Coffee-- on feeding the Espresso ritual

There's an area of my kitchen countertop that's beginning to resemble a modest science lab.

1. On the simpler side of things, a great cup of coffee (albeit not espresso) can be made from a French Press. Or an Italian moka style percolator produces a great shot, as i was rereminded by Benoit Paulis while in Stavelot, Belgium in summer '23 (2 decades after initially meeting him, at a mutual friend's house, in Taiwan) upon returning our year-long exchange student, my '3rd daughter' Lia, to her rightful family. I had first started drinking coffee at breakfast time just shy of 4 decades earlier as an exchange student myself in Florence, Italy from a traditional, aluminum, dodecahedral Italian moka, or macchinetta del caffè. In any event Press or Moka, i prefer the stainless revisions shared, of those classics. It will undoubtedly break less in the case of the former v. the more common glass version. I've replaced many a beaker over the years despite handling with care, to no avail. And in the latter case the 6 & 9 cup versions are my preference for 1 or 2 persons, respectively; neither will not leach aluminum.
2. Years ago i stumbled upon a Lavazza Espresso Point machine at a senior living center holiday bizaar fundraiser for $25; you can still occasionally locate one on eBay. My find required a minimal amount of maintenance, mostly cleaning... and to this day makes a reasonable espresso, though requires proprietary, limited variety pods. I've tried various options available and more/less settled on these Lavazza Aroma Club 100% Arabica Espresso Point Cartridges. While the steam wand is far from exceptional, it works and you can make some lucious looking, delicious drinks with surprising ease.
3. Originally, while Kirsten was away on a business trip in Osaka, JP staying at the Ritz Carton, she became enamored with a De'Longhi Nespresso Inissia Espresso. It’s essentially foolproof once you learn the slightly finicky cartridge angle insertion and coercion required in pressing down the lever; I’ve burned a capsule or two before getting the feel for it. Nonetheless, i was missing her company at coffee in the morning so as a welcome home gift we added one to the countertop. The idea was simple: if I was out early and she was coffee ready she'd be able to self-medicate sans my fixation on toiling about it. The machine has a huge range of capsule options, from Nespresso’s excellent proprietary pods (and there's actually a science here to their patented advantage over other supplier's pods you can geek out on if you wish), to perfectly solid alternatives like the Lavazza Maestro Ristretto capsules, or even the budget Amazon Branded Solimo Lungo capsules. If you simply want a reliably good shot with almost zero effort, in no time, and no nerding about-- this just might be your go to. That said, everything changed after Aunt Barb visited. She brought along a machine she’d boxed up in her Arizona garage after deciding it didn’t work. I tinkered with it, got it running, and it quickly became Kirsten’s preferred on counter option—especially since she likes more volume in her cup And the Nespresso has become our packable travel companion when we're camping out somewhere with access to power-- which in the case of some property management excursions we take is more/less an annual reality.
4. So, post that Aunt Barb visit, Kirsten’s daily driver is now the De’Longhi Magnifica. I discovered while repairing it that there are many versions of this machine, but the semi vintage one on our counter looks more/less like this.
5. Oh-- and before i get to the pièce de résistance, i suppose i also need to mention the Maxwell House 'Good to the Last Drop' Vintage 35-cup Percolator i picked up for $4 from 'Nona's attic' at the Greek Orthodox Holy Trinity Church fundraiser festival in Maitland, FL late last year just prior to Thanksgiving. It paired splendidly with an over abundance of Pie à la Mode over the '24 holidays in the company of family and friends (and heck, the Maxwell House Big Max can of coffee was more expensive ;-).
6. The back story on the Lever machine is as follows... at some point in the early fall of '24, subsequent to packing out full Tetris stylie in Seattle, and driving cross country in a 15' U-Haul box truck containing many a sundry from 20yrs prior... one of the finds locked away for two decades, shortly before i was closing up the last panel on the storage lock down in '04 on heading to Hong Kong, unbeknownst to me was a Swiss made 1976 Olympia Cremina67 lever machine which someone had gifted me, noting it needed a rebuild but was right up my alley. I can honestly say at the time i had no idea what it was (other than the obvious in terms of my knowing it was an espresso machine).
   A few weeks after arriving in FL, the machine's shiny exterior reflected some light from a corner piled w/other boxes from the trip and called to me leading me to plug it in on a kitchen counter. I attempted to 'pull a shot' (a term I only later heard, and began to appreciate)... and got nothing but dirty water. It was at that point i recalled the mention of the need to rebuild...
   Because i have this constant nagging hunch that, the internet is going to be big someday, i set out surfing the interwebs to learn all i could. It wasn't long before i started to get a picture of what might lay ahead. Suffice it to say, thanks in part to a not well deliberated yet fortuitous last minute decision to squeeze it on the truck v. dispatch it as part the final Goodwill run... my morning routine has been transformed.
   
