Coffee Appreciation

I also have the delonghi and I think it's a great little machine. I bought mine about 5 years ago when I was dipping my toe in to espresso at home but I didn't have much room and with a few modifications mine pulls shots that don't seem any worse than ones my mates pull on their gaggia classics.

First, I hacksawed the portafilter to make it bottomless, this allows you to get a good double basket in there and I replaced the steam one with a rancilio silvia wand (really easy there's step by step guides online, takes about 45 minutes). I've never found the need to upgrade as I only drink espresso occasionally these days but when I do I'm happy with the shots and with the silvia wand it makes really great milk drinks (which is basically what I use it for on the weekends).

Couple of things about the hoff review, he said it was too cold but you can change the temperature settings so I'm wondering if he had it set to medium (which it is by défault) and pulling an empty shot first gets it up to temp fine. He also must have the gentle touch of a grizzly bear as I've never needed to use 2 hands to get the portafilter in or out.

TLDR, it's obviously not the greatest machine in the world but it can make perfectly good espresso with a few tweaks.

Not on my watch!

adjusts tinfoil hat

Pm'd.

*bing-bong*

"Good Morning, Mr Hippy. Today looks like it will be mostly warm and sunny, with a few clouds. I shall prepare your morning coffee after scanning."

*scanning*

"Rice cakes and raisin water it is again, fat man."

*bing-bong*

"Back in my day..." etc.

Or just buy a machine that warms up in 10 mins.

Cheers, good luck with the search.

It is when you work from home and wake up at a different time every day 🤷🏻‍♂️ electricity be precious in California.

LOLd

I'm sticking with my bircher. Fuck you, Skynet!

Bircher.

With microchips in.

microchocolatechips?

In.

I've just pulled the trigger on a La Pavoni Professional - the Europiccola with the pressure gauge.

The model with the gauge was cheaper than without (it's an unused shop return), and I didn't see any reason not to have it.

Next up - grinders. The Porlex & drill combo might be OK for a stovetop, but I imagine the La Pavoni might expose its failing more.

The Porlex & drill combo might be OK for a stovetop, but I imagine the La Pavoni might expose its failing more.

Had a Porlex + drill for the first 6 months or so, there were probably issues around grind consistency and whatnot but for me the main issue was the steps were too large (the Porlex can grind fine enough by the way, though I couldn't get a Rhino to do the same), so I'd end up juggling dose and grind size to get a decent shot. That proved to be irritating. But it's a decent enough setup to start out with IMO.

Just as a heads up, this might seem obvious but the pressure gauge is for the boiler pressure, nothing to do with the pressure you'll be forcing the water through the coffee bed at (unlike the pressure gauge you get on the Robot, obviously, as it doesn't have a boiler...).

Gotcha - cheers!

What basket size is it by the way? I can't seem to find this anywhere, and I need to buy some sweet overpriced tampers.

It's a 51mm tamper, I just got a generic £10 one but I do advise tamping on the lighter side. Not sure if you caught James Hoffman's recent Europiccola video but tamping at the pressure I was used to would result in relatively little water passing through the centre of the puck compared to the edges.

On that note, I'm not sure if your one comes with a bottomless portafilter, but I definitely recommend getting one. This site has a pretty comprehensive selection of parts: https://www.theespressoshop.co.uk/en/Spare-Parts/c-49.aspx?BrandIDs=42

Didn't you swap out the steam wand tip too? What size hole did you get?

Ah yeah I meant to add that, I tried the single-hole tip on that site but it was a pain as it either wasn't on tight enough so would leak, or so tight that it was a pain to get off for cleaning.

I bought some M6 acorn nuts and drilled out a 1mm (or 1.5mm) hole in one, and that's worked great. As it's a nut it's also easy to get a good tight fit and also remove for cleaning. Only issue is that with the step between the nut and the want itself it's easy for dried milk to accumulate so you do need to clean it regularly.

Only issue is that with the step between the nut and the want itself it's easy for dried milk to accumulate so you do need to clean it regularly.

This is also a really annoying thing with the Silvia wand mod onto the Classic. The Classic Pro has a smooth-sided wand and I’m hoping it might not be too difficult to fit, but I haven’t looked into it yet.

How does puly caff work then?
(before going off to order some to clean the moka up)

It dissolves coffee oils. Good for cleaning portafilters and things that get coffee running over them, doesn’t do anything for scale buildup though.

You soak stuff in it or you use a blanking plate in your portafilter to backflush machines with it.

doesn’t do anything for scale buildup though

Indeed, though some citric acid will do the job for that.

The one you dishwashed? Learn to love the new patina.

Or try a weak acid (fuck it, vinegar would probably do). If that doesn't work, try a weak alkali, like bicarb.

Or just mix the two and make volcanos.

If it's not worth investing in, i don't have an expresso machine, will do the citric acid wash.

So much this