The X7 does the job.

Today my new Ferrari of espresso machines (the Francis Francis X7) arrived in a big brown box all shiny, red and sleek. Yeah, you can tell its Italian. Even the instruction manual is sleek and modern. It actually looks like it was made by the same guys who made the owners manual for my Ducati.

 

The X7 at work

OK, its sexy, but does it walk the walk? Perfecto!  The crema is thick and creamy, the taste is smooth - not too acidic - the hit is long lasting.  Long and short of it is that the machine and the new iper technology did not disappoint.  Let me run down just a few of the features that make this machine stand out to me:

• The size of the water resovior is enough for 8-10 shots.  I like that.  I am a bit sick of filling up my Cuisenart machine all of the time.
• The iper pods are clean and easy to use - but a bit wasteful.
• The machine lets you know as the water heats to the proper temp.  Its a nice feature and really adds to the look of the machine.  When it reaches optimal extraction temp the coffee cup symbol turns blue.  Very nice.  Very easy.
• I am not much for steaming milk at home - too messy and usually takes too much water to do on a non-commercial machine.  That being said, I warmed my cup using the steam wand on the X7 machine and was happy to find that it quickly recovered to enough water volume in the boiler to make my espresso shot.
• The iper pods make the entire process much cleaner and easier to do.  I really like the quality of the shots as well.

So far, I have no negative things to say about this machine.  The only thing I can think of, really, is that you have to purchase the iper pods, which excludes using coffee other than Illy.  Thats too bad, but not the end of the world, since Illy really does make some of the best espresso grind coffee in the world.

Time will tell if I remain happy with my purchase, but I have to say, I feel good about this one.