FEATURES
The Rocket R NINE ONE is based on their high specification R series commercial coffee machines. The Rocket R series significantly includes the Rocket Espresso saturated brew group. The R NINE ONE can be plumbed into a water connection or run off the reservoir tank, that’s accessible at the top right hand side of the machine. It is a stainless steel dual boiler coffee machine. One boiler for brew 1.9 Litres and one boiler for hot water and steam 3.6 litres. It has a commercial Rotary gear pump that allows you to manually change the pressure during the extraction of the coffee to suit your personal taste. Other key features of this machine include a digital touch screen display giving you the ability to tweak your espresso, program times in the day it turns on and off, water volume control amongst a host of other features.
DIMENSIONS
Weight: 47.5 KG
Width: 410 mm
Depth: 506 mm
Height Top of Cup Surround: 392 mm
Height with Steam Arm Top: 430 mm
(*Height to the top of the Steam Arm not covered in the video)
Height with Steam Wand Elbow at highest position: 445 mm
CLOSER LOOK SUMMARY – By Marko
This size, weight and price of the Rocket R NINE ONE could be arguments against this machine.
From this point of view, it’s not a machine to buy on value. However, what it gives in terms on control of the espresso is like no other machine i have used before. Beyond all my expectations!
R NINE ONE – The NEXT Generation Pressure Profile Coffee Machine for the home.
This sub title requires a little explanation. Approx 4-5 years ago coffee machine manufacturers introduced a new feature in high end home barista coffee machines. Pressure Profiling. It basically allowed you to change the pressure as the espresso was extracting. “Pressure profiling” has come from advances in technology, primarily from the commercial coffee machine industry. This change was mainly brought about from customers demanding more speciality arabica coffee. Single origin coffees all extract a little differently and having this ability to control the pressure enables the barista to refine the espresso.
For the home barista market it gave customers a chance to finally tweak single origin coffees, producing an espresso tailored completely to your taste. Pioneering pressure profiling coffee machines include the Vesuvius and the R60V. In my opinion they really helped push the boundary of what’s possible at home from a 13amp plug. However, in my experience i have found them a little clunky. You have to manually set the pressure and time over a certain amount of stages. It’s always seemed a little fiddly. Eventually you can program a great espresso, but it does take time.
Having many years experience with La Marzocco machines especially the GS3 MP and Strada MP in The Roastery, the ability to lower the pressure at the end of the espresso with the manual paddle is fantastic. It decreases the undesirable acids and improves the overall espresso, sweetness and floral, fruit notes depending on the coffee. I just love the interaction of moving the analogue paddle, its simple and intuitive. At the beginning of the extraction starting off with a lower pressure to help pre-infusion also leads to great results. This is all simply achieved with the paddle. The only issue ive had with the La Marzocco paddle in the past is recreating the same profile the next time around. Its very hard to recreate the same analogue movement perfectly each and every time.
This is where the Rocket R NINE ONE comes into it’s own. You can move the analogue handle, hopefully create the perfect profile and then save and store it. You can save up to 5 profiles on the R NINE ONE. This for me is why the R NINE ONE heralds the next generation of profile machines for the home barista. It combines the simplicity of manually moving the pressure profile paddle and then having the ability to digitally saving it to use next time.
If you have five different single origin coffees or blends that you enjoy at home, all have their own distinct profile. Alternatively as normally marketed with profile machines you can mimic a traditional lever machine. Ultimately you can profile a shot for a darker roast Brazil, extracting all those sweet, nutty, smooth chocolate tones or make a Tanzania single origin burst out its blueberry notes.
This size, weight and price of the Rocket R NINE ONE could be arguments against this machine.
From this point of view, it’s not a machine to buy on value. However, what it gives in terms on control of the espresso is like no other machine i have used before. Beyond all my expectations!