so recently the good basket for this has been back in stock and finally got shipped to me.
it doesn't make perfect 2000$ machine espresso, but honestly this is better than some desktop units for half the price. I use it as my kitchen coffee machine so I kettle-boil the water, it can only really pull 3 shots on battery, though I have used that while on the go. If you don't know how to tweak espresso do not buy this, it can only make good coffee with the Plus Basket, which requires a lot of finesse with the grinds like espresso does, and it's not worth it without the plus basket.
but it's clear the machine is much better than I am. Cleaning up is frustrating, but mostly because there's no way to knock it so you have to find a scaper.
with how much YouTube marketing this had when I was looking for real reviews, I was prepared to be disappointed. I was not.
The form factor has me convinced that this started out as a dick-sucking machine but they couldn't get a strong enough motor with a reasonable battery life.
So they took a break, went to the microkitchen. Got wired from the one guy who knows how to use the espresso machine, and then all caffiene-vibrating in unison, went: "wait. I know how to salvage this. we run it in reverse. with coffee."
