The most beautiful coffee maker you could ever own.
Positive Product Points
Beauty. Pure and simple. Very good coffee.
Negative Product Points
Cost & replacement parts: Because it's so damned beautiful and because the factory doesn't seem to make them any more, and because it is only sold through a small shop in Sydney, Australia, they are hard to find and expensive to buy. Also when the little old lady who runs the store in Sydney passes on, or decides to close shop, there will be no place to obtain replacement parts -- ever.
Detailed Commentary
This is the most beautiful line of espresso/cappucino makers that has ever been brought forth from the realms of heavenly imagination into the the world. It is to coffee machines what the Scrovegni chapel is to frescos, what Michelangelo's "David" is to sculpture. Perfect form, but flawed. The machine can be difficult to master, and the espresso/coffee from this machine is good but not great. It lacks crema. It is difficult or impossible to get the distilled essence of coffee that is a perfect italian espresso. But for all that, it is better than anything made by the other stove-top machines that I have used.
Buying Experience
I ran all over Sydney for days looking for one at a price I could afford and in condition that made it worth buying. I found two in a small shop in the middle of nowhere. I bought the silver one. I brought it for examination to Bon Trading. And then, afetr it passed muster and got a new pressure knob, I brought it back to the USA in my hand luggage -- and got knowing grins from the security people who X-rayed the bag in Sydney. I got stares of blank incomprehension (possibly suspicion?) from the customs people in the USA who looked at it.
