After 8 months of sitting unused in a corner, I dragged my Astoria two group lever outside today. Put 10 tablespoons of citric acid in the boiler, topped it up to about 3/4 full and fired up the propane. Let it cook for half an hour, then ran some of the mix through the groups, water tap and steam wands. Shut it down and drained the boiler and rinsed out the inside through one of the top caps. Refilled it, heated it up, ran some clean water through the groups, tap, and wands, and started pulling shots.

My daily machine now is an Andreja Premium paired with a Super Jolly. I like it well enough, but I never feel the shots are outstanding, and trying to get the temperature right is an ongoing battle.

Shot after shot that came out of the commercial lever today was beautiful. So much sweeter than anything I get out of the Andreja. No problems with temperature control, perfect extractions, dry pucks that fall out of the PF, a joy to use. Still don't know how anyone ever pulled two one ounce shots with this machine. All my shots today were about 24 grams out with 20 grams of coffee in. I'm hyper-caffeinated and hyper-happy to play around with the old beast today, and it was such a nice change to use a commercial machine again.