Rambling comments from a newcomer

[russell]

Poof!--I just wrote a long message that vanished! So I'm starting over.
Just a plea for a bit of tolerance for those of us who are not really coffee geeks, but come to this and other sites to learn how to make good espresso. We don't want to spend months learning to produce cup after cup of near-perfect espressos. Most of us just want to make espresso a lot better than the local espresso shops serve, and do it with a minimum of fuss. Many of us have only one or two espresso drinkers in the household and (in my case for sure) serve drip coffee to guests. In fact, I've been roasting beans for years and my guests love my drip coffee.

About two months ago my son got me interested in making better espresso when he ridiculed my pod-produced-in-a-Krups espresso. So I bought a Gaggia Crezza, then discovered the various websites, got more interested, returned it, bought an Eliane for $695 from 1st Line, and started a PID project. I took the Eliane to Michael Teahan's shop and enjoyed several hours with him and Angelo who gave me some small parts (a blind filter and a rubber sleeve for the steam wand) and lots of good advice and controversial opinion. Truly wonderful people.

I then, on a whim, bought a close-out Silvia for under $400 and a Solis SL-90 for $130 on eBay, as well as several PIDs, all but one for a low price on eBay. Although I know almost nothing about espresso except what I've read on the internet, I'm a confirmed tinkerer and had little trouble PIDing the two machines and regulating their brew pressures (reported on this and the Coffee Geek website).

I asked questions, some pretty naive, on the Coffee Geek website and reported the results of my tinkering, some of which I think added to what had previously been reported. However, I dared question the dictum from on high that NO ONE SHOULD ATTEMPT PIDING UNTIL THEY CAN BREW FIVE GOOD CUPS IN A ROW or something to that effect. Since I never intended to brew more than one shot either for me or (from a triple basket) to be shared with my wife, I didn't see the value of this advice. I just wanted to be able to pull one good shot without the hassle of surfing and for that end, a PID and pressure regulation, seemed to make sense.

So please all of you dyed-in-the-wool geeks, please acknowledge that many will visit these websites not to become initiated into geekdom but to make better (not great) espresso at home. We don't want to undergo a serious apprenticeship.

I said I would report the results of my side-by-side testing of the PIDed (and pressure regulated) Silvia to the PIDed (and pressure regulated) Eliane. Well, I don't have the experience to make subtle judgments. To my inexperiened taste, the results are equal. I see no superiority in the coffee produced by the E61 machine. I have no doubt that in their un-PIDed states, the Eliane is far more temperature stable and would produce more consistently good coffee, but as far as I can tell, the PIDing evened the playing field. And I see no taste difference resulting from the E61 preinfusion (i.e. lower initial brew water pressure). The only advantage I see for the Eliane is a faster heat up to steam (contrary to the reported tests). But the Silvia heats up fast enough for me.

Russell

[HB]

Russell,

Newcomers are welcome, so don't worry about an "apprenticeship." I approach the art of espresso making with great humility and accept that I've got a lot to learn. For example, Chris Tacy's recent article on the Mia has me rethinking my method of equipment evaluation (i.e., have I chosen blends that are "too forgiving?"), and Ken Nye's comments in the Bench forum are helping me round out my assessment of the A3. I'm grateful to those who challenge accepted wisdom, as long as it's done with the aim of sharing knowledge and helping others.

I've read accounts to the effect that "Silvia can't be beat," many by very disciplined and experienced home baristas. Steve's recent comparison of the La Pavoni and Microcasa (link) further supports a viewpoint I espouse: The limiting factor is often on the handle-side of the portafilter.

That said, one distinction between Silvia and Elaine that's easy to point out: Temperature stability across the shot. I sold my Silvia before acquiring a datalogging TC thermometer, but I've done a few quick in-basket measurements of Mike Walsh's PID'd Silvia. I measured a +4F temperature drop across the extraction, producing a sort of shallow J-shaped curve. This is different than the rising slant-L that I measured for the Amica / Zaffiro. I don't contend that one particular temperature profile is inherently superior over another for all blends. It seems apparent that some blends definitely favor a particular profile (e.g., David Schomer advocates a sharp slant-L and very tight tolerances for his blends), while other blends are simply "different" with one profile versus another. Jim Schulman reported on the effects of different profiles in How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love HXs (see "HX cooling flush in detail"). Peter Guiliano and I reproduced these results after the Cimbali Junior versus La Marzocco Linea taste test.

I guess my point is that I don't believe in absolutes, and it doesn't bother me if someone challenges my assumptions, as long as it's done for the purpose of helping me learn, not for the pleasure of "proving me wrong." Ask my wife, that happens far too frequently for anyone to make sport of it.