For intimidated prospective buyers and new users:

It is December 30th; five days after my wife opened her new Rancilio Ms. Silvia from Santa. Why write a review so soon? Because Santa was intimidated in bringing it and we were both intimidated in trying it, anticipating long and boring Sunday afternoons learning the intricacies of the fickle and capricious Ms. Silvia, whom we read about in multiple reviews. She is nothing of the sort. Ms. Silvia is a humble dutiful servant doing all that is asked of her promptly and efficiently.

First we adjusted the Rancilio grinder per instructions, taking it back 6 rather than 7 notches. We then ground some LaVazza Gran Espresso beans, loaded the coffee holder tamped down hard on the ground espresso and inserted into the machine per instructions. We let’er rip, and got crema. We were both amazed. This isn’t supposed to happen according to the reviews we had read. If the grind isn’t exactly right (per instructions) or the tamp isn’t enough (per reviews) or the draw time is too long (per reviews) you get something that resembles Postum. We got crema on the first try and the coffee was good.

We drank our cup and made another. This time we got crema too, but the coffee was weak. What went wrong? We made three adjustments: more coffee, more shoulder into the tamping and shorter draw time (25 seconds). We got great coffee again and with crema. This time we even steamed some milk. This was a problem. The results were disappointing.

We re-read reviews on steaming milk and noted that one woman’s husband solved the problem by keeping the wand near the surface of the milk. This made great improvement but did not entirely solve the problem, which we are still struggling with. We use skim milk, which is supposed to be better, and we freeze a stainless steel cup, which is also supposed to be required, and we fill the cup only part way, which is supposed to be all the magic you need, but there is more we have not discovered yet. We have discovered some of the new magic however, and that is that the toggle switch for steaming has to be turned on well in advance of steaming, to get up to temperature. If you do that, you will see what separates Ms. Silvia from the boys’ toys.

Nevertheless you too, klutz that you feel that you are, can have great espresso at home and a decent cappuccino too. It is true this is not the first home espresso attempt we have made. We had other machines, but as one reviewer observed, they were toys, better used as gifts for those you want to get even with.

Santa brought my wife the entire kit from Aabree Coffee Company, which arrived in two 25-pound boxes: one for Ms. Silvia and one for the grinder, knockout box, cleaner, brush, tamper, and 3 or 4 bags of coffee beans from several suppliers.

A word about the knockout box - at first we couldn’t figure this thing out – it looked like big ashtray. Then we were struck by the word “knock.” We remembered in Italy the operator knocking the used coffee pucks out of the holder. That was it. It is for discarding the used coffee. This too needs a word. Sometimes the coffee comes out without requiring much knocking and at other times robust knocking is required to dislodge a compact coffee puck. We have noticed that better coffee seems to be predicted by the more compact used coffee pucks. Put your shoulder into it. You will be rewarded with a fine brew and speaking of brews, for you Irishmen out there, don’t forget the possibilities for a fine Irish coffee brew.