It sounds a lot of time to me but i am sure you know more than me...i will measure the hardness and let you know...

I use the softest bottled water I can find to prevent scale buildup

A few questions about the Strega....

What is the longest shot you can pull? Could you pull 200g of water (coffee shot)?

Also, what is the warm-up time, from the moment you switch it on until you are pulling consistent shots?

And, finally, what if you want to temperature profile a coffee, pulling some shots at several declining temperatures, how quickly can it change temperature and still produce a consistent shot?

gobears wrote:What is the longest shot you can pull? Could you pull 200g of water (coffee shot)?

The pump runs when the lever is down; you can flood the floor if you like. I won't comment about the taste.

Also, what is the warm-up time, from the moment you switch it on until you are pulling consistent shots?

10 minutes

And, finally, what if you want to temperature profile a coffee, pulling some shots at several declining temperatures, how quickly can it change temperature and still produce a consistent shot?

Unless you PID the group head and wait about 15 minutes to let it reset, this is not going to happen. If you don't flush, you'll get shot that goes from 96C to 90C. If you flush long enough, you'll get a shot that flat lines at 90C. That is the range of on-the-fly control

another_jim wrote:The pump runs when the lever is down; you can flood the floor if you like. I won't comment about the taste.


10 minutes


Unless you PID the group head and wait about 15 minutes to let it reset, this is not going to happen. If you don't flush, you'll get shot that goes from 96C to 90C. If you flush long enough, you'll get a shot that flat lines at 90C. That is the range of on-the-fly control

Thank you, this was very helpful.
As a novice its hard to understand the nuances of a machine like the Strega.
But, I am intrigued by its possibilities.

So, if you want to run 200ml of water through the puck, you can, but you are using mostly pump pressure then I presume.
What then is the maximum volume of water that you can pull through using the lever pressure?

Wow, 10 minutes is a fast start up time, must be among the fastest on the market for a higher end machine.

For temperature control, sounds like reasonable range between 96 to 90c.
How long must you flush to get down to 90C flat line?

Does these details really matter? In six years of ownership; I've never bothered measuring. But I'd guess around 75 to 100 ml; and about 5 seconds.

Although not my main application, I am interested in trying "coffee shots" ala Matt Perger with > 20% extractions.
His recipe, published by Mahlkonig, calls for 200g of water.

And, I would be curious about trying extractions & ratios everywhere in between.

I tend to prefer making espresso with 2.5:1 or higher ratio, and would like to explore higher ratios all the way up to the coffee shot style.
With my Mypressi Twist, my current espresso maker, I am very limited.

So, for a new espresso machine, the BDB is on my shortlist (it has the flexibility to do what I want), but something about this Strega has me curious.
I like to experiment, and I like the idea of being able to have different pressure profiles.

Experimenting with pulls on a lever machine are very different from the style of experiments on a pumped machine. Not that you can't have some crossover, but they are quite different. My guess is Perger hasn't spent much time with lever machines because most baristas don't use them, so many of his experiments won't be tailored to levers.

I can't say that I have enough experience with pump vs lever machines to pick one over the other, but the only machine that could replace my Strega would be another lever. There's a great feeling about the 'simplicity' of a lever shot when you have things dialed in. And I stopped looking for other machines once the Strega hit my bench. Not everyone is a lever-head though.

gobears wrote:A few questions about the Strega....
Also, what is the warm-up time, from the moment you switch it on until you are pulling consistent shots?

another_jim wrote:10 minutes

Jim - I hope this is a typo as I measured the Strega warm-up time as pictured below:

Odd. Mine is to hot to touch after five minutes (about 150F, I cook); and I can pull (slow) shots even with the boiler off after ten (odd story involving the over temp stat on the boiler and a loose connection right beneath it).

I don't have an intuition on this; but my only thought is that a small difference in the thermostat at the stem of the group may be amplified to a much longer warm up time, i.e. if your stat has a slightly lower temperature and a slightly larger dead band, it may be enough to really slow down the warming time. In other words, I may have lucked out on a large variance part.