Taking its name from the world famous Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence, Italy. Ponte Vecchio is an Italian company that has been producing lever home espresso machines since 1999. It was founded by a number of entrepreneurs with over 20 years of experience in the industry of mechanical components for small household appliances.
It’s been a month using MaraX and I’m very pleased with it and the espresso that I’m able to produce. IMO it’s very aesthetically pleasing, love the black body with the maple wood, looking beautiful in my kitchen! I knew that it lacked in its feet, poorly designed and just tiny rubbery feet aren’t worthy of the overall machine and also for the price. So I’m fixing that by getting maple wood feet custom made (Etsy) so hopefully that will correct the problem also with moving the machine around. Lelit should definitely correct that moving forward maybe for v3 I guess. I come from a Breville Barista Express so this machine feels way more “premium or commercial”. Love the maple wood pf and the tactile experience with the steam and water knobs and lever. The features selecting preset brew temperatures for different roast types and the coffee/steam priority all work wonderful and it makes a very simple machine that it’s super easy to use a more capable and adjustable interface. One complaint right out of the box is the fact that Lelit didn’t add an exposed adjustment for the OPV to bring the brew pressure down to 9 bars or lower. Know that this machine comes from factory set at 10 bars. It makes zero sense why they’d do that. You have to unscrew several screws and open the top casing to adjust the brew pressure. This should be done by Lelit factory set to the industry standard of 9 bars. Ok back to positive- it comes with an awesome tamper - this is a true solid and beautiful tamper. Also it comes with IMS filter baskets- they seem pretty legit precision baskets, single, double and triple. Sad they don’t include a bottomless pf like they do with the Bianca…Anyways all you need is a good WDT and use the Lelit tamper and you’ll be on your way to make great espresso. Of course you need a good grinder. I paired it with Niche Zero and I’m enjoying amazing espresso. The steaming power is a bit weak when set to coffee mode but still way better than what I was used to with Breville. However when set to steam mode it’s really good. Overall steaming is good for my needs. I don’t need a super end game machine like the bigger Bianca so Mara meets my needs and I find it beautiful! Overall I recommend it and I’d probably buy it again knowing what I know now.
Excellent grinder. Glad I picked the 75 over the 65. Works well with my Dalla Corte Mina espresso machine. I did modify a Eureka Mignon single dose hopper to work with the Eureka 75. Works great with very little retention.
I was concerned upon receipt of the Lelit Elizabeth as the inner box (not the outer box) showed water damage and in fact was still wet. There was some minor moisture within the machine's drip dray, but otherwise the machine looked unharmed. I have been using the machine for exactly one week as of this writing, and I'm happy to say that not only was it apparently undamaged, but it's fantastic for espresso and steaming. Immediately upped my latte art (here coming from a Crossland CC-1). Very satisfied and would highly recommend this machine.
Purchased this grinder with a Lelit PID espresso machine. Dialing in the grind took a few tries but fairly easy to do with the built in control. On/off switch on the side is a nice convenient feature. Only criticism is the plastic top that covers the bean holder tends to get tight and somewhat hard to remove with one hand.
Very nice machine and have been able to dial in my grind with the aid of the brewhead pressure gauge. The PID feature keeps temperature very stable. Good value and hopefully will be reliable for years to come.
