I'm curious to hear if anyone has tried Evocation Coffee Roaster's 49mm Espresso Blend? It's roasted with lever espresso machines in mind, but I haven't found many references to this. Their Spitfire blend appears to be more well known.

Having a (spring) lever and a Twist, I do see differences with my own beans and commercial blends in the cup, but hadn't considered profiling coffee for lever use. Chime in if you've had a chance to try this out.

I haven't tried their coffee, but $4 flat rate shipping sure will add them to my list! The idea behind 49mm looks sound....and I like the name.

Been forever since I've been on here, and my machine has been unused lately due to a very busy schedule, but thanks for the link, going to give Spitfire a run through my La Pavoni.

I got my order from Evocation Coffee today, a pound of 49mm and a pound of Spitfire. After divvying them up into canning jars and stocking the freezer, I pulled a couple of shots of the 49mm this afternoon on my La Peppina.

I followed the recommendations, 14 g, 10 second pre-infusion, 1 oz, and I used a PID setting of 91 degrees C. The roast notes on the label are right on, the pecan was right out front and I had two very nice espressos. This isn't my usual pick, I favor more bright, acidic, fruity flavors normally, but I wanted to give this one a try on my lever. I'll have to reserve final judgment until I have more experience with this blend, but so far I like it. I'm also looking forward to trying the Spitfire blend based on some of the comments I've read from others.

I must say, the idea behind this blend - as stated by its creators - seems strange to me. Fact is that I use levers on which precise temperature is no-brainer and which have potential for firm good pressure (Arrarex Caravel and La Peppina) but I doubt the claim that other blends loose anything on other machines, say Elektra, Cremina or La Pavoni.

Anyhow, I would love to try it and when I have money for ordering from behind the ocean I eventually will.
Yet, again I doubt it that I will follow the recommendation - for I use active preinfusion on both my machines and I get comparable, adequate taste as on my Vivaldi - so I may start with La Peppina, like some 13g and usual grind and then search from there. But don't tell me I should yield 1oz. from that!! Normale is what I will get!

On La Peppina any such long preinfusion will give a very sweet & bodied cup, so I'm not surprised you Chris find the brights lacking.
Can you run it 2oz. shot and report back?

Pawel,

I tried to run a longer shot last night on the La Peppina without much success. To my way of thinking (and Andy Schecter's, I believe) 30 g of espresso from 14 g of coffee is a normale and the 38 gram shots I pulled last night were not as pleasant and did not increase any fruit. I tried at 91 then 93 degrees C.

Today, however, I pulled a couple of shots at work on my MyPressi Twist with 18 g coffee. First I pulled Ecco's Panama Elida Natural to 30 g and got a nice shot with stone fruits. I followed this with the 49mm Espresso blend from Evocation Coffee Roasters which I pulled to 36 g. I only brought in 20 or so grams of this coffee today and the extraction wasn't ideal, the coffee not dialed in. I got drips around different areas of the basket the whole way through with no mouse tail forming and a fairly odd looking pattern on the crema. Nevertheless, I did taste a sweet fruit flavor and little if any pecan notes. Not sure if this is because I followed the Panama shot pulled earlier or just the prep, I had hoped that the second shot would leave me with a nice pecan notes and a strong aftertaste, but it didn't pan out that way, but I'm going to keep working with this coffee at home on my La Peppina.

BTW, I don't gauge my shots by volume, and don't typically even weigh my shots and rely on visual cues to tell me when to pull my demitasse.

I just received an order from Evocation today. The 49mm is sold out but Roman told me there will be a new version available soon. Along with the Spitfire I picked up some of their Harrar Masala which has replaced the Ardi (sold out) in the Spitfire. Looking forward to trying both after they've had a couple more days rest.

yakster wrote:30 g of espresso from 14 g of coffee is a normale and the 38 gram shots I pulled last night were not as pleasant and did not increase any fruit. I tried at 91 then 93 degrees C.

Yes Chris! I only read you pulling 1oz. and somehow missed the weighted shot picture!
Anyhow, in the double basket I use smaller dose - for example what is slightly above 14 grams in Vivaldi double basket (like a typical for my last coffee 14.2, 14.4) is 13.5 max in La Peppina's double, for similar tasting notes (and with my active preinfusion of 4 small movements). While you could be interested that for singles my dose was 7.5g.
I am yet to figure how the baskets geometry, volume and machines headspace affect beans dosage. For now I must say I'm happy to be pulling similar tasting singles and doubles and have it between machines too. It may seem slightly offtopic but, in the thema of brewing parameters recommendations, I think I'm still on track, no?

Pawel,

I think your still on track, and I've been pulling commercial espresso in my La Peppina long enough to be comfortable that I can replicate the taste profile in the coffee shop to what I pull at home, I don't think there's that much of a gap between the La Peppina and larger machines except for the scale of the drink.

14 g is now my normal starting dose with the double, while I target 7+ grams in the single, sometimes stuffing as much as 10 g in the basket when it's the last of a batch of coffee I'm using up. But I fear we're drifting off-topic. I'll continue to work the 49mm on the Lever probably over a temperature range to see what I can get out of it. I usually quit after one or two shots during the week so it's a slow process at best, unless I dedicate a morning this weekend to it.

yakster wrote:I don't think there's that much of a gap between the La Peppina and larger machines except for the scale of the drink.

You mean volume? while I just say I get it same... with one pull.

Yes we're drifting. I'm bound to be offtopic on this one unless shipping coffee overseas in say three days happens to be possible.