Usually it applies to the moment you press the machine button. The first few drops would be seen around 10 sec

Getting to understand the coffee roast types, freshness ie espresso roast, filter roast and its effect on solubility and the style of espresso you are going after should be key.

Darker espresso roast tend to be more forgiving on equipment due to its ease of extraction and lower acidity. Flavours like dark roasty notes, chocolate, thick body come to mind. With that in mind, most espresso type grinders should manage them with ease, likewise for the espresso machines.

However if you edging towards more fruiter espresso, higher quality beans, Single origins, filter coffee but done espresso style, thats where the grinder and espresso machine will play a big big part. In this area, grinders specs have no limit, you are talking easily 2K USD home grinders, exotic materials for coating the burrs, crazy machined tolerence (talking about 0.01 MM measurements) and over spec bearings motor, Monolith grinders are a perfect example.

Likewise the espresso machine are also capable of preinfusion, pressure profiling, flow profiling, temp profiling, to really fine tune and squeeze out the characteristic of the beans.

At the end of the day, its really about a journey, what you think if its good enough at the moment be it the beans , grinder or machine will gradually change as your taste buds gets more sensitive and you start understanding your equipment better, thats where a clearer picture of what is more important (beans/ grinder / machine / skills) will emerge.

If I am not wrong your machine is reservior fed, preinfusion option is usually only for plumb in e61 models. Your machine has a preweting function which drips a small amount of water when the lever is half engaged.. I usually engage it for 5 secs

From my rocket Evo hx model with group head thermometer...it's best to flush 2-3 sec and straight away lock in the portafilter and go . Machine does not like long cooling flushes.. only do that when the machine is idle for extended period of time

You could try getting a Lelit Bianca, its like a baby slayer.. flow profiling. very cool, especially for that price.

https://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?4...t-Bianca/page17

How the flow control? Looks really interesting, the flow control, very similar to the slayer

Alternatively you could try up dosing and down dosing to get around with the grind adjustment limitation.

Try not to buy from Amazon US for kitchen appliances, their voltage is only 110/120V. Get from lazada safer.

Yes, beans tend to degrade over time, usually the taste will peak in around 10-14 days from the roast date and decline from there. Some methods to preserve the beans are freezing, keeping away from light and warm places, good air tight sealing during storage.

Right now i am grinding my beans directly from the freezer, helps to improve grind quality and no more worries about beans going stale.

Yes, what you are experiencing is over time the beans will slowly become more soluble, that's why is recommended to rest at least 3 days from roast date.

Acids are the easiest to extract first, thats why the hall mark of under-extraction is sourness. As time goes by the as the CO2 degases, the beans become more soluble and "softer", allowing water to enter the beans easier, increasing extraction, thats when all the caramelly bits, sugar and other compounds starts to dissolve into the cup balancing the acidity of the beans.

Another way of looking at dark vs light roast is the way the beans behave during grinding.

Darker roast beans are more brittle vs ligther roast. That why it's so much easier to grind dark roast compared to light roast.. when the beans are brittle they shatter more easily leading to more fines production as compared to lighter roast. So you have to grind much finer for the lighter roast to increase the fines to have a comparable flow rate vs the darker roast.

How many cups are you planning to serve a day?

Breville machine are not really suited for commercial settings, its mainly for home users with an average of less than 10 drinks a day. The built and internals are not going to survive and commercial environment.

For your requirement and budget i would consider a fully automatic machine, maybe a jura machine.

Most probably the grinder, go get a good hand grinder, i think should set you back around 500rm.. from there once you have a reference point from a good grinder, you could choose to invest in a better motor grinder.

Grinders are usually the most problematic part of espresso making, understanding the grinder is key:

1) how much retention, how much should be flushed after each change of grind setting
2) Amount of beans in hopper also will affect the grind size, a full hopper tend to give better and more predictable results compared to dosing in to a empty hopper.
3) are you WDTing or RDTing

Thats why i would advocate a good hand grinder first because it solves alot of the above issues without breaking the bank, ease of adjustment and zero retention makes it much easier and less frustration.

Once you have more confidence in the espresso making process you can decide on what kind of electric grinder.

If you are doing filter style coffee, the machine with ghost burrs will most certainly be my personal pick.

Having used a Fuji Royale clone (from Taobao), its makes a very sweet and rounded cup. Zero retention, single dosing and small foot print.

Espresso making is usually much more "fun" making process, alot of trial and error, tweaking, crazy theories.

For a period of time i was drinking espresso exclusively, which sent my taste buds constantly over drive, now i drink a fair bit of filter + espresso to balance it out..haha.

Could try the robot espresso maker too, i am currently using it and is a big fan of it. Slightly out of your budget, but its a really good machine

What is your budget?

Try listing some good cafes around your area and paying them a visit and exclude any which says StarBucks.

Have a benchmark to judge, for espresso you can take note of body/mouthfeel, after taste, sweetness, acidity, balance. There is alot more to espresso than crema, try to expose yourself to more espresso experiences, from there judge the shots you are making and whats lacking.

Navigating the feima/tiamo grinders can be really tricky. What you should be trying to get is the Fuji Royal grinder series. These are bigger burrs, zero retention, crushing style which can really make good brew and perfect for pour overs. if you familiar with TB below is the link. the keyword is 小富士电动鬼齿 , the feima series look simliar but its only 60MM burrs vs 70mm++

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=5706.1...c3-71d13faabde0