I just got a used lever machine and find it much more interesting to use than semi-automatic HX machine.
This small machine give direct feedback to my hand which is impossible in pump machine.

I have a question on how to perform a pull on lever machine. Should I keep constant pressure to pull so that espresso are running slow at the beginning then running fast towards the end (link a pump machine does) OR I should keep reducing the pressure to maintain a steady flow of espresso? Should I also keep the magic number of 30 sec for a 30ml extraction?

I am using 14 gram of bean on the double basket for 30ml of espresso.

Thx
Alex

Hello Alex,

Congratulations on your Europiccola - and welcome to the One Arm Bandit club.

To be honest, it's probably time to put away the stopwatch. The Pavoni moves a fixed volume of water for every draw of the lever, so timing as a way of preventing over extraction is not relevant. Furthermore you as the pump are not moving the water at a fixed rate so again not helpful. Lastly, for a single pass of the lever, the volume of liquor produced by your Pavoni is not going to be the same as most 55/58mm portafilter machines - Timo888 used to refer to them as vintage shot volumes - so even your old shot glass measures are probably now redundant (at least as an indicator).

Better to start focusing on the feel you get at the lever after playing with the basket variables - namely grind, volume and tamp/distribution - and the effect in the cup. There are videos aplenty on youtube if you want something to measure yourself against, but what works for me is getting a grind that allows me a relatively light tamp where I can concentrate on the even packing of a fairly high volume in the standard double basket. This is then followed by a single draw of the lever with slight pause to allow some unpressurized penetration of the puck and then a reduced fellini (quarter/semi re-cocking of the lever) to increase the available water in the piston chamber. It's very high pressure pull that has it's own problems but I get a volume, body and intensity that suits me.

Go play - its the only real way to learn!
sneaky

Thx Sneaky,

Here's the two shots I did recently.