NdG-

You certainly have the best there ! Cremina 2002 and an MP w a 'Lux! w envy.

I still lust for a Cremina and for now have satiated my Leica lust w a CL and 40 'cron and my picolla and MCaL. I still wonder if my picolla produces as well as a Cremina just as I wonder if my CL is as good as an MP.

The first lever machine I used was a Peppina lent to me by a friend in the early 1980's. I loved the machine and hated to return it after a few months. A few years later, I bought my first lever machine - a Spanish Pavoni from Thomas Cara in San Francisco sold under the LaCara name. I used the machine in California and Hong Kong for several years before giving it up because the tooling to rebuild the group was no longer available.

I relied on pump machines for about 15 years after that, working my way up from a Starbucks/Saeco machine through a Brasilia Club and a Simonelli Oscar to a Fiorenzato Bricoletta. The Bricoletta remains my morning workhorse. It is a dosing sem-auto model that takes the fuss out of cappuccino when I am more asleep than awake. But I never stopped admiring the elegance of lever machines: simple technology that still can produce espresso comparable to the best fuzzy-logic controlled, pressure-profiled tech marvel.

I moved to Europe last year. I have since acquired a couple of Peppinas, an early Zerowatt, and two Faema Uranias. A bit like a kid in a candy shop. Almost all of the machines are awaiting rebuild or restoration, but they are still fine works of functional art. It is hard to beat the combination of elegant simplicity with beautiful industrial design.

Jim

Hello all,
First post and introduction. I've been perusing HB with fair regularity for about a year or so and I figured it was probably time to join the ranks.
My claim to LMWDP membership is my La Pavoni Europiccola, which I've also had for about a year.
My road to the lever was relatively unexciting. I never liked coffee, at all, until college. I can't remember having any life changing drinks but for whatever reason I started to really enjoy it. It was probably the need for caffeine and I'm not a pop fan at all. Then one day I woke up and just had to know everything I could about coffee. It was a passion that snuck up on me before I could realize it was a passion. I read what I could online and with some of my school money bought a Gaggia Carezza and a Solis Maestro grinder. It was heaven to me. Looking back it wasn't actually very good but I didn't know any better. And to my knowledge there weren't any great coffee shops in Ann Arbor at the time. When I was looking for a machine to get I remember seeing some lever machines and being blown away by the beauty and simple function, true functional art. I also remember thinking these things must be reserved for baristas who had become one with the force so to speak.
Fast forward a few years and I had quite surpassed the ability of the Gaggia. And while I could consistently pull decent shots, they weren't anything I really looked forward to.
In the mean time I'd started home roasting with a popper, and trying my hand at different styles like turkish coffee. But espresso was, and still is, to me, that elusive holy grail of coffee.
I started looking for a upgrade but didn't have much more than a few hundred dollars to blow. I ran across a Pavoni on ebay for the right price and thought hey, total control for thousands less than total control, I can make this work.
And the rest they say, is history.
While I still haven't been able to afford to upgrade the grinder(I know hand grinders are an option, but based on my experience with my sozen grinder it's not something I want to do first thing in the morning. Pennies are being saved for a Vario.) I can pull much better shots on the Pavoni than I could have ever hoped to on the Gaggia and I know there's still a lot left to be had.

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading HB thus far and hopefully as I continue to learn I'll be able to contribute back to the community.

First post & introduction: I've been using a La Pavoni machine for about fifteen years, a demonstration machine bought on sale at S-bucks. It is used mostly for steaming milk drinks for my wife & daughters, as I am the only espresso drinker in the house.
I only just found this site via search engine and am impressed with the knowledge to be found here. While I've made thousands of lattes over the years, I never paid much attention to refining my technique. I was thinking about upgrading to a different machine, but after reading some of the material on this site, I think I ought to get a better grinder instead. (All this time I've been using a blade grinder . . . how embarrassing)
Now off to register in the LMWDP . . . I do love the ritual of pulling the lever down.

Welcome aboard guys!
Respectfully
~Richard

I bought my second Ponte Vecchio Export couple of weeks ago.
And I love it all over again.Sweet espresso.

Great coffee and fast!It takes 10 minutes to warm up.That's a big plus.Espresso like it's meant to be.Quick.

Howdy Folks! I had a le'lit pl41 for over a year after I had a cheap delonghi. After I bought a superjolly and used a hacksaw to convert my portafilter to bottomless (quite neatly in fact) my espresso started getting better. I've had the cremina for almost a week and I LOVE IT. I like putting stuff together and I replaced all the seals and cleaned out the head and boiler and it was a blast. Then I set the p-stat and I've been trying to figure out how to get the best out of it. I have some questions that I'll post as a different topic. Great to be here!

I learned espresso at the elbow of my father who had an Olympia Cremina and Nuova Simonelli MCF long before Starbucks or Peets made most folks in the US aware of espresso. He was a doctor in the Boston suburbs and learned about espresso from his Italian patients who subsequently started supplying him with beans they roasted in a garage out in Andover. When I moved to SF in the last 80s, I saved enough to get my own Cremina and used it exclusively for a decade. In the early 2000s, straining under demand from family and friends, I "upgraded" to an E61 hx machine, and just a few weeks ago "upgraded" again to a Vivaldi II. The E61 is headed for Craigslist but the Cremina isn't going anywhere. I use it as a back-up, in the office, etc. When my father died, my brother adopted his Cremina and it is still going strong. Of course, now many friends have machines (mostly E61s) but without learning on a lever, I think it's harder to understand espresso -- how the pressure works, what it really means to change the grind or tamp or to pull that extra dram of water. I started reading HB.com when I began the research for what became the Vivaldi II. Nice to find this on-line community of fellow crazies.

Ok, so here I am... I've been watching this forum for quite a while. The pics here are great! It's an amazing number of lever machines here. And here's my contribution.

I got into espresso after experimenting with less heavier stuff, french press... Bought a Gaggia Baby Twin 1,5 year ago, but wasn't really satisfied. So I got this Urania. It was in fairly good shape, had been somewhat carelessly restored earlier and unfortunately some parts were removed (neon tube, gas heating, drip tray...). Anyway, I took it apart, got it some new gaskets and stuff. Recently I installed a new illumination. It's a Faema Urania from 1957. I'm pretty convinced, that the 1st generation back plate is original. I've seen several other Uranias from -57 with the older plate.







Sooner or later I will get me a proper grinder...

Oh, and by the way, I live in Germany, Bremen, but am originally from Sweden.

Cheers
Håkan

Håkan,

It's gorgeous I bet that baby brings a huge smile to your face every morning!