First day with an Isomac Tea (with video)

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Mike Panic
Posts: 106
Joined: 16 years ago

#1: Post by Mike Panic »

Won a 1st gen Isomac Tea off eBay earlier this week and possibly the nicest seller ever did an amazing job boxing it up and mailing it to me. I missed delivery yesterday but it was re-delivered today. Unboxed it, went through it and cleaned it up from transit, then filled it, flipped it on and let it warm up for a while.

I've been a La Pavoni lever user for a few years, and got the itch to move to semi-auto, in part to reduce the time it takes to prepare my drinks in the morning, and in part because I wanted a change. This was far too good of a deal to pass on, so I picked it up.

Finishing off the tail end of Spitfire blend coffee and the first pull was a little watery and blond, but I don't attribute that to the coffee. I measured 17g into the double basket and then snapped it into the single spout portafilter, and then had trouble tamping it on the corner of my counter.

Second shot was the same 17g measurement, same grind, but with the double spout portafilter which I am obviously used to from the La Pavoni. Tamped, put in the machine and pulled. Here's the video of the pull:
Just a quick shoot on my iPhone, it's really hard to tell but there are two shot glasses there, as I wasn't sure how it would flow from the dual tips into my square shot glasses. While it looks a little blond here, especially towards the end, it tasted great, in a very similar fashion the same coffee has tasted through my lever. I attributed the blond to a tamp not quite hard enough.

Both first and 2nd pulls had nice looking, well saturated solid pucks when knocked out. I pulled a 3rd double, this time into an espresso cup of white porcelain, with a slightly harder tamp. Because I'm used to the finickiness of my lever, I feel comfortable adjusting my tamp before adjusting my grind. Absolutely wonderful pull, nearly the entire cup was thick, syrupy crema that had such a wonderful mouth-feel to it.

Grinder is a Le'Lit PL53 that I've been using for a while.

Overall impressions of the machine: It's sexy as hell on my counter. I like having the larger water capacity and ability to make Americano's without boiling water in a tea kettle on the stove in the morning. Machine simply works flawlessly. I don't make milky drinks, but this machine has me wanting to give it a try. I have the older style round knobs on this, not the nicer star shaped ones, so I may have some custom wood ones made. Otherwise, I honestly couldn't be happier with this purchase / upgrade. I don't plan on leaving the machine on all day since I only do 2-3 pulls in the morning, instead I'll be buying a timer to have it automatically turn on an hour or 90 minutes prior to me waking up in the morning, so by the time I'm out of the shower and ready to use it, everything is up to temp. I'll be making a few more videos this week (hopefully) at a much higher quality level, and will update this thread when they are done. I'm kind of glad, looking back, that someone else bought the Silvia I was trying to get, because this machine is beyond what I needed and will be a part of my life for a long time.

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cannonfodder
Team HB
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Joined: 19 years ago

#2: Post by cannonfodder »

Tea is a good machine. I had a millennium for several years. It will need at least a half hour to warm up. Your shot looked pretty good but ran fast. You need to grind a little tighter or up your dose a half gram.
Dave Stephens

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Mike Panic (original poster)
Posts: 106
Joined: 16 years ago

#3: Post by Mike Panic (original poster) »

Did both, been enjoying 2oz pulls of pure crema all weekend! Anxiously awaiting 5pm so I can go pull another shot.

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sasquatchgeoff
Posts: 22
Joined: 13 years ago

#4: Post by sasquatchgeoff »

Congrats on the great find.

Phaelon56
Posts: 386
Joined: 17 years ago

#5: Post by Phaelon56 »

I used a first gen Tea from early 2002 up until about one month ago and it's a great machine. Mine still pulls great shots but I happened onto another machine worth upgrading to. Like you... I like the retro styling too.

slowrey
Posts: 85
Joined: 14 years ago

#6: Post by slowrey »

I love the look of the Tea! Glad you got a good one at a good price!

Mike Panic (original poster)
Posts: 106
Joined: 16 years ago

#7: Post by Mike Panic (original poster) »

So far I'm loving this machine, it's not better than my La Pavoni, it's different, but in a good way. Tightened up my grind since that video and getting 100% crema shots all day, ever day.

Also switched to the single spout portafilter after modifying a $3 PVC 2" > 3" pipe coupling to use as a tamper stand.