Don't hold me to this but I believe the Lelit Victoria has replaced the Glenda. There are still some new Glenda's available from old stock but you won't be able to get a new one. The Victoria has PID, LLC, pre-infusion, auto boiler fill after steaming and pressure gauge along with 58mm portafilter. Here's a copy and paste from reddit:

Lelit Glenda discontinued?
Question
Checking out Lelit's website but don't see the Glenda under their product page. It's still being sold by 3rd party sites.
Considering the Glenda for an upgrade from my Delonghi Dedica. Anyone know anything about this?

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9 mo. ago
Lelit Glenda | DF64
Yes, they seem to have discontinued the 58mm machines in their PL41 lineup. 3rd party sites probably still sell the stock they have.
I don't think it is a big issue though. Internally it shares parts with the rest of the Lelit lineup, so getting replacement parts should not get significantly more difficult.
You might even benefit from sellers offering good deals on it due to being discontinued.

I believe that the Glenda is currently made for only selected markets like the USA domestic market, perhaps to compete in the <$1k 58mm price range. It hasn't been on the Lelit website for a few years now. The Victoria is part of the upmarket VIP line, and costs over 20% more than the Glenda. (In the VIP line, the Grace is the 57mm machine.)

There may well be changes in the future, but the USA Lelit distributor currently shows stock of the Glenda.

I wonder if its a North American thing that we place more faith in technology than in our gray matter. We have traffic lights with poor sensors, when 4 stop signs and intelligent drivers would far outperform ... and then there are round-abouts, common abroad, that beat both .. almost not seen here..

The point is that we place faith in the Decent's and electric machines when a simple lever beats or equals them in most cases. I wish I had known this when I started..

I started with an HX and a Sette with plastic gears.. Both failed within 2 years .. and the HX required a group thermometer ($150) , a bottomless PF ($80) and borrowing a SCACE ($300-$600) to finally learn about temperature management in the HX world . When my HX went into repair for a broken SCR, the ROBOT was purchased as a "poor backup".. Little did I know it would give me all the espresso options I needed, plus none of the maintenance headache.. No steam gauge to fail because of scale buildup from what I thought was ideal water; no chemical cleans; no hauling 5 gal jugs of RO water; no flushing of steam boilers, wasting that RO water I had just lugged; no lubricating cams, replacing gaskets & seals ....

Now for those where tinkering *is* the hobby.. machines allow you to disassemble and mod to your hearts content. But for just getting a shot.. the manuals are hard to beat..

When a friend was getting into the hobby.. I suggested a Kinu, Flair V2 and a bellman. 3 years later that is still what he prefers, and he has been all over Europe, sending me his cafe pictures at various stops.

Even starting out as a new entrant, I think a manual would be easier to evolve with than an HX design. The best advice, as noted by the OP is having people (more gray matter) involved in teaching you the basics.

I think lever machines are a great way to start as well. (Or anytime along the rabbit hole journey.). They offer a fine-level of control in an intuitive way.

I almost bought a 9barista stove-top device as my first "espresso" machine and now feel I've dodged a bullet.

With a 9barista it'd be difficult (or impossible) to do or control:

• pre-infusion
• blooming
• different pressures
• flow-control
• taper pressure/flow
• weigh output

... all of which I do, 4-months into my journey.

The week cooling off period I gave myself to decide if it was really the right machine to buy, saved me a lot of regret and a sizable difference in money ($629 vs $259 CAD).

baldheadracing wrote:This is just my opinion. I'm sure plenty will disagree. This is just what I would have told myself when I was starting out, but updated as if I was starting out in June 2022. Your mileage may vary.

Thank you so much for this post. Very helpful. When you have equipment I think it's easy to gauge what you may want next in the espresso journey. But before you own anything it can be overwhelming to decide.

benhb wrote:I think lever machines are a great way to start as well. (Or anytime along the rabbit hole journey.). They offer a fine-level of control in an intuitive way.

