After 22 years of faithful service my Pasquini Livia 90 finally gave up the ghost.

I called Chris Coffee with the idea of getting some advice and allowing it to percolate. But considering my experience with HXs and general preference list, the choice seemed obvious so I went ahead and ordered a Junior Casa. My old grinder, a Pasquini Moka, was purchased at the same time as the Livia. And, while it wasn't shot it was so very, very tired. So... I bought a Max/Hybrid to go along with it.

It's probably not even worth mentioning anymore how straightforward Chris Coffee made the choice itself and purchasing process (h/t Mary), and how much help they gave with installation instructions (h/t Roger).

Anyway... It showed up on the 27th, was placed in our shrine to hot water and plumbed in on the 28th, was brewing some horrible swill later that day, and by the morning of the 29th was pumping out shots bordering on adequate. Today, better.

Adequate is pretty damn good considering the bunk mix I'm using -- roughly equal parts of cheap Brazilian, TJ Sumatra and TJ Guatemalan. Yeah it tastes like crap, but it's pretty sensitive in terms of revealing flaws -- going from sour to bitter and/or no crema to nothing but crema in nothing flat. Just what you want, right?

In addition to the other variables, I decided to try an actual and in fact tamper instead of using the one attached to the doser as I have for the past few decades. Can't have too many variables.

My first thought was to use a slightly coarser grind to compensate for the stiffer tamp, but that turned out to be not so good -- sour. The CMH allows some very fine adjustment, and for now I'm using a grind a little finer and fluffier (by feel) than the grind I'd used with the Livia. I'm not a scale / thermometer type of guy, but believe adequacy arrived with the usual water dance, a fairly fine grind, a slight updose and a stiff tamp.

Pulls are more than 25 seconds, less than 30. Sometimes I use the free pour switch to shut off the automated dosing when the coffee blondes, sometimes not. Crema is nicely patterend and speckled. Taste is coffee with notes of bounced checks and health-food tortilla chips, but no sourness or bitterness. The aftertaste, also strongly coffee, lingers. Obviously a tough call, but even at this stage of inexperience I don't believe the Livia / Moka would do as well.

My impression regarding my own barista skills, is that I have significantly more control over dosing and tamp than I did yesterday. There's some comfort in the thought that it's probably not that steep a learning curve. Wait. Is it? It is, isn't it?

The La Cimbali's been around long enough that its aesthetics and ergonomics don't need much additional description.

But, let me say that the pre-infusion feature makes a positive difference compared to machines which don't have it one way or the other. It really works. You want it.

The dual manometer so far doesn't convey much information I would not gather in some other way. On the other hand, I've been wanting a gauge since they first became prevalent just for the look of it and now I have one. With two arrows.

The new and improved frothing tip is ridiculously easy to use. On the one hand, I almost never use milk myself, and haven't had much of a problem doing passable (but not excellent) milk for others over the years. On the other, I make a large latte every day for one particular other and the Casa does it faster-better, while demanding less skill and attention.

So far, I'm loving the looks of the machine and the way it handles. But the grinder... oh mama!

Thoughts, questions, observations and advice not involving anatomical impossibilities are welcomed.

Nice to be back.

Oh frabjous day! Calloo! Callay!
BDL

Hey Ken,

This particular mix is an excellent diagnostic for grind, tamp and temp. It's also cheap enough to seasoning the burrs. I've got about 4 lbs through them, with about 1-1/2 lbs left.

I was thinking another couple of days with it, but after today's consistency the only point would be working out guilt for spending so much. You made your point, and I am ready to call it quits with the hair-shirt. Tomorrow, I'll either switch to the TJ Guatemalan -- which isn't as bad as it could be -- just to see what sort of SO notes come through, or trash all the cheap stuff and break into the pound of whatever-it-is that Chris included as a giveaway with the machine.

Then... Black Cat.

After getting the espresso skills into passable shape, a Behmor might just fit in to my patio ensemble.

Oh yeah. Thanks for all the La Cimbali inspiration. You seem to have been... what's the word? Oy yes. Right.

Me gonna love it long long time,
BDL

Moving on to better coffee -- Machristay Black Pearl -- has revealed some other aspects of the equipment's personality.

The Casa is not an easy machine to temperature surf. Maybe Ken's PID solution is the best way to go for home use, maybe not. Without it... The pressure out of the box was too high, and forced me to use the hot water tap to lower the pressure and temp in the boiler in order to get some control of the water in the HX from day one. Even after lowering the pump pressure (to 9 bar). the hot water tap remains an important part of the water dance.

There's just so much mass in the Casa that unless you're pulling a steady stream of shots, you not only have to draw a lot of water through the HX you have to lower the temp in the boiler as well so the boiler itself isn't supplying so much energy to the exterior of the entire water path.

The volumetric water dosing makes the dance a little easier. But if you want to get good pulls, you'll use the free pour button to shut off the flow based on blonding. There's no substitute for paying attention.

It's hardly news but bears repetition that the DT/1 is at its best when making lots of coffee. Regular home use like four morning doubles requires flushing a LOT of water. The machine is stable in flux, but too hot at rest.

Man, that grinder is sensitive! Switching coffees and the mercurial weather (something you don't see much of here) has me playing with grind and tamp pressure. I'm back to a fine grind and light tamp with the Black Pearl -- but the fine grind comes from a coarser setting. I don't find the Max/Hybrid loud at all, at least not compared to my old Pasquini Moka. I suppose it's a matter of what you're used to.

I am loving everything about the grinder and doser.

It was quite a few months between the time the Pasquini broke and the Casa came. And when I bought the machine and grinder, I also bought my first American style tamper. So, there was some rust to knock off and some new techniques as well as all the equipment shuffling.

The first shot sequence goes like this: Big flush; wait; medium flush; run hot water tap; short flush; wait; warm cup with hot water tap; short flush; grind, dose, tamp, pull the double. If you're not already familiar and reasonably skilled at taming an HX, this one is pretty complicated. If you are, it's a lot of water -- but since it's plumbed in at both ends, what the hell?

With the good coffee (about a week into the project), I started pulling consistently VG to E shots. I don't expect any godshots with this particular mix, but the new average is surprisingly close and much better than the old Pasquini average.

Milk is stupid easy.

Double manometer; Automated dosing
Preinfusion; Plumbing in; "Home" steaming tip

Worth four large for the machine and grinder? It seems increasingly likely.

BDL

Since I'm only drawing from the tap for the first cup in the morning or after the machine has idled for more than a half hour, I think I'll hold of on dialing down the pressure for a little -- but I promise to get to it after I've settled on a basic blend for the time being.

My plan is to get the temp/pressure nailed down to within an RCH for whatever blend I'll mostly drink -- probably following your advice or damn near -- then mostly stray from it with varietals having a similar temp profile and making whatever adjustments are necessary with the grinder and tamper. Which is fine, I knew that about the La Cimbali going in.

The plan to run by Intelligentsia (in Pasadena) and pick up some Black Cat, probably go with that for a few months, then take stock of the situation and maybe buy a Behmor remains.

But plans have a way of changing under the best of circumstances and I need a new car. What's the automobile analog of a La Cimbali Junior Casa and Junior Grinder combo? Taurus SHO? Nothing says old like an Avalon, so another one of those is out since I now officially am old and retired.

Funny how $3K for a machine seems reasonable, but $15 for a pound O'Beans seems ridiculous, and $300 for a Behmor seems absolutely unreachable when contemplating a $45K car.

The steamer tip just... works. No ambivalence there.

How long after buying a new machine does it take to cut down to three doubles in the morning?

BDL