yes, arrived safely from taobao despite taking unusually long this time.. 

the machine from close-up, with the new tamper.. very affordable and sturdy too.


twin thermoblock.. heat up time from cold boot.. less than 3-min 


there're tweaks to the extraction temperature, steam power and steam humidity by pushing some buttons.. have yet to test it.
cups were from taobao too.. quite a steal, have to say.. 


the whole setup.. since it's next to the sink, wonder can do a direct plumb-in in the future? 


the grinder, zd-12.. really kicks after some add-ins to the bottom burr (couldn't grind fine enough earlier, but now.. it's 5 notches from the coarsest level.. still experimenting, so no conclusion yet).. minimum static/clumps.


we have this plastic funnel/contraption that you place above the portafilter to minimize the coffee grind going all places, it's really a good investment for a small counter-top setup from those messy session..

get a good grinder first.

The Espresso machine is a pain in the ass if there is no decent grinder.

I would suggest you to get a good grinder, and then go with the pour over.
Espresso machines should start with a CC1 or Silvano level at least, everything else is just an upgraditis waiting to happen.

lu mia budget berapa boss?

Lu suka minum ape boss? Suka hipster pour overs or espressos?

Your Philips depressurized already or not? Might want to try the route first.

got these on monday...

the massimo blend was priced at bht100 ... whereas the house blend was at bht200
not taking any single origins..

currently trying the house blend, grind with a wpm moded grinder, dozed onto a triple basket and extracted via a wpm machine too..
very rich crema and much much better than antipodean's old dark variant.. as milk-based

definitely gonna get more from there again.. bht100 - bht200 ... this is half of what doi chaang charges 

yes in bangkok (as quoting price in thai baht).. pacamara is situated in a mall (rainhill mall) closer to phrom phong bts station, exit the station and walk along the main road.. the shop is located 1 floor above ground.. you may buy in their pre-packed 250g or in larger quantity (500g, 1kg, etc)..


by the way, not many coffee cafe that uses these stuff in bangkok; a slayer machine, agtron(for roasting) and a refractometer(for brewing)..

for other roasted beans, of course there're other choices even along the sukhumvit road.. but we're focusing on local blend (as opposed to mostly foreign beans).. if you want to try doi chaang without heading to changmai/rai.. head towards ekkamai bts station and enter into the gateway mall, they're situated at the ground level.. so far the bestest doi chaang served latte (we've tried 3 different doi chaang cafe locations and we found the one at gateway mall the bestest)

coffee beans at doi chaang is a hit-or-miss thingy.. cos they're roasted date is way too far from current.. july/august 2015!!! (we really wanted to try a bag, but we choose to drink it there instead)

so, how was your espresso machine surveying been going? for your budget of sub rm1.9k, it will be a very frustrating find in m'sia.. if you're not doing any high volume production, you may venture into a china make, such as a wpm.. in fact you can get a very decent thermoblock espresso machine plus a good burr grinder(require a minor shim-mod) with that rm1.9k

this is our current setup..

part 2: bottom burr and chassis

with the top burr carrier taken off, you can see the same tiny bottom conical burr blades with a bolt nut that can be unscrewed to totally take off the bottom burr blade from it's stationary position.. as mentioned the carousel compartment is also tiny, so grind retention is not huge.. a bump on the unit will draw the grind onto the exiting chute shown below..

here is another angle of the 3-section carousel that moves to push the grind onto the exiting chute..

a very elementary ventilation exhaust for the motor(belt driven) on the chassis.. because of it's size, the noise level is tolerable too..

without the shim mod.. this grinder wouldn't grind fine enough for espresso for the wpm kd210s2.. even at setting #1.. now with the shim added, it's good enough at setting #19.. we've tried go to setting #17 and it chocked the espresso machine (don't even wanna know where is zero  )

Sifu and breville grinder...these two don't mix

Sorry to hear about that. I checked some parts shop and it's marked obsolete. I checked eBay USA and Australia didn't find anything you can use.

Really kaput?

RM 12.90 250g