After using a Rancilio Silvia with the Mazzer Mini for four years, I was gifted the Magnifica. At first, I was skeptical of the ability of this machine's ability to deliver a great espresso or cappucino. After several weeks of use, I have dialed in the particulars, and to some extent can report positively about the quality of both the espresso and milk steaming. It's certainly convenient. I have the model with full digital operation, meaning all the settings are customizable, from grind, to temperature, to length of shots. The quality of the espresso, while not as good as the Silvia, is still acceptable. I attribute this to the smaller size puck, from which I extrapolate that the portafilter is smaller than the Silvia's 58 mm.
The milk steamer, a separate pitcher that one can fill and keep in the refrigerator, makes foam in profusion, but it is of the larger bubble variety, not the fine pearlized microbubbles that the silvia is capable of generating. Nonetheless, it's great to know that the machine turns on by itself, and with a touch of one button can make me a decent cappucino in a minute, with zero clean up at all. |
