The store was rather impressive, with a wide range of shiny chrome espresso machines of varying sizes and price points. The machine I had decided on was a La Pavoni Europiccola and I even decided to settle on the cheaper black based model rather than the slightly cooler looking chrome based model. I figured the extra $100 could be better used elsewhere, like on a Reg Barber tamper. I had been looking to get one of these tampers for several years and now that I have one I can totally see why people rave about them so much on coffeegeek.
So anyway on to the first few days with my new toy. On arriving home I unpacked the machine and followed all the manufacturers directions for first use, requiring a clean with the espresso machine cleaning stuff. No problem there, it was all nice and easy to set up and before long I was all ready to pull my first shot. Of course I had to set up the grinder first, it had been being used as a french press grinder, requiring a much coarser grind so I had to pull it apart, clean it and get it set up for espresso. So once that was all done I ground some coffee in to the portafilter and tamped it down just like I did on my machine in NZ and locked it in to the grouphead. Now for the moment I had been waiting for. I lifted the lever up (the la pavoni is a lever machine that uses a piston rather than a pump to push the water at pressure through the coffee beans). After about 5 seconds I could see coffee start dripping out the bottom of the portafilter, just like the user manual said should happen and then I pulled down on the lever and watched for the beautiful crema to start flowing in to my cup. Oh the disappointment. The coffee had absolutely no crema and looked more like a drip coffee than an espresso. I took a tiny sip and decided that it would be better off being discarded. So I tried again, this time tamping extra hard, applying as much pressure to the coffee as I could. This time there was the thinnest layer of super pale crema on top of the coffee and yet again it tasted pretty bad. I noticed that the coffee wasn't ground particularly fine and was beginning to wonder whether the grinder was simply not capable of achieving a grind fine enough for espresso. My other thought was that maybe the beans were getting a little stale, and also they were a very light roast (I had bought them for french press and I prefer a lighter roast for french press) and I know from experience that lighter roasts are not as well suited to espresso.
So the next day I went for a walk to 49th Parallel and bought an espresso blend hoping that this would achieve better results. I also decided to have another go at doing the grinder adjustment. After making the grinder adjustment I found the grind could go much finer and so I had high hopes for this next shot. I ground, tamped and loaded once again and started pulling the shot. This time no coffee started dripping out and I was able to keep it raised for the full 10 seconds I had read on coffeegeek was optimum. Then I started pressing down on the lever and found for the first time that I actually had to push down pretty hard, obviously the beans were providing more resistance than previously and after a few seconds I saw the beautiful golden streams of crema laden coffee start falling from the spouts of the portafilter. Success! That first sip of espresso was superb. I was so happy, the grinder is capable after all.
Two weeks have now passed and I can say that I am regularly pulling wonderful shots and the lattes I have made have easily matched anything I have bought from my favourite Vancouver cafes since my return here in February. I am still getting used to the milk steaming, it is pretty quick and although I have had some very nicely steamed milk I have not yet reached the level I was achieving in New Zealand on my E61 Rocket (ECM Giotto Premium) or on my Rancilio Silvia before that. Well I will let you all know how I progress over the coming months.
Oh and yesterday I bought a replacement for my camera that was stolen, so now I can add photos to my blog postings again. Yay.
