Lelit Anna PID

The Anna's appeal is that it arrives already doing what its most obvious rival needs modifying to achieve. It is a compact single boiler with PID temperature control you can actually set, a 58mm commercial portafilter, and Italian build at $700 — and the comparison owners make constantly is against a Gaggia Classic. The Gaggia is a fine machine and a beautiful one, but without a controller board fitted it leaves you temperature surfing and fighting for consistent shots. The Anna gives you adjustable, stable temperature out of the box with nothing to install. As one owner weighing the two put it, the Anna is a good choice as it comes; the Gaggia becomes the more capable machine only once you have modded it, at which point you can exceed a dual boiler with profiling and pressure control, but that is a project rather than a purchase.

Being a compact single boiler, the steam is modest, and this is where most Anna owners need help. The technique that transforms results is understanding that milk steaming has two distinct phases. The first is aeration: with the tip just at the surface, introduce all of your air immediately while the milk is coldest — two or three decisive bursts rather than a slow gradual hiss — and then stop adding air entirely. The second phase is submerging the tip deeper and simply rolling the milk to build texture and temperature, aiming for around 150°F. The continuous squelching noise so many beginners produce means the wand is in the wrong place: too deep during aeration, or not deep enough during rolling. It is also worth checking that your steam is genuinely up to temperature and dry rather than watery before you start, since weak, wet steam makes good texture impossible no matter how good your technique is. None of this is unique to the Anna, but a modest steam system is far less forgiving of poor technique than a powerful one, so it pays off more here.

At $700 the Anna sits in a crowded and interesting part of the market. Against a Gaggia Classic Pro or its E24 successor, the Anna is the better out-of-the-box machine and the Gaggia is the better platform if you enjoy modding. Against a Breville Bambino Plus, the trade is stark and worth thinking about honestly: the Bambino automates milk steaming entirely, and owners with young children specifically cite that automation as the reason they have not upgraded — being able to press a button rather than stand over a pitcher is what guarantees they actually make coffee at all. The Anna asks you to steam manually and rewards you with control and a proper commercial portafilter. Against a dual boiler like the Lelit Elizabeth, you give up simultaneous brewing and steaming for a much lower price — and at least one owner who made that jump reports not being any happier for it. Buy the Anna if you want real temperature control and a 58mm workflow without a project attached.