Dan was kind enough to lend me a couple of new items from Paul Pratt's latest company Cafelat. I got a 53mm tamper - the "Royal" model with a satin brushed steal top, a rubber middle wrap and a beveled 53mm base. The tamper reminds me a lot of the tampers from Coffeelab Design without the adjustable spacers. I have used this tamper on my La Spaziale VII for a couple of weeks now and am quite impressed. I like the rubber grip. It makes for a sure hold on the tamper when tamping and polishing. The height is quite comfortable for my medium sized hand and the slight convex shape on the piston works well with the VII basket. The tamper has some nice heft - Café lat lists the weight for a 58mm tamper at 350gr. I definitely will look into picking one of these up.

Along with the tamper I tried the "tamper hanger". This is a wall hanger for your tamper to keep in ready proximity but out of the way. To tell you the truth, I just couldn't get used to not having my tamper right beside my knock box and tamping stand. I guess I'll pass on this one.

I also had the chance to try out some of the new pitchers that Paul is rolling out. I tried the 13oz pitcher. The pitchers have a top heavy shape and are made with a satin brushed finish. I found the pitcher was easy to get fine micro foam for a latte - just plunk the nozzle in and go. I had to work the milk a bit more to get thicker foam suitable for a cappuccino. I'm not a latte art expert but it was easy enough to do a quick swirl with the expanded top and pour a nice Rosetta.

The packaging is great. Black and red colors reminiscent of some of the Bodum designs. Definitely worth checking out.

Cheers
Ian

All there stuff on that site looks pretty slick.
I'd like to check out the 2oz demitasse cups - does anyone know if the inside of the cup is squared off or rounded at the bottom?

Hi guys,

it's been a while since this mini-review and I was curious whether anyone has any info when those items will be hitting the stores? I'd love to buy me the tamping mat, but so far no one stocks them and no one really knows much.

Regards,
dsc.

DSC, some of the Cafelat products seem to be in stock on the Visions website. Chris Coffee and EPNW also carry the line but at the moment they aren't in stock. Ooops, I now see that you are in Poland, sorry.

Hi Kurt,

thanks for the info. I'm actually now in the UK, but I'll be ordering some stuff from the US within a couple of months, so I'll try to get some of the Cafelat stuff as well.

Regards,
dsc.

Anybody know how to contact Paul? According to Google, his site has been compromised. Here's the report I got when I tried to go there:

What happened when Google visited this site?
Of the 27 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 11 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2009-07-13, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2009-07-13.
Malicious software is hosted on 1 domain(s), including a5g.ru/.

This site was hosted on 1 network(s) including AS9381 (NEWTT).

David

The same thing happened to the RK Drums site a while ago as well. Hopefully Paul can get it straightened out soon, his products are quite nice.

Just got the error message. I will send Paul an email.

Thanks everyone, we were aware of it and have uploaded new files, we just need to wait for the search engines to approve them, or so I have been told.

The first batch of items have gone out to a few companies and we will updated the where to buy section later this week.

Paul

Hi Paul,

I heard it might be a bit hard to get them in the UK, are you going to be selling them online as well or only via local distributors?

Regards,
dsc.

I also posted a mini-mini review of one of the Cafelat tampers that Paul was nice enough to send to me a little while back:

Are tampers overrated?

Very nice tamper. I'll probably try out one of convex models once they hit the stores.

C

Hi guys,

Paul any updates on this? the 'Where to buy' section on the website still says 'Coming soon'...

Regards,
dsc.

Paul_Pratt wrote:The first batch of items have gone out to a few companies and we will updated the where to buy section later this week.

Did the stuff get held up in customs? It's been a hard wait anticipating the "Cafelat unboxing experience!"

I received the corner tamping mat and 12-oz pitcher on Tuesday from Visionsespresso. Incidentally, also got the 12-oz Toroid. Many toys to fiddle this weekend.

I did a search on espressoparts.com and found plenty of Cafelat products in stock.

HB wrote:I did a search on espressoparts.com and found plenty of Cafelat products in stock.

Yes, but I ordered one today, and immediately received a call from them that the listing was a glitch from their site switch, and they still don't have them, and have no ETA on them. So my order is backordered, and hence my previous post. Sadly, Visions doesn't have the one that I want (the tamping stand).

shadowfax wrote:Sadly, Visions doesn't have the one that I want (the tamping stand).

I ordered the Royal Wood tamper and a 13 oz. pitcher from Visions yesterday evening and got an email today saying the order was processed.

Hi guys,

God damn you, God damn you all living in the US!!! we can't get sh** here in the UK and you are whining about having your orders backordered.

Seriously though I will try to order directly from Paul, although it's been a while since I got an email from him. Vacation? or perhaps running away with your money?:)

Regards,
dsc.

Really sorry for not updating things. The response has been massive so far and we are quite overwhelmed - in a good way

We will upload some new product details and where to buy on monday.

Paul

p.s. also having a 4 month old daughter doesn't give me any hope of contributing to forums these days.

Paul_Pratt wrote:p.s. also having a 4 month old daughter doesn't give me any hope of contributing to forums these days.

I would have thought it would give you all the time you could want. When my first child was born, I spent many hours bathed in the glow of a CRT in the wee hours of the morning; when the little rat wouldn't let me sleep! I became quite proficient at typing with one hand. Of course that was twenty five years ago, so there wasn't any world wide web to be surfing.