Hey guys...
after reading your reply
I did not research on my coffee
I am going to be so embarrassing to tell you guys that
my coffee is french roast x bold from starbucks
I am going to go order some nice coffee tomorrow
wondering if you guy could recommend me some coffee
I would like my coffee to taste like coca and sweet
Or if there is a taste that u guys recommend
I don't mind giving a shot
Thanks guys

That explains a lot!

Hmm, for a good start, I will recommend Redbird coffee. Great price and very forgiving beans, meaning it will taste good even with sloppy techniques. Also, it is very nutty chocolate-laden caramel. Would be perfect for you IMO. I have no affiliate with the roaster, just a very satisfied customer, especially with the 5lbs price.


http://redbirdcoffee.com/redbirdespresso.html

Agreed on Red Bird Espresso. But if you get 5 lbs. to play with, make sure you freeze most of it air tight. I use Mason jars and it works well. Also expect it to take several days for the flavor to fully open up. I find it takes about 5 days or so post-roast.

I just ordered the Red Bird!
now I got to wait for it.
Hopefully I will start making good coffee

Red Bird is an excellent coffee. I've had good luck with it.

DrGary has helped me quite a bit with dialing in my La Pavoni and learning more about espresso and coffee in general. Definitely pay close attention to his advice when it comes to espresso - he knows what he's talking about and is a wealth of great info.

As far as temperature and pressure, that's always a trick on the La Pavoni it seems. On my machine, I have a PID controller, so I can adjust temperature/pressure more easily. Ideal temperature does depend on the bean also. I've noticed that some beans respond better to cooler temperatures, while others seem to take higher temperatures more readily.

Generally speaking, I have the most luck around 230 to 234 degrees in the boiler. This equates to any place from about 8 psi to 12 psi on the pressure gauge. I'm running the machine right now at 232.5 as I recall (around 10 PSI as I remember); shots are coming out amazing using Red Bird, Dolce and Lavazza beans. But again, every bean is different. I've also had good luck with certain beans at 240 to 242 degrees, which translates to more like 1 BAR (or almost 15 PSI).

Before I installed the PID controller, what I used to do was heat up the machine, then turn it off just before pulling a shot. This allows the temperature to drop and sometimes you can catch the machine when it's not so hot.

Also, keep in mind that there is a temperature differential between the boiler and the group head. When you first start pulling shots, some of the water temp is going towards warming up the group head. Later one (by shot 3, 4 or 5 or 6), the group head is much hotter and thus there tends to be less of a temperature drop.

On my machine, I'll be installing a temperature sensor directly into the portafilter basket (on DrGary's suggestion), so that I can better monitor the temperature directly in the group head chamber (and this should allow me to get a sense of how it changes relative to the boiler temperature also).

Ray

RayJohns wrote: DrGary has helped me quite a bit with dialing in my La Pavoni and learning more about espresso and coffee in general. Definitely pay close attention to his advice when it comes to espresso - he knows what he's talking about and is a wealth of great info.

Thanks Ray ... I'm passing on my novice tips but am really helped by the Pavoni being so easy to use once it's dialed in, by feeding it great coffee from trusted H-B sponsoring roasters, and using pretty good grinders. This leaves a smaller range of error within which my developing barista skills can wander and still produce something drinkable.

what we need here is a DrGary coffee review thread

It's all here already. This is what I go by:

Favorite Espresso Blends 2011

Favorite Espresso Blends 2010

Also, there's Jim Schulman's site, http://www.coffeecuppers.com

And then of course there's the whole Coffee forum here.

When you want to get deeper into learning about coffee after you've been sampling really good professional roasts, home roasting is a tremendous learning experience. So I would go to that forum here to start.

Hey guys
sorry for not replying sooner.
I was trying to get to know my La Pavoni and the Red Bird bean better.
After doing some test, I figure there is no way my water was too hot.
I tested this by pulling the water straight from the group with no portafilter to the hot cup i preheat
and I found out the temperature never reached over 198 degree. Therefore I tried to have the
boiler on for a long time to have them reach at higher temperature. I adjusted the grander to much less
finer than I used to, since before was totally under extraction. For the first time.. My coffee looked just like
how people pulled their coffee online. The taste is very different comparing to what I made before.
Seem like I am in the right track
Thanks for all of your help. And the red birdie smell so much better than the old starbucks
But there is still something I don't quite understand.
When you rise the lever, I read that the first drop of coffee coming out of the portafilter should not be longer than 5 second. I am getting more than 8-10 second because I need to pull the lever to the point when it is almost to the end point to get the first drop to come out.
Am I suppose to speed up my pulling, or am I suppose to play with the grander?

Thanks

Try grinding coarser or keep the grind the same and reduce the dose. This should make the water go through the coffee faster. Taste it and see which way you like it more. Playing with these kinds of changes is how people learn to make coffee that tastes good to them.

Also the temperature in your cup may be cooler than the temperature inside the brew chamber must because the hot water was exposed to cool air on the way to the cup. Plus you don't know the temperature of the cup itself. Let the coffee taste tell you whether it's too hot or cool or just about right. If you want to measure temperature more exactly, thread a thermocouple over the lip of the portafilter into the coffee cake and measure it. But the first way I suggested is easier. Let the tastes train you.