maybe start making the coffee and talk through a few of these things. And then we'll finish up on the positives because you'll have a look at the flat white that I'll make. I'll do a little taste test and you can see what kind of coffee this machine can make. For a grinder, I won't go into too much detail today, but I'm using the Niche Zero. I'm planning on making a video with this grinder soon. I really like it. It's been very easy to use. It may be a few years out of date now and there are better grinders out there, but for me, it is great. It does exactly what I need it to do. I do mainly drink espresso based drinks and they say the Niche Zero is better for espresso than filter coffee, but I do use it for both. So we're going to grind up 18 grams of beans. So first negative of the machine, where's my portafilter? Here it is. First negative of the machine is the space between the drip tray and the group head. Now on the mini, this isn't a problem. It's a lot bigger, but then you're into a much more expensive machine. You are into a bigger size physically. Once you get a scale under here, which if you're making espresso properly, you should be using a scale and say a mug that is kind of more like a regular mug size. I mean, this is even short. If I was going to try and get that under there and my scale, you actually can just about do it, but then you'd be lifting up and going into the spouts and it would be a big mess. So I actually use these small espresso cups and even then I have to go, let me bring the camera a bit closer. I have to go up inside there, get my scale under and then drop it down. So those spouts are actually below the top of that mug. I'm then going to start the shot and I'll try and show you how this starts to look coming out. You also get these nice lights that illuminate when you're pulling a shot, which is really nice. So again, when I'm removing this, I'm having to lift up slightly, pull the scale away, pull that under. So yeah, the distance, that is probably the biggest negative of the machine, which you would never get a tall cup under here at all. If you like maybe, I don't know, a latte in a tall glass, you're just never going to do it. You'll have to make your espresso and then the drink in a separate cup. So what I would usually be doing, if I wasn't filming, I would have had my milk steamed by now, but I was chatting away and trying to show you the espresso. The machine comes with this nice, smallish, not too big, not too small, Lomazocco branded jug and then milk steaming. Without my camera falling, I want to try and get an angle to show you the milk steaming and you see there potentially. So it is very fast. I've actually got this down on power number one currently because I'm playing around with it. I wanted to feel what the different power levels are like. That is done. A little bit too hot for me, but it's very hard, very hard when you're trying to film and get a camera angle to actually make the perfect milk. I'm going to swirl that around. Again, latte art never quite goes to plan. When you're on camera, let's see how this comes out. Not my best work at all, but I'll put a... No, that's terrible. I was trying to look through the screen of the camera. Photo on screen here of some good coffee I pulled recently. But as we know, it is all about the taste. So how does this taste? Flat white. Delicious. Perfect. If someone served me that in a coffee shop, I'd be very, very happy indeed. Great milk texture from that steam wand. The espresso itself, it's just rich. Tastes very different to the coffee I would get on the Barista Express. I keep referencing that machine because I feel like that is such a popular espresso machine and it may be one that people are upgrading from like myself. Delicious. So good. Another negative of this machine. I'm trying to think if there actually are any because I love it. I don't think there is. I've said the slow drip kind of pour of the boiling water, the gap between the portafilter and the drip tray, the price. I don't know if you can include the... It's expensive. There's no getting away from the fact that this is a very expensive machine. Potentially that is a negative. I don't know how they can sell it cheaper or... Price is price. You can't really discuss price. Honestly, other than that, I struggle to find negatives. A quick note about water. I am currently using the Tesco bottled mineral water. Apparently that is good for the machine. I'm not actually an expert on water. It gets very, very complex on forums and things. People actually make their own water. They take like water, strip the minerals out, add like different little pipettes of minerals. I have two kids. I have a busy life. I'm not going to be doing that, but apparently this is good for the machine. So that's the water I use. And after a year of ownership, this machine has never let me down. It's never gone funny. It's never broken down. It's never caused me any issues. It's never made inconsistent coffee like the Barista