Coffee Appreciation

thinking of upgrading my stove top espresso maker to one of these
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alessi-Espresso-Stainless-Polished-Diffusing/dp/B000HWY2QE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481147171&sr=8-1&keywords=alessi+9090

thoughts? worth the cash?

If you're ever in bristol, bring a sample of your water to FCP and I'll test it for you.

Not something I'll be looking to get for a while, but wanted some opinions in the meantime.

Domestic lever machines, are there any decent ones? The La Pavoni Pro seems relatively well regarded.

Good those Pavonis if you're likely to gain some joy from mastering a process by practicing and gaining intuition; not so much of you're into hitting the numbers type stuff. You make espresso already, right? In which case you'll probably get on well with it.

Pavoni pro with the pressure gauge does help you judge the temp better than the one without.

I've had a Gaggia Achille which made the best espresso I ever had - That was a manual lever with a heat-exchanger, you really got a feel for when to back off the pressure as the coffee extracted. Shots had a texture like yogurt. Don't buy one though, the build was ropey as fuck and they all go badly wrong.

I also have an old La Peppina, that makes decent coffee but the novelty wore off quite quickly.

BB have a few prosumer type lever machines. The Quickmill one has had problems since birth, I'd avoid that, there's a weird Barazza one which uses a vibe pump so you get a shitty noise - one of the joys of levers is the silence, and there's an ECM one which is really good. That's got a proper massive commercial lever group and doesn't try to be too clever but it's abour 2k I think.

Makes the same coffee as Bialetti stove tops.

I do indeed!

I've used a spring lever machine before, which is pretty straightforward relative to a direct pull lever machine. (A Fracino FCL1, which was the most consistent machine I've ever used).

Pontevecchio also seem to have a decent one which is sprung, but the purist in me yearns for a direct pull machine.

Temperature control with the Pavoni Pro does seem to be an issue with consecutive shots, with several folks recommending turning off the machine and putting a damp tea towel around to group to cool it.

Part of the charm, I guess...?

Thanks for the input! Much appreciated!

I have a Gaggia clone of a Pavoni, it's been sat in a box for a while. Do you want to borrow it?

Yeah I looked into the Achille and the consensus was lots of cheap parts that will break very quickly.

Those La Peppinas look quite interesting. They do look quite delicate though, how are they in terms of reliability?

Edit: Just had a look at the rebuild process for one, looks surprisingly simple for an old Italian machine!

Was actually having a look on BB, though I don't think I'd be allowed the amount of kitchen real estate that those machines would take up!

Unfortunately I don't have the kitchen space for one at the moment (gotta love London kitchens...).

Have you used it much? What're your thoughts on it?

I used it daily for a year or so then sacked it off for an aeropress. It was too much faff in the morning when I'm almost always running late.

I'm far from an expert on taste but I made a few banging cups. Almost all were drinkable, most were good, a few were amazing. I didn't have the knowledge/patience to work out consistentcy but it was fun to use.

The boiler is super small though and given that the whole thing is pressurised you really can't make more than 2 cups at a time.

I enjoyed the novelty and the tinkering and only paid £100ish for it.

Had similar feelings towards my Gaggia classic regarding pre-commute espressos.

I have a Gaggia Achille. It's the tits. Fortunately mine doesn't seem to have the build issues that some others did.

Ah nice one, they're so good. Does it not leak from the hx?

I wouldn't really recommend the Peppina for everyday use, it's like any old machine; labour of love. I use mone every now and again as a sort of curiosity.

Yeah had a bit of a read earlier and while the rebuild process is straightforward, sourcing bits doesn't seem to be.

Looks like the La Pavoni is heading the list for the moment!

100 gns for a stovetop? Yeah. Not feeling that. What's wrong with your current one?

christmas is coming, I managed to melt some of the handle of my current one, always look at new ones, but never buy them, so thought of twisting the arm of someone I love to buy me an upgrade.

I want a new slightly larger one, but don't need it..

I have only ever had Bialettis. They have always been good for me.

@StevePeel I have been keeping an eye on eBay / Gumtree for an ECM Espresso Machine.

One popped up but I feel it is still steep at £700 when new ones are £1,100 .

What do you think?
Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142201248682

Yeah, probably a bit much when you don't know how well it's been looked after. Don't restrict yourself to ECM if you're looking second hand - they're my favourite but it's quite subjective. Most of these machines are much of a muchness.

No leaks. It just dribbles water when you go way over 9 Bar's worth of pressure on the lever and is effectively like an over pressure valve. I read that this was actually part of the design, but I can't remember if it was obviously implemented in any particular way.

Lucky you, look after it. Amazing machine.

just ordered my wife the ONA OCD v2 distribution tool for xmas as her shots can be erratic and it appears to be a distribution/channeling issue.

An expensive way of fixing it