Summer Roadshow - Little Pitcher Battle - Toroid vs Cafelat

[ecc]

These little mid-range milk steaming pitchers are both pretty nice, I need some help picking a winner.

One one side, we have the new version 12oz Toroid, with a better handle and new volume marks.


On the other, we have a nice heavy 13oz Cafelat, mirror finish and a very heavy duty high-end feel.


-  5 spots available - post here to save your spot
-  Pay $5 to me each via 
   (you will also need to eventually  pay the medium flat rate box USPS postage to send it to the next person in line)
-  Gets you approx one week to play with it before you need to ship to next person.
-  You must have an opinion afterward as to which one is your favorite
-  You have a two in five (40%) chance of winning one of the pitchers (random.org)
-  I will draw the two winners after the pitchers have made the loop back to me, and the winning pitcher determined

Who is in?

1. milowebailey
2. jano
3. Intrepid510
4.
5.

[milowebailey]

I haven't tried any new style pitchers..... So in.  Paypal later today

[ecc]

I haven't tried any new style pitchers..... So in.  Paypal later today

Sweet, power lead-off review!

[milowebailey]

I've had these for a couple weeks.  Both are a good size for a single latte.


Toroid I like best for several reasons.


1) it has volume lines so it is easy to repeat milk volume.


2) the feel in my hand when pouring is great.  I holy the pitcher in my hand, not the handle.


The caflat would be good if you hold the handle


The Toroid doesn't change steaming, I thought it might change swirling, but no noticeable difference with either.

[jano]

Oh, is this over, with just one person, even if a month late?  I was hoping to try them out, but got swamped with early summer conferences and forgot about it.

[Intrepid510]

Well dang if he is in so am i

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

[ecc]

You guys are in! (thanks Larry!)

[jano]

The pitchers arrived earlier this week from Larry, and despite the heat, powered up my big BA.  Played with various blends, using brazil condado peaberry, honduras, and a los lajones honey from panama.  I did try a little flores in one shot, but it tasted like cream of mushroom soup with the milk..

I prefer the cafelat.. I haven't made a cappucino in months, been not only enjoying pourovers and siphons too much, but also too lazy to heat up the espresso machine.  The milk naturally spun and aired and frothed.  I still struggle with milk that's too thin, but, the picture attached was my first try.  Tasty.

The gf, on the other hand, prefers the toroid.  She really likes the volume notches and the pouring spout.  I had trouble getting milk to do anything but bubble up... would love to blame the permanent angle of the steam wand, but the gf's results weren't half bad.  She, too, hasn't done any latte art in months (last time we made caps was probably easter?).

[jano]

Couple more, including an almost evil macciato (used whole milk, not heavy cream.. next time!).  GF made the smiling tulip thingy.

I am absolutely digging the cafelat.

[ecc]

Nice review, thanks jano!

[Intrepid510]

So I have had these for a couple days now and am starting to form my opinion.

I am curious what machines you guys are using with these. I am finding both work better than my straight walled pitcher with the nod going to the espro pitcher.

More on this later.

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[Intrepid510]

What is there to say about milk steaming pitchers, they need to hold milk and be of a decent depth. Anyway, it was interesting to mess around with these pitchers for the past week+, as you can see they are all a little different one is a little wider in the bottom, the other in the middle and last one is pretty straight up and down. And if given the choice between those three, I would make the same choice I would with a woman, one a little wider in the bottom.

It should be noted that my machine is a a mil La Pavoni 8-cup.

The Cafelat with the wide middle steam just the same from my experience as a straight walled pitcher. The key different is the narrowing of the top allows you swirl the milk in the pitcher a little easier than my straight walled one, this did lead to slightly better milk when a accidentally foamed too much or let it sit too long. However, if you steamed well there was very little added advantage in my opinion.

I went into this thinking that Espro wouldn't provide that much of an advantage considering my machine, since the angled wand with three holes wouldn't provide the same type of precision of steaming into the center as a Gaggia or Silvia. Surprisingly for me it has worked very well and made steaming micro foam pretty easy, I can steam up huge bubbles in the beginning of steaming and then push down my wand and the little thing turns the milk over and I get micro foam. It's quite remarkable really.

Pouring art, either of them are fine in my opinion nothing disastrous I was able to preform my normal middling results with ease.

Overall, I think if you are using a small machine the Espro is probably worth the added expense and I think I will pull the trigger on one when I feel like adding something to an Amazon order or ask one my girls to grab it for me for Christmas. That being said the Cafelat was really nice and the heaviest of the bunch, and if you got the money would probably be a good addition to someone with a larger machine.