I almost bought a 9barista stove-top device as my first "espresso" machine and now feel I've dodged a bullet.

With a 9barista it'd be difficult (or impossible) to do or control:

• pre-infusion
• blooming
• different pressures
• flow-control
• taper pressure/flow
• weigh output

... all of which I do, 4-months into my journey.

The week cooling off period I gave myself to decide if it was really the right machine to buy, saved me a lot of regret and a sizable difference in money ($629 vs $259 CAD).

So I bought a 9barista. While it's not horrible, I do regret not getting a europiccola, or robot instead. Not having the control is making learning difficult. I have a promac machine that I'll be trying out shortly, haven't gotten around to it yet. I will say that the 9barista is fairly easy to travel with, I think that is an added benefit over some lever machines. Not that the robot is cumbersome, but then I expect you'd need to bring a kettle along with it.

I bought an atom pro grinder when starting out. I'm having a hard time discerning if this grinder is good for me because of the equipment I'm using though. So while I did prioritize the grinder in my purchasing, I can't seem to evaluate it properly. That said I have gotten some smooth layered espresso shots. I do think that I may prefer bimodal burrs to unimodal after having owned it. I'm missing the mouthfeel I've found in other espresso shots from cafes. I can always buy the stock atom 75 burrs for this grinder though, so I'm not regretting the grinder purchase.

Does anyone think there would be a large benefit to measuring grind size with a kruve before it gets basketed? Or do the beans and roast level add too many variables to add any meaning to this measurement?

buckersss wrote: Does anyone think there would be a large benefit to measuring grind size with a kruve before it gets basketed? Or do the beans and roast level add too many variables to add any meaning to this measurement?

I don't know what benefit there would be with sifting, assuming a decent grinder.

At espresso-levels of fineness, there is a lot of static attraction between very small coffee particles to larger coffee particles. A Kruve will not be accurate nor precise - well, maybe if you did a lot of fiddling or used an anti-static device like one with Polonium.

That hasn't stopped people from trying, but I haven't heard of any sifting prep for espresso that appeared to be worth the significant additional effort. No harm in trying new things, of course.

As for the 9barista, it seems like an intriguing device for one serving of espresso. Sounds like it would take some practice to get consistent results.

baldheadracing wrote:I don't know what benefit there would be with sifting, assuming a decent grinder.

I didn't think about the grinds possibly sticking together when sifting. I was looking for a solution that could provide reassurance that my grind is in an acceptable range. The unimodal burrs on the atom pro are proving tricky to handle. While I do weigh the shot output of the 9barista, I find there is a lack of feedback. Plus I'm constantly switching beans which doesn't help.

Ty for the insight!

Next time a friend or colleague asks what espresso equipment they should get, I'm sending them a link to this post!

buckersss wrote: So I bought a 9barista. While it's not horrible, I do regret not getting a europiccola, or robot instead. Not having the control is making learning difficult. I have a promac machine that I'll be trying out shortly, haven't gotten around to it yet. I will say that the 9barista is fairly easy to travel with, I think that is an added benefit over some lever machines. Not that the robot is cumbersome, but then I expect you'd need to bring a kettle along with it.

Traveling with the 9barista is exactly why I was excited about it (and still think it's great for that). I can imagine as a compact unit needing only heat, it's a great choice.

I'm about to travel for a week and wouldn't consider bringing my lever machine, just due to its bulk/shape. The 9barista... I likely would. If I was traveling more than I am at home, I would have definitely gone with the 9.

Regardless, I'm quite sure first machines are hardly the last for 95% of people on this forum. I'm already looking longingly at a flair 58, trying my utmost to delay that purchase, but the pull to the dark side is strong.

Slightly updated for early 2023. In $500-$1000 machines, the Lelit Glenda w/PID can be hard to find. Fortunately, the Crossland CC1 is back at $700. However, the CC1 was only recently re-introduced, so long-term reliability is unknown.