I have a Delonghi Stilosa machine with the steam wand outer piece removed so only the actual wand is present, I have tried doing techniques based on videos but no matter what I try the result is always extra foamy. Iâm sure itâs probably due to the wand itself but itâs there anything else I can try to reduce the amount of foam?
Yeah I think one of his videos was the one I watched but I donât remember the plunge part. I havenât been doing that so thatâs probably the problem. Thank you!
The Stilosa also canât do steam for very long at a time. When the âreadyâ light on the front goes off you want to turn off the steam and wait for the light again. In the mean time make sure to keep the milk moving by gently swirling the pitcher.
When I had my Stilosa I also found that after the first round of steaming, there would still be lots of larger bubbles in the milk (which you donât want as they prevent a good microfoam), but at the right lukewarm temperate, while waiting for the machine to heat again I could get close to the pitcher and breathe onto the milk and that would help pop a lot of those bubbles. Which is fine as long as youâre not making drinks for guests đ
Yeah the intricacies of this machine bug the hell out of me. I feel like the machine only holds temp for a very small amount of time.
What machine have you moved on to since owning the stilosa? Iâd like to move up to something but nothing on the market thatâs less than $1,000 really feels like a good upgrade, and Iâm not sure if I want to spend a G on an espresso machine quite yet.
I remember the feeling đ though itâs kind of nice to really know what you donât like about the lower end machines when you upgrade.
I upgraded to the Bambino Plus and (a little later) a Niche. Definitely a whole different game. Iâve had them for about a year now, worked on my puck prep and dialing in, and both my espresso and latte art have improved 100x. The steam isnât super powerful (still leagues above the Stilosa, and it has a proper steam wand) so it takes some practice to get a great microfoam but it is very doable.
At this point my main issue with the Bambino is the lack of temperature control. I drink a lot of light roasts and it generally does well, but Iâm getting a lot more picky about the espresso so Iâm starting to look at higher end machines with temp control. But the Bambino Plus has been a great machine.