Yay, Caffeine!

Nov 16, 2008 20:36

I finally completed one of my oldest to do list items today. Said task being to perform service on my La Pavoni Europiccola espresso machine. I bought the machine used off of eBay for $300 three years ago, fully expecting to need to overhaul it at some point. It worked reasonably well at first, but after using it for about a year it started angrily spitting boiling water at me and so I ordered a gasket set for it in, uh, October 2006 according to the receipt. I even put it on my list of things to do over Winter Break, December 2006.  But, then I got busy and then I was spending most of my time at SAM's place and, well, here we are two years later.

I recently received some freshly roasted beans sent by the infamous foam_du_milk, and so it was high time to get this done already. It ended up being not nearly as scary or time-consuming as I had feared. The documentation provided with the gasket kit was mostly useful, and the Refeathering the Chrome Peacock online guide filled in the rest of the gaps. It also really helps to have the right tools for the job, especially snap-ring pliers. The insides were fairly crudded up, but everything cleaned up well in the end. I was also pleased to discover that mine is one of the brass-piston machines, not plastic. Now it's all sparkly clean and wonderful. More importantly, it's not launching boiling water in inappropriate directions.

So, all told, it took me 3 hours to make my morningevening coffee today. Now that I know how to do it, it will probably only take me an hour to replace the gaskets next time. The piston glides smoothly and firmly now, and I've been reacquainting myself with the art of manual lever-operated espresso machines. And, wow. It's been a while since I used really fresh beans. I'd still been working my way through the big stash of torrefacto (sugar roasted) beans and I hadn't realized how dry they had gotten. These fresh beans are much much stickier, necessitating a coarser grind and looser tamp. But oh so fragrant and yummy. <3

The question of whether the sexiness of a La Pavoni is worth the trouble? Watch this youtube clip of James Bond using one, and decide for yourself. :)

Actually, the answer is still yes, for me. You can get a healthy used one for $300, gasket kits for $30 every few years, and service it yourself because it's such a simple machine. The only other alternative for home espresso is to pay upwards of $700-1000 for a decent quality automatic home espresso machine that costs a lot more to maintain. Once you learn how to use it, a skilled operator can make good espresso drinks with a La Pavoni. The unskilledunworthy user will be punished with burned fingers, spattered milk, sneezed grounds, and a crappy shot.

linkedcontent, caffeine

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