Not cups, but this is a pretty cool cycling related espresso item: {link}

Note sure about NoHo but I've had pretty good shots at Amherst Coffee in Amherst on the few occasions I've been there. And if you're ever in the Boston area, Barismo in Arlington is the place to be. Not only do they pull incredible shots of their own beans (or single cup drip, or syphon, if you pref...

A few months ago I started having increasing leak problems from the bottom of the sight glass in my Gaggia Factory lever machine. I replaced the gaskets on both ends of the sight glass and it seemed to fix the problem, but within a couple of weeks it started to leak again. So I loosened the sight gl...

I was on vacation on Oahu a couple of years ago and we decided to go to the Whole Foods in Honolulu before driving up to the North Shore where we anticipated finding fewer grocery options. I wanted to pick up some 'local' coffee, and they had just run of out of the in-store-roasted Kona, so I took t...

This was exactly my experience with the Gran Gaggia I received as a wedding present. When I first tried using the machine, not knowing any better at the time, I used pre-ground and whirly-ground beans, both with predictably disappointing results. So it was put away in the back of a closet for a deca...

Another place to check out the Idrocompresso is at Blue Bottle in San Francisco. They have a three group model at their Ferry Building location. I was visiting the Bay Area in December and had a wonderful shot pulled from that machine

I recently ran across this device while web searching -- it seems relevant to this thread: {link} Of course, given the price ($165) you'd have to be really committed to sifting coffee to justify one of these

See {link} for one possible approach

The lack of resistance is caused by air in the piston chamber. I find that if I coordinate my pulls with the pressurestat, so that the lever is in the up position and the chamber starts to fill while the heater light is still on, I get more water and less air, and hence the resistance on the pull

What about electroplating the aluminum part with some other metal, such as copper or brass? Maybe the thin layer of plating would be enough to satisfy your desire to isolate the aluminum from the water path? Of course, I have no idea what this would cost -- probably not cheap as it would be a one-of...