I really enjoyed the vignette, "A Little Blond." My favorite part was the dosing mechanism. I was surprised by the three pulls though and the speed of the return stroke. The quality of your videos and Dave's have me seriously considering a digital video camera... for taking footage of the kids, of course.

I have never used a spring assist lever before, it looks interesting. Maybe one day I will get my hands on one to try out.

HB wrote:The quality of your videos and Dave's have me seriously considering a digital video camera... for taking footage of the kids, of course.

I just use the video mode on my canon S2 IS photo camera. It will do something like 320 or 640 rez at either 15 or 30 FPS. But it uses up a lot of memory fast. The first one I did of the lever pull was over 45mb if I remember correctly. I just use Microsoft movie maker to edit, which appears to be what peacecup used as well.

Very nice production and shot.

I find it very interesting how differently we all appear to pull a shot in our own world. I have pulled on both a spring and manual lever, but neither your pull nor cannonfodder's looks like mine.

I don't think any are right or wrong as long as the taste is right. It's just interesting.

I do have to say I have never seen a dosing like yours. One mound, no tapping down, no leveling - just straight down. Seems you might be promoting channeling on the edges as the density of the grounds would be higher in the center from the mound. But again, if it aint' broke, don't fix it.

Boy is Karl going to enjoy watching and listening to your production.

All nice components. How old is the child in the back bround? My daughter keeps flunking my every morning test exam of - " What is Dad doing" ? She replies "Making coffee" !! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I agree if you had clips of all of us doing our thing, they would be all over the board. Interesting that all of us read the same stuff, some of us buy the same machines, and we apply it in vary different ways.

Also, Nice epilogue line .

I too have been dosing into a loose basket, and tapping down to settle grounds as you suggest. I have also been declumping with mr. brown's technique of covering the heaping basket with another empty upside-down basket, and giving the grounds a shake before further tapping, leveling, and tamping. I didn't think my Rocky grinder with doser created much clumping, but after seeing the sorting results of mr. brown's technique, I realized how much better the grounds could be distributed, and the taste improved.

I will try some pulls with your revised infusion technique, and grind and tamp to require spring pressure, plus a little muscle.

How much volume are you getting on these new shots? I find that my favorite shots produce about 1 ounce with two pulls, with a double basket. Faster running pulls are a little more coffee-like, about 1-1/2 ounces, this considering the shot stops when the lever stops moving.

Is your Heritage roasted near you? Or is it flown in?

Thanks for the cautionary note about the pressure on the cotter pin. I think I'll stay spring powered, as it works well.

Enjoy your fresh blend. What is the degree of roast?

I guess Prof Stack has his task well invisioned now.... Nice three-stroker!

Ho Ho Ho

Thanks for the videos. Besides being informative they are truly fun to watch. Mozart goes well with the serene process of making sublime espresso. I'm getting out my violin sonatas to play when next I use my machine.

I have never used a spring machine, just pump machines and my two non-spring levers, the europiccola and cremina. So my comment here is not a criticism just an observation regarding multiple pulls of the lever. I was told by the people who sell and distribute pavoni here in Sydney Australia (Italians who have been doing this for 30 years and honestly do know their stuff) that pulling the water through the group on a lever machine more than once per shot is not a good practice as the second stroke just delivers blond, dirty water. The pavonis at least are, according to them, a one stroke machine, everything good comes out in the first pull. If you want a longer shot, you should add hot water, not a second pull.

Now my experience of the europiccola confirms this. One pull, even if short, tastes much better, richer, etc than two pulls. So my practice on the europiccola and the cremina is always only to do one pull, and if someone wants a longer shot, add hot water.

However, I often read here that people who want doubles on both the pavonis, creminas and microcasas regularly do two pulls And now I see that peacup does three!! pulls for a single on the ponte vecchio. So my question is, don't you find that this diminishes the flavour, texture, colour etc of the espresso, or am I missing something, or making false assumptions?

Thanks for the videos Peacecup!

I'd like to make a suggestion for your next clip. If possible, set your camera on manual focus. Zoom in on the subject, the shot glass, and focus. Zoom back out to frame your shot. Then, when ready, press record. You'll then keep your subject in focus without the auto focus hunting if you happen to move the lens during the shot.

Since Vaneli's no longer carries the Export, I've emailed the factory in Italy to see if they will sell direct. If they will, it will be interesting to see what it will cost now that W has ruined the value of the $ during the past 6 years!

I wish you all a great holiday season! May all your pulls produce nectar of the gods!

mogogear wrote:I guess Prof Stack has his task well invisioned now.... Nice three-stroker! Ho Ho Ho

Ho Ho Ho, Indeed!

WONDERFUL videos! Good stuff. I'm definitely getting a tamper now and will start the next climb up this steep slope of espresso excellence, or something like that.

Is your portafilter handle in-line with the lever? Mine is not, but I don't think that matters, right?

Thanks again!