Well, I am pleased to report I was one of the 1st 1/2 dozen to purchase the Mini VII from Chris. Received it the day b/f T-giving. Arrived in perfect condition, along w/ the free naked p-filter, beans, and the idp esp cups. Also purchased an Espro tamper. Had my grinder (Pasquini Moka) setup for an Expobar, so had to do some tweaking. Also bumped up the temp to 94 (arrived set at 93), based on recommendations here for Chris' Black Pearl beans.
Looks wise, it looks EXACTLY like the VII, except for the h2o tank, located b/h the steam wand.
Shots were quickly near flawless. Roughly a 22 second double with more tiger striping than I ever saw from my Expobar (as great a machine as it is)! Still tweaking (dose, dist., tamp,grind), but just for learning purposes.
As for the steam... OMG!!! The video of the steam from the VII looks almost identical to the steam I get from the Mini. I only steam enough milk for 1 cappa and 1 latte (unsure exacly how many ozs). But it takes all of roughly 15-20 seconds to bring the milk to 160'. Took my Expobar a couple minutes to achieve the same. Tons of microfoam. Chris supplied steaming instructions as well as a dvd, but I have yet to look at these.
RE: Paddle lever for steam versus a knob: I really like this feature. On my Expobar, I would have to turn the knob several rounds b/f getting to max steam. Same for shutting it off once correct temp is achieved. SO much easier (& quicker) to simply flip the lever up and down on the Mini VII.
As you can see, I am very pleased with the machine and the folks @ Chris' Coffee. For me, the VII was not an option, as drilling through our granite countertop was NOT going to happen... at least not for an espresso addiction! So, I contacted Chris a year ago asking for the next best thing. At that time he was working on the prototype, and suggested I wait for the Mini versus any alternatives (ie Brewtus, Andrea, etc). So glad I waited.
Thanks for the wealth of information available on the site. Learned a great deal, and hopefully can try and pay-it-fwd to anyone on the fence about the Mini VII.
chas wrote:Unless Niko buys one, you'll be hard pressed to find someone other than Chris Coffee that has both a VII and a mini-VII to make such a comparison.
However, if such a thing happens, the owner will probably be found on this forum. For now we are still waiting for the first mini-VII owner to check in on the forum and relate his experiences.
Is the eqiuvalence theoretical based on the 2 machines having the same wattage (need power to make steam), or a actual comparison? 
