by michaelbenis on Sun May 17, 2009 4:59 pm Reiss credits the new pressurestat with being able to keep the machine constantly in the 0.7-0.8 bar range, enabling it to be left on all day without the group head overheating. The stat needed a little tweaking after a bumpy ride to Brighton courtesy of British Rail, so you can see it below on the opened Cremina with my Elektra MCaL in the background.
I can certainly bear out that the temperature stability of the new Creminas is head and shoulders above what has been reported on HB and elsewhere about the earlier Cremina 67 model. We left the Cremina on for around 3 hours, just switching it off for a refill and the group head did not overheat. Reiss finds that it in fact needs a warming shot if it's been left for too long, though he concedes that if pulling 8 shots non-stop you might want to either wait for it to cool or resort to the good old fashioned wet rag/cold flushed portafilter etc. routines that the Pavoni routinely requires within minutes and after around 3 shots.
During Reiss's Saturday visit we must have pulled a total of 30 shots in 2.5 hours and there was no need to resort to any of these workarounds. I have no idea why it handles this so well, but suspect some of it has to do with the flange on the front of the water cylinder (visible in the picture), to which the case front panel and group head are mounted. This creates an air gap between the cylinder and case and between the cylinder and group head mounting, except for a very small junction which is not load-bearing but just carries the water to the group head mounting plate and has a small contact area. In short there's much less heat conduction from the cylinder to the group head mounting than either on the Cremina 67 or the Pavoni or indeed Elektra - and of course you have the front panel acting as heat sink compared to the latter two. You can see some of this in photo above, as well as the very long flat connecting channel between the group head mounting head main group head body, which must do a much better job of dissipating heat than either the stubby round Pavoni or slightly longer flat Elektra junction, which is however shorter than the newer Creminas.
Anyway, whatever the niceties of the physics, the Cremina is MUCH more temperature stable than either my beloved Elektra or the Pavoni.
In fact, I imagined I would be spending a fair amount of time comparing the Pavoni and Cremina, considering they have so much in common. When it came down to it, there was really no point. The Cremina is so much better built and turns out so much better a shot so much more consistently, that there really wasn't any contest.
This isn't to say things were plain sailing. Reiss was also interested in comparing the machines, though I reckon he was a lot more selfless than I me and got to do a fair bit less comparing than he would have liked. However one idea was to remove as many variables as possible. So we were using his preference in bottled water (Volvic for the dissolved solid content) and his Olympia grinder, which is a beautifully made little gem, as you'd expect, and sits much better in the kitchen than any of my behemoths.
On the minus side for me - at least on Saturday - the Olympia grinder features a box for the grounds out which you scoop them using the Olympia doser. I was UTTERLY useless at this and merrily made an quite total fool of myself with poor distribution and goodness knows what else. Here's a pic of the grinder with the other machines in the line-up:
It also emerged that Reiss and I have quite different preferences. I am a peasant and so tend to like "interesting" coffees with weird fruity things exploding over earthy backgrounds. I compensate for this by preferring to drink these often African SOs as single espressos pulled on a single basket. Reiss is an altogether more sophisticated gentleman, on the other hand, who likes a sweeter, more subtle beverage, pulling a double on a double basket. This lead to more confusion when pulling shots on my part, which Reiss tolerated with admirable good humour as you can see below.
In terms of grind and tamp, though, we were agreed, though the Cremina seems to favour a slightly less fine grind than the Pavoni or even Elektra and is happier with updosing.
Reiss has the technique of the Olympia doser spoon down to a fine art, whip up the grinds to declump, dose and smooth the top in a few smooth movements. Conversely, I'm so used to my dosered Super Jolly that all I could manage for the first few attempts was to generate a devastatingly impressive succession of sink shots. Talk about a pig in a tuxedo....
On to what I'm supposed to be writing about: the Cremina. This produced much nicer shots than I or my credit card had dared hope for. Smoother, richer, more crema laden by far than the Pavoni and also sweeter and slightly clearer, though not like the Elektra. I was hooked. And the pleasure of pulling a shot on the Cremina is also lovely. It has....er ... a lovely action. Very satisfying.
The Elektra retained its crown as the clarity queen, but we didn't spend too long playing with it, though Reiss admired the build quality, looks and convenience of the spring. Unfortunately I choose a completely mad Harrar I'm drinking at the moment to give him an idea of the Elektra, but the Harrar was so very much not at all what he likes that it distracted both us of from the machines and on to the beans.
This as it happens was no bad thing.
What beans and very subtly roasted. It's bean an education having someone round with quite different tastes, not least of all because I have some very nice beans to experiment with that I might not have done otherwise and they're proving a real eye-opener. Reiss first roast of a Cuban that he has worked very hard to find was a really bullseye. The result is smooth but with strong bass undertones and nice floral surprises. Calm enough for regular drinking without being so demure that I'll lose interest.
Then there was a very nice Costa Rican that I didn't appreciate sufficiently at first, and a very pleasant of this same Costa Rican with a Skyberry that brings some interesting sweetness and gentle eve-so-slightly fruity ethereally. In short, I reckon Londinium Espresso is well-worth inspection by on-line shoppers in the UK and indeed elsewhere since they happily export worldwide. I'll definitely be buying some more, including wanting to try some of their smooth, sweet Mexican
The upshot of all this coffee was that I vanished into another dimension by the early evening. I've never taken the word "caffeinated" that seriously. But I have a new and very real respect for it now. It's a good way of losing weight fast, though....
Back to the machines. The Caravel acquitted itself well on its ristrettos, versatility and charm. We also had fun taking it to pieces and putting it back together again. I was somewhat less charming about the mucky pucks when downdosing in particular. It's such a sweet, beautifully-designed, elegant little machine that taking out the boggy PF always makes me smile. It's like discovering that Tinkerbell has flatulence.
But the Cremina dominated the proceedings. I can now see what all the fuss is about. I'm not going to go into that in detail because there's no need: Charles/Karl Schneider did such a great job for the Cremina/Elektra combination at the end of the lever machine smackdown, and Jack and George on the Caravel. I don't think the Pavoni is in the same league. I feel awful writing that: it was my first lever machine. It was a romance. The beginning of a journey. But the build quality and shot quality are just not up to the others, even the later tinnier Caravels in some ways. And the Pavoni's fussier, not just because of the temperature profile but more because of the less smooth lever action and - I'm convinced - that stupid shower screen with its doughnut of solid steel. And the maintenance is a pain. And considering the recommended retail price compared to a Cremina and the quality of the latter... well, I'm not even sure the Pavoni offers such value for money. I thought it would give the Cremina a good run and maybe hold its own. But no, the shots are much better on the Cremina, it's less temperamental and more consistent. The shots have more finesse, more going on in them, more detail in the mouthfeel, more texture and more crema. I think you get the point: I liked it.
But I still love the Elektra. And can totally agree with what Charles and others say about how well the two complement each other. That one can leave the Cremina on all the time with the new pressurestat and pull a shot whenever the fancy strikes makes it even more attractive as my workday companion alongside Signorina Elektra.
Cheers
Mike
If I could have only one lever machine the Elektra would be it.....
