Similar to the thread on blends for updosing, are there some blends or single-origins that work well on a lever machine? Something that doesn't mind the lower pressure. I'm looking more at the components of a blend and roast degree, rather than what's commercially available. I can't afford the shipping from Intelligentsia or Square Mile.

I suppose most will work well and it will depend on personal taste and on the specific machine. In my Pavoni Europiccola I prefer American SO's like Guatemala and Costa Rica but Ethiopian do well too. Other people could prefer others...
Roast should be similar to semi automatic machines.

I've read that somewhere around 35-ish#'s (?) of downward pressure simulates a 9 bar pump pressure. Not quite sure of the actual #.
My Cremina from the beginning (using my Rio SJ) gave me slightly brighter shots than those from my Anita, and adding the KyM manual to the mix, the shots have an even brighter profile.
Thus, I'm not particularly fond of a Guat/Costa Rican SO, but Yemen, certain Brasil, Ethiopian "tri-blends"..that's ANOTHER story. Did an El Salvador Santa Rica full city 6 days rest was VERY nice.
I've read the MCAL pulls even brighter , though beautifully "layered" shots.
Yum.

Today I am drinking a new SO from Ritual, called Don Mayo Costa Rica, Caturra varietal. It is mandarin bright, balanced by a smooth nutty sweetness, with a long, smooth aftertaste. It was roasted 48 hours ago. It is very tasty prepared on my la Pavoni and my Ponte Vecchio Lusso. This makes me want to look further into Costa Rican coffees.

Ya see??. DON'T listen to me!

Ya see??. DON'T listen to me!

Oh, but I do!

I was very pleasantly surprised by this latest from Costa Rica. You're words are golden, IMAWriter!

Most levers tend to pull hot so you may want to look for coffees that favor that upper temperature band, 200+

Does anyone have any ideas which beans are more tolerant of heat? Or, conversly, which ones aren't so tolerant?

Slowrain, you have a La Pavoni, which belongs to the predominant category of domestic lever machines, i.e. manual levers with pressurized boilers and without thermosyphon groups. Lowering the p-stat will give you a wider range of brew temperatures, and then you can be eclectic in your selection of roasts.

After I lowered the pressurestat to .8 bars on my Cremina (a machine in the same boiler-group category as the Pavoni) almost any roast and blend would produce good espresso: dark roasts composed mainly of South American beans; light espresso roasts composed mostly of African beans; lightly roasted Ethiopians SO; lightly roasted SO 100% Indian robusta (ground ultra-fine); SO from Honduras. But for those times when the machine was running at its hottest, very good results were obtained with very lightly roasted espresso blends of African beans.

P.S. This isn't to say that all light roasts need high temperatures, or that all dark roasts require low temperatures. There is much variation.

[quote="timo888"]Slowrain, you have a La Pavoni, which belongs to the predominant category of domestic lever machines, i.e. manual levers with pressurized boilers and without thermosyphon groups. Lowering the p-stat will give you a wider range of brew temperatures, and then you can be eclectic in your selection of roasts.

After I lowered the pressurestat to .8 bars on my Cremina (a machine in the same boiler-group category as the Pavoni) almost any roast and blend would produce good espresso:
snipped/quote]
I took your exact advise (a few weeks ago to me) regarding lowering to around 8 bars.
I like it. I used a measurement device I purchased from Doug at OE.
The steaming is pretty much just as good, and I am happy with the added flexibility I have, switching between a SO and my blend, which really shines on the 2nd and 3rd pull.