   
   1. With some hindsight, i can now say, when it comes to rebuilding an Olympia Cremina it's hard to imagine proceeding without:
      • visiting Orphan Espresso and their (Barb & Doug Garrott's) rebuild Video Vault which will undoubtedly soon be followed by purchases of a Cremina 67 Full Rebuild Kit, a stainless group rebuild hw, some DOW 111 (Dow Corning Molykote 111 food grade lubricant), and perhaps some Joe Glo.
      • viewing James Hoffman and Lance Hedrick reviews of the classic lever machine. And read, read, read... the original owner's manual, the current manual, and the numerous Reddit entries on the topic. And perhaps,
      • visualizing a Naked Portafilter, grouphead piston pressure kit, Smart Profiler, or some combination thereof, in your future as if it were a direct download from the diagnostic mind of Gábor Laczkó.
   2. After that, the learning that follows, as it is with anything, is about putting in the time-- something i look forward to upon awakening each morning. Some initial additions are inevitable; borderline non-negotiable:
   0. 0th are good quality beans, freshly roasted with love. I've been exploring local roasters, and would encourage you to do the same... and after dozens of bags of beans, I've got to say i love what Gus and his wife Merely have going on at Orlando Coffee Roasters. I've been doing ongoing head to head A / B testing... so each time i visit i leave with a bag of my standing fav, and a new contender. While i've for a long while continually raised the Vienna's Italian Espresso to the winnning position week after week in these A / B comparisons, i most recently tried a bag of Guatemala Antigua that has me wow'ed. I'm reticent to dispose of the former standing champ, but i now feel like i have two outstanding A candidates. Maybe i will have to start leaving with 3 bags each visit! We shall see.
   1. arguably neither incremental, nor optional, despite my initial disbelief and attempts to dismiss all advice to the contrary. In short, after changing out grouphead piston & portafilter seals as part of the rebuilding... a decent burr grinder, with extensive fine adjustment, will dramatically vary the grouphead pressure in practice such that one can, or can't pull a decent shot. My numerous initial attempts to continue using one of several old blade grinders i had was met with nothing but frustration and failure, leading me to double-check the proper grouphead seal orientation (which was emphatically not the issue).
   2. I found these digital thermometers a cheap and easy way to keep a watchful eye on understanding and managing grouphead temperature.
   3. arriving at and maintaining concious consistency of dosing weight via a simple yet competent digital scale is also crucial to pulling a reproducible shot.
      (I tried another moderately fancier model to assist with auto-calculating dose:extraction ratio, and brew time, both which are key to a reproducible production profile; though in this particular case of pulling a shot with a lever machine, the UX flow of this scale i purchased without much forethought is better suited to brewing with a French Press, or 'Pour Over' brewing with the likes of a Hario V60, Melitta, or Kalita, as best as i can tell from reading though i have no personal experience with this method.)
   3. Other incremental purchases are of less import, yet nonetheless making the whole ritual of pulling a great shot that much more repeatable, not to mention a guilty pleasure include:
      1. portafilter/puck screen. I will note, even as i add this i am somewhat reticent not to include it in my prior numbered list. While i don't tend to see 'the pros' consistently using one in their videos (perhaps to simplify the process for the sake of the video?), i have found it invaluable, along w/consistent pre-infusion time, @ consistent grouphead temp & dose weight, to consistency of perceived pressure felt on the lever (despite my not 'yet' having proven that, given i've yet to add a piston pressure guage-- ya see where i'm headed here)... which in turns leads to repeatable pull time, and overall profile (pressure/time) consistency, leading to a great & reproducible shot. I've sent some screens to my friend Pat in Seattle. On staying with him and Cam, while packing out prior to our XC drive, he aided and abetted my proclivity toward such a morning ritual obsession by giving me the honors of pulling morning shots on his dedicated bench (albeit i am blocking much of it in this view, you can get the idea that he was far more serious about it at time of this photo than i. And, as Billy Currington says, i'm pretty good at drinkin' beer. But I digress-- and yet the fact remains, he hadn't yet tried using a portafilter screen; though now on writing this, i can also speculate if you hadn't manually felt the pressure differential between portafilter packs, you might not have been stirred to experiment with this).
      2. mini spray bottle; prior to grinding, 3 sprays (at .1g/spritz) is a nice way to start avoiding static cling clumping in your grind.
      3. dosing funnel; a rounding error on the price of a proper grinder, yet an accurate way of insuring what you ground gets into and stays in the portafilter.
      4. post-grind WDT (Weiss Distribution Technique) tool. I made one out of a wine cork and some fine copper wire.
      5. distributor.
      6. tamping mat.
      7. tamper. (You do need one of these, though i'm assuming you didn't obtain the machine to begin with without one that matches its 49mm diameter portafilter, which in itself is somewhat smaller and uncommon relative to the rest of the field. The original accessories that came with the machine included a brown plastic tamper which i have, since upgraded as shared.)
      8. knock box.
   4. my meager reference library at present (1st 2 books gifted by Pat):
   1. how to make THE BEST COFFEE at home, James Hoffman. You just have to watch one of his videos to know he's forgotten more about coffee than i'll ever know, but this is a great summary of many topics all in one neat, easy go to read. After my first pass i've got a dozen post-its marking sections i use as reference (eg. on roast level and corresponding brew temp, water alkalinity v. hardness, comparitive tasting, etc).
   2. Coffee Art, Dhan Tamang
   3. And 2 websites chock full o'Beans: https://CoffeeGeek.com/, and https://www.Home-Barista.com/.



Note: This page contains affiliates links I'll often find a biz card slipped under a wiper blade on returning to it, with a "call me if you ever want to sell" note scribbled on the back. For the past decade i guess i've just figured, I'll just keep driving it, and someday i'll find kid who's motivated to do the next frame off restoration




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