I've approached each review from a different angle, trying to strike the proper balance between technical detail and practical buying advice. Two criteria that have weighed heavily in my evaluations are the "morning after" score (how easy is it to get the hang of?) and the "exceptional espresso" score (what can a moderately skilled home barista expect every day?). You may notice that these scores are slanted towards the non-professional, and being
Home-Barista.com, that makes perfect sense to me.
An unstated assumption of these scores is that you can expect to reproduce them yourself. In other words, if you are not a "ninja barista" or "milk whisperer" of the latte arts, don't worry. Fortunately, Team HB's job is made easier by one fact: Only top-end equipment is reviewed here. Sorry super-automatic lovers, life is too short to drink mediocre espresso, or to force oneself to write enthusiastically about uninspiring topics. The only downside of the very intentional decision to only review the best of the best is the difficulty of teasing out the noteworthy distinctions, enough distinctions for someone to make an informed decision.
In the case of the Elektra A3, my job looked easy from day one. If you flip back to the first week of this very long review process (what, it's August already?!?), this extraction was among the first:
Day 1, shot #4, approximately 20 seconds into the pour
I apologize for the poor lighting and bad focus, but I think you'll agree -- that's a pretty darn nice looking pour. Even, centered, nice striping, and the taste, crema, and body were solid.
Weeks rolled by with the A3 in my kitchen. For me the most noteworthy observation was the fact that the thermocouple, shotglasses, timers -- all my "helper" tools of the review trade -- remained in the drawer. Two possible explanations came to mind for my disinterest in these toys of technology:
- My skills had advanced to the point that they were unnecessary hindrances (nahhh-h)
- The A3 was a genuine step-up in "forgiveness" compared to past test candidates.
While it was tempting to flatter myself with causal factor #1, factor #2 was more likely. To wit, I decided to introduce other players into the game. About six weeks into the evaluation, Steve welcomed the Elektra A3 into his kitchen and you can read about it in this thread. The reason I asked Steve to step in for this test was specifically because he's a hardcore lever guy who's never touched an espresso machine with a motorized pump. I figured that if he noted the same forgiveness factor, then my conclusions would be validated.
And indeed that's exactly what happened. What we didn't publicize on the Bench was the second phase of our study. Steve's also had a tour with the Cimbali Junior and the Expobar Brewtus, both times providing me behind the scenes feedback. His comments are especially valuable because he's a seasoned veteran of espresso, but a newbie to high-end and commercial equipment (his travel and harried schedule are his excuses for not posting his comments, despite my not-so-subtle reminders). The long and short of his observations are supportive of the scoring in Junior's and Brewtus' Buyer's Guides. That's good news. Still, something was missing from the closure of the Elektra A3 review, something that I hinted about early on. How would Elektra stack up against one of the best La Marzoccos available today? Fortunately Geoff Corey, owner of
Pheasant Creek Coffee, offered to host a mano-a-mano shootout this morning:
Geoff, we'll forgive you for serving that whipped cream laden stuff.
A guy's gotta pay the bills, right?
If you're in the area and want a great shot, this is
thee place. He tells me about commuters that drive five miles in the
opposite direction of their office to pick up their morning coffee; I don't doubt it.
This morning Elektra was on the road again for the short jaunt to Geoff's place. I allowed her to heat up for several hours on his setup table a few feet from his PID'd FB-70. As a quick double-check of Steve's and my "morning after" assessment, I prepared a few test shots for Geoff then turned the portafilter over to him. In about two or three shots the extractions were on target, so I asked him to serve as test barista for both machines. He would prepare the basket on the Elektra, then while I handled the cooling flush, he banged out an espresso on his own La Marzocco. The taster would then be handed two espressos.
Keep in mind that this shootout was an informal let's have fun sort of event. Richard Bone joined us and we got heavily caffeinated, which for Geoff is not an easy feat. The results were somewhat surprising to me, not for the outcome, but for the lack of problems associated with temperature. Maybe because I've been copyediting Abe's Brewtus review for weeks now, my brain is racked with discussions of the hyper-importance of temperature control. Geoff heartily agrees that his house blend suffers if the temperature is off by even a degree. So how did the Elektra A3 with its HX system fair against the FB-70's electronically controlled brew temperature?
The answer is the good news of the shootout: In terms of crema quality, crema volume, and taste balance, it was a dead heat. Some of the Elektra shots were "different" than the La Marzocco's, but not in a way that would detract from their scores. I've noted this before and it really comes down to personal preference and the particular blend which may favor one temperature profile over another (i.e., the
slant-L versus
humped temperature profile debate).
With the question of temperature consistency and stability to the side, the criteria that stood out was the difference in body. There the La Marzocco won. Although the A3 earned laudatory comments like "nice, buttery espresso", I was frankly surprised by this outcome because from the very first week, the body and texture of the Elektra shots stood out far superior to my own home equipment. As part of our post-mortem of the shootout, we tossed out ideas of possible causes. Geoff noted that I had the pressure slightly lower than his machine (8.0 versus 9.0 bar), something that escaped my attention. It was getting late and our palates were toast, but as a quick test I increased the Elektra's brew pressure to match the La Marzocco's and pulled the last few. If there was an improvement in body, we were too fried to tell.
Before shutting down for the afternoon, I asked Geoff to prepare a cappuccino on the Elektra. He steamed and textured a nicely chrome-finished cap with deliciously sweet flavor. However, as a gesture of kindness towards our host, I won't comment on his latte art skills (
hint: lower the pitcher closer to the surface of the milk
).
Of the four M's of espresso, I've long listed the machine dead last. Not because it's unimportant, but rather because other factors like the barista's contribution count so much more. As I trundled back home with the steaming-hot Elektra in the back of the car, I concluded once again that while the espresso machine isn't #1, it certainly makes the job of #1 (the barista) a lot easier.