Express did occasionally. It has just been a reliable coffee machine. Used it a lot. At least four or five coffees a day in the house. More on weekends with friends and family coming over. And that's every single day. This thing gets used. A quick note about the app. There are a lot of good features on the app. The cleaning cycle's really good. So you get some cleaning solution comes with the machine. You put it in, you press go on the app, and it runs a back flush cycle. The app also has a timer for the standby mode to let the machine to come on and off and warm up. So I have it warming up at five o'clock in the morning, have it switching off at eight o'clock at night. I'm not drinking coffee at eight o'clock at night, but occasionally myself and my partner will have like a tea or something. We use the hot water tap for the boiling water. But for me, this, the Linea Micra, is 100% a machine you should get or consider next to other similarly priced high-end coffee machines. The negatives I've mentioned, I've found workarounds for them. It depends what kind of person you are. If you're spending that much money, you might want everything to be perfect. I also spoke to a friend who could not believe it didn't have a built-in grinder, for example. So like everything is manual. You have to stop it yourself. You're weighing out your shot. Everything, it's a very hands-on experience in making coffee, which for me, I love. I want to be as close to a barista, how someone would do it in a specialty coffee shop. I want to work on those skills. I want to be part of that. I don't just want to press a button and get coffee. People who are not so much into coffee might be like, if I'm spending that much on a coffee machine, I want it to make the best coffee in the world. And I just want to press a button and it does it for me. So you're either in one of those two camps. I'm definitely in the camp that is like, I'm glad this is kind of analog feeling. There's no screens on this. There's no shot timer. There's a shot timer on the app if you need that. My scale has a built-in timer. So that's what I use to time the shot. I haven't gone too like techy specky, like the water reservoir. Yes, it needs filling up quite often, depending on how much you use the water, obviously. It's not huge, but it's easy enough just to pull the drip tray out, open a small cap and pour the water straight in. You can have this plumbed in. If you never want to run out of water, you can just have it plumbed in. The maintenance is really easy and it's just a fantastic machine. One thing people weren't sure about when this design first came out was the portafilter itself. Because, I mean, you get your basket, but then you have this plastic attachment, which comes, I'm going to give that a clean. Again, we are not a high-end production here. This is just my real kitchen. There is coffee in here because I haven't taken this off and cleaned it as much as I should. You then get it as a bottomless portafilter. This plastic piece with the spouts then clips in. I was a little bit, I don't know, miffed. Part of me was like, oh, plastic. That's not what they've got in the coffee shops. That's not why I bought this machine. I mean, it's a really hard plastic. Using this machine for a year, the quality, I mean, it has not worn down at all, at all on the edges. I actually press this into here quite hard when I tamp. I tamp onto the spouts, which, yeah, you're probably not meant to do, but this door for the washing machine is hanging off, so I kind of have to. That's just real life, but I am not concerned about the quality of that plastic. Very durable and it works. You can gain a little bit of height. I mentioned the height. If you take that off, have bottomless, obviously, you're going to gain a little bit more. You might get your mug under there a bit nicer, but that's one interesting thing to speak about in terms of design. Same with the steam wand. It's this cool to touch. This is a feature I really do like. You can touch this anywhere. I can hold it. It is not hot until you get to the end, basically, so you're not going to touch the end, but that you can move around. You can touch. If Lamazocco do another deal, then that is obviously a good time to buy. I am going to end off this review here. I hope I've covered it. I just wanted to sit down and talk about the machine. I didn't even script this video. I didn't plan it out in my head. I didn't write any notes. I just wanted to come on camera, hit record, make a coffee, talk about my genuine ownership experience with the machine out of my brain. If I've waffled and rambled, apologies. If it's been useful, I'm glad. Please leave me a comment. Have you got this machine? Are you thinking of buying it? Are there any others that you're considering? I'd love to know what people are kind of putting this machine up against, but thank you so much for watching this one and hopefully see you in the next video very, very soon. I can just sit back and enjoy my flat white.