The Bottom Line: If you?re an advanced amateur home barista and willing to invest both your time and money, this machine will bring you years of pleasure.

We started brewing espresso at home over 10 years ago when I bought a Krups with a steam pressure system. It was a small machine and only brewed 2 cups at a time. After enjoying your coffee, you needed to wait until the system depressurized before you could brew another drink. We upgraded to another Krups machine a few years later, this one with a small water reservoir, when we needed to brew several cups for a dinner party. This machine served us well for 8 years before we wore it out. My husband had proven that his Barista tendencies were more than just a passing phase, so we upgraded to the Pasquini Livia 90.

The Look
The boxy, stainless-steel design is a beautiful modern addition to our countertop. It's a large machine for our tiny kitchen, but the sacrifice we made on counter space is well worth it.

The Features
The large, easy to fill, water reservoir holds several quarts. The machine does not hook up to a water system. The instant hot water feature is great for making tea. We use the milk frother for both its intended purpose and also to quickly make hot chocolate. The frother is extremely fast compared to other home machines; take care not to scald the milk or your cappuccino will taste funny. The coffee filters come in both single and double size. The machine also supports ESE pods. We needed to add a small washer to get the coffee spouts oriented properly for using loose coffee. Don't worry about messiness, the drip tray is there to catch excess water and accidental overflows. Coffee is made with the flip of a switch. Keep an eye on your cup, though. You'll need to flip the switch off when you want to stop the coffee flow. The top of the machine can be used to warm cups.

The Regular Maintenance
The Livia is a high performance machine, sort of like a sports car, so it takes a bit of extra care in maintenance and preparation. Remove the coffee filter and wipe down the connector after each brewing cycle. If you leave the filter engaged, the heat of the machine will dry out the grounds and you will have a hard coffee clump mess on your hands. Daily you will need to use the cleaning basket (looks like the filter without holes) to push water back into the system and clean out some of the coffee grounds you missed. You use this exactly as if you were brewing a cup of coffee. You will do this several times in a row. The frother has a Teflon tip that makes it super easy to clean. The daily cleanings are essential to make consistently good coffee. If your machine has calcium buildup, you will want to run a cleaning tablet through the system once a month.

The Reliability
A little over a year after we bought the machine, the pressure spiked and we had to stop using it. We found a recommended repair shop nearby and the faulty pressure stat was replaced within the week. The service on this machine was not inexpensive, but it's the only problem we've had in the 2 years that we've owned the machine.

The Beverages
As with any kitchen appliance, the quality of the finished product is fully dependent upon the skill of the user. It's a little tricky to figure out how hard to tamp the coffee and exactly how much to use. Some experimentation is necessary, but with practice my husband's coffee now rivals that of the best coffee houses. The cappuccinos are perfectly frothed and the espressos have the most beautiful crema I've seen on a home-made espresso.

Tips From the Barista
Espresso is too concentrated for the harsh bite of a dark or French roast of coffee. Medium roast will give you a smooth, nutty espresso.

Commercially ground coffee is vastly more consistent in grind size than most home grinders (even good burr grinders) are able to generate. It may conflict with the "grind it as you use it" aesthetic, but buying small cans of the best quality commercially ground coffee you can find will give you optimal coffee pleasure.