Day 4:
Having burned through the last of the Hines espresso in a marathon session yesterday evening with rockstar Kyle Larson, it was time to roll in the
Hairbender. I'm excited to be testing the machine with an espresso I have such familiarity with. This should provide me with a better frame of reference.
First note... if you set the machine to turn on and off automatically you want to make sure you set it to the right times. It was a bit frustrating to wake up this morning and find the machine off. Pure operator error.
Anyway, I dialed the temp to a touch over 198F and pulled the usual garbage shot.
A little tweaking of the grind and...
A very,
very familiar shot.
Gorgeous looking with tight and incredibly persistent crema.
Wonderful aromatics (cocoa, vanilla, dried fruit, tropical flowers and some sort of spice I can't get a handle on).
Rich and sweet, with a ton of dark belgian chocolate, some dutch processed cocoa and even a little milk chocolate.
Dried stone-fruit, a little hint of melon, some raw honeycomb... and some tropical spices (cardamom?) and a touch of sweet citrus zest to top it off.
Very complex - and yet very integrated and rounded.
Perfect reproduction in the cup - great clarity.
This is a very dense and heavy espresso for the Hairbender. It's something I'm noting is consistent across all espressos so far with this machine. There is a concentration of flavour in the mouthfeel that is almost like French Press - a sort of feel on the palate that is almost like there are more solids in the espresso than normal. It's almost like the espresso is "gritty" feeling. I know that might sound like a bad thing - but it's not. It makes the espresso taste heavier and more syrupy. Coupled with the incredible clarity in the cup - this allows for an "amplification" of flavours that is incredible.
Anyway - a quick cappuccino... And finally I'm really getting the hang of the steaming set-up. The "lever" control didn't take long, but the limited articulation of the wand has forced me to change how I hold the pitcher. While I complained about this the other day - it actually hasn't taken that long to address. I just have to pay more attention and not go by memory. Really nice microfoam - nearly instantly. The stretching phase is over almost before it starts. If you have to adjust wand angle or depth or pitcher angle you're probably going to over-stretch the milk. That's how fast this beast is.
In milk the Hairbender softens up, the chocolates become more cocoa and milk chocolate dominated and the raw honey becomes a little more polished. The citrus and spice cut through the fats nicely... a lovely drink.
The espresso - better than all but a handful I've pulled on commercial non temp stabilized dual boiler commercial machines. And as good as all but a couple I've pulled on temp stabilized commercial machines. To my palate, it was simply noticeably better than any I've had, pulled or been served on any HX machine (home or commercial).
The cappuccino - not quite as noticeable a difference as compared to the commercial machines. Definitely the sort of thing I'd have been proud of making, serving or being served in any Stumptown location. But I've had capps from Kyle et al off the temp-stabilized Mistral that were better. I think I still need to dial in the milk to get the sweetness there. To my palate, however, it was also better than anything from any HX machine.
I think that espressos like the Hairbender are going to show off the strengths of this machine more than a lot of coffees. Coffees that are hard to work with - that are unforgiving or are finicky or particular are, I think, going to be where we see this sort of really clear difference. The more forgiving coffees are probably going to be less exciting to work with.
I'm very interested in checking out some of the other finicky coffees like the Vivace espressos.
I'm also kind of interested in checking out some "flawed" espressos to see if the clarity issue can, in fact, turn out to be a negative.
I never thought I'd say this - but I don't care that this thing is automatic. I want it.
Damn.
And what happened to the "love you till the day I die" pledge you gave the Speedster just a week ago? 
