Hello everybody. I just brought out my La Peppina again after not using her for a few months and I've noticed a few things again which more experienced user here may be able to explain to me.
Or maybe just confirm that these are spring lever "problems".
So, first of all, I've noticed that all my shots need to be ended after the lever has risen somewhere between half way and maybe two thirds of the way. Am I ending my shots too early, even when the shot looks like it's blonding? Or am I doing something wrong in the beginning? The shots taste good but I was just curious if I'm missing out. Which brings me to my second observation after such a short time with my lever. I find the taste of my shots to be very similar. I like them a lot but I would still like to have more variety at least between different coffees.
So I was mainly wondering about the observations from more experienced lever users if this is true for all spring levers or specific to La Peppina or not true at all and just due to my inexperience.
Greetings from Germany, Peppi

I also stop my shots short of a complete lever rise and when it's blonding. I don't have the issue with shots tasting the same between coffees.

Hmm,

When I pull a double on my La Peppina, I do a couple of partial pumps until or hopefully just before a drop comes out of the portafilter spouts to load the puck with water for a ten second pre-infusion. I push and hold the lever down during the pre-infusion and then release it after ten seconds. I find that this gives me a full extraction and good crema that I wasn't getting when I didn't pre-infuse. It also loaded up the head and puck with water so that when I released the lever for the extraction there was no need for additional pumps, in fact I would usually pull the cup before the lever reaches the top as the shot starts to blond. This may be due to the fact that the La Peppina has one of the largest single pull volumes of the manual espresso machines.

For a single, I don't do any pre-infusion or I get an over-extracted shot. Instead I do a quick one or two partial pulls to load the group with water and then start the extraction from the bottom with no delay. I also stop before the arm reaches the top for singles, but we're dealing with only 7 - 10 grams coffee in this case.

As for all your shots having a similar taste, you might want to pull and soak your dispersion block to remove any built-up crud and also make sure that you're using fresh beans since I would imagine that stale beans would have a more similar taste. A regularly used espresso machine would probably have less problems with oil build-up affecting the taste as one that's been sidelined where the oils have a chance to become rancid. I've heard that for grinders, regular cleaning becomes more important for irregularly used grinders for the same reason.

I hope this helps and let us know how it works out. My La Peppina got moved to the garage for Christmas and I need to pull it out and fire it up this weekend. I'm thinking of checking the dispersion block now that I've written this, though I think I cleaned it just a few weeks ago.

With small comment to what Chris typed - on my La Peppina no water flows down the group without lever raising, therefore preinfusion for me is the small pulls. As I described other place I do less for single shot then for double. It is perfectly normal to stop the shot before the lever goes all the way up (specifically on La Peppina; on other machines it may need more then one pull to brew a shot).

What is important: how long does it take for your shots to start blonding.
Since you say all your shots taste similar, it may be an issue of your preparation technique, yet it needs more information from you - doses, brew times, volumes, a video of shot brewing; otherwise we're lost - you may well like your shots heavily underextracted or channeling, depending of your previous coffee experiences and experience with espresso (*)

*p.s. (edit) I didn't remember you posted a video already!
Spring lever video
Was it the case with this shot too?
It looks like you're pushing the lever up - this woould mean you ground too fine OR screwed the preinfusion part. Does any water go down the group when you have the lever most down (piston up)?

Thanks for the replies, guys. It's great to have other Peppina owners to share experience with.

I haven't pulled a shot in a while cause I'm having trouble to properly seal the holes where the heating element comes out so water is leaking into the powerplug. Not good.
As far as my normal routine goes, I use between 14 and 15 grams of freshly ground coffee from a good roaster, mot older then a week. The shot in the video was pretty slow. I don't have to help the lever go up but it can create a nice body. I have a custom made tamper and it doesn't happen often that I have holes in the puck.
Since my roaster here makes great coffee and I've worked in an amazing cafe in Saskatoon for a while, I know what coffee can taste like. I generaly like the shots my peppina produces if things work out. But over time I've noticed that the taste doesn't seem to change much with different coffees.
When I pull the Lever all the way down and release it, it seems like air gets pushed out somewhere. The lever rises very quick for the first little bit before the first water hits the puck and there is resistance.
I might have to try to do a few more partial pumps before keeping it down for the preinfusion.
I hope these details help and I'll post here again, once I pulled a few shots over the weekend.
Thanks again guys
Peppi