joatmon wrote:Jim,

I agree that it certainly looks like a great machine. Frankly, this is one I had not considered. I guess my attempt at humor failed. But, here I am, lusting after $2.5 - 3k machines and something a tad less expensive appears as a giant dot in the center of my radar screen. If I had just picked up a new Appia or Junior, I'd be having "buyers blues".

It was funny, but I'm in one of those "new owner, don't diss" moods, where all humor escapes me.

The back story is that I'm probably going to spend a lot of hours and around $1K turning the Tea into a temperature and pressure profile control machine. It won't be all that accurate, but it should be capable of limited profiles accurate to ± 0.5 bar and 0.5C. This will allow me to do espresso testing to my heart's content. When the super-techs come out with better profiling machines, they can then properly test any speculations I come up with.

In any case, why not have something completely different for an everyday machine? And it doesn't get any more different than the Elektra for a fairly convenient, good tasting, 24/7 brew and steam machine.

Like Andy, Greg, Ken, and some others, I've done so much inconclusive taste testing on machine adjustments that I've become a complete agnostic about pursuing godshots by tightening and improving their easily measurable performance. Keeping the temperature and pressure within consistent and reasonable bounds shot to shot has worked well; but going beyond that has not payed off so far. I suspect we'll need to use numerical models of the entire water path from mains to cup, along with some taste chemistry models, before the ultra-precise approach starts striking gold. If this turns out to be the case, very few of us will be able to take part in the research (on the taste chemistry part, it looks like we'll all be dead of old age first!).

And except for research, I have little interest in high tech machines.

Somehow the weather here in Chicago contributes to any sense of humor at all. We sit inside with our two collies in a heat related miasma. Only the occasional espresso helps the mood.

I wish I could share some of these experiences. I'm on an island here, no friends that share this passion. What I think is a good shot may be a sink shot to many here. Heck, to my friends, the "edge" is putting their styro cup under the brew basket during the brewing process as the Bunn takes 170 degree water and spits it all over 2 year old Folgers.

I do enjoy these threads and live out some of my "coffee dreams" vicariously through your research/gatherings.

Jack

joatmon wrote:I wish I could share some of these experiences. I'm on an island here, no friends that share this passion. What I think is a good shot may be a sink shot to many here. Heck, to my friends, the "edge" is putting their styro cup under the brew basket during the brewing process as the Bunn takes 170 degree water and spits it all over 2 year old Folgers.

I do enjoy these threads and live out some of my "coffee dreams" vicariously through your research/gatherings.

Jack

Yeah, this is the insanely frustrating aspect of being in an on-line community that's centered on the taste of something. I can talk until I'm blue in the face about how the espresso tastes; but it's all, quite literally, nonsense -- something nobody else can sense, check out, or share.

The biggest thing on my coffee calender is actually meeting the people. The annual SCAA convention (May 2007, Long Beach CA is the next one - make it if you can) is the biggest one, and it attracts about 20 or so on-line people (we need about 10 times that) as well as thousands of coffee pros. This is always a blast. However, I like the meetups in people's homes the best, where one can get a sense of how they do espresso or coffee, and learn stuff that's much more applicable to my home-barista-ing.

In any case, dear readers, if life ever takes you to Chicago, I'd love to invite you over.

another_jim wrote:The ristretto singles from these machines are perhaps the best shots, certainly the softest and butteriest, I've ever had. Yet I've previously gone on record saying that a rising profile cannot be good, since the low temperature will accentuate the sours at the start, the high temperatures the bitters at the end.

This machine is very confusing.

Some non-analytical types might just kick back, enjoy the espresso, and damn the theories!

espressoperson wrote:Some non-analytical types might just kick back, enjoy the espresso, and damn the theories!

That was exactly my intention. But it's a new toy, and I want to play a bit first.

another_jim wrote:Yeah, this is the insanely frustrating aspect of being in an on-line community that's centered on the taste of something. I can talk until I'm blue in the face about how the espresso tastes; but it's all, quite literally, nonsense -- something nobody else can sense, check out, or share.

The biggest thing on my coffee calender is actually meeting the people. The annual SCAA convention (May 2007, Long Beach CA is the next one - make it if you can) is the biggest one, and it attracts about 20 or so on-line people (we need about 10 times that) as well as thousands of coffee pros. This is always a blast. However, I like the meetups in people's homes the best, where one can get a sense of how they do espresso or coffee, and learn stuff that's much more applicable to my home-barista-ing.

In any case, dear readers, if life ever takes you to Chicago, I'd love to invite you over.

Well, I used to get to Chicago a bit, but not lately.

I've been more concerned about temp control after having 8 different SOs in 2 months from Intelligentsia. I can usually dial-in Black Cat and Code Brown and get decent shots. But I know the SOs could really respond to slight changes in temp. I've ordered Eric's thermocouple adaptor and am awaiting all the components so I can start to document, discover and effectively reproduce shots that please me.

I'm close to taking this hobby over the line to passion. Next stop. <backspace><backspace><backspace><backspace><backspace> (No need to offend).

Jack

espressoperson wrote:Some non-analytical types might just kick back, enjoy the espresso, and damn the theories!

Yep. There's a word for that. newbie.

Day 2 of trying to master the temperature control on this beauty. It gets geeky from here on in, so if this stuff bores you to tears, skip it. If you're considering buying one of these, this post has some worthwhile reading:

RTFM. The manual says fill the boiler 3/4 of the way up the sightglass; I've had it at half way up since I got it. Today I moved it up.

(Side note on water: No need for insanely long FAQs on this baby. The boiler fill is manual, and there's no water tap. Fill it every few days with distilled water so the boiler never scales, use regular water for brewing, and descale the HX like any single boiler home machine)

I repeated the modified WBC test (flush 2 seconds past boiling before the start) and got this:



Looks like the same mess as yesterday. But wait! If one looks at the last six shots, spaced 10 seconds apart (in blue), they show world class temperature stability. Can this be exploited for regular home use? I tried a double flush. First a longer flush to simulate the previous shot, then 10 seconds later, the 2 seconds past boil flush. This can be done conveniently while grinding and dosing. I did six "walk-up" shots, a la Ken Fox, using this technique, and here's what I got:



Not as good as the final WBC set, but except for the outlier, not bad at all. We'll see how it develops as I get more practiced.

Did at make the least bit difference to the taste of the espresso? Not so I could notice. The hump is still 3C wide, just like yesterday (it looked bigger yesterday because of the wide shot to shot variation, but the average curve hasn't changed much); it could be that this makes reproducing the exact timing of each temperature point from shot to shot somewhat less critical.

Let's take a look under the hood:

Here's the parts diagram:



The components are mounted on the underside of the chrome plated part of the base, and the plastic under-panel removes with a single screw (Millenium owners may get envious at this point):



Once the machine has cooled off, one can pick it up, turn it on its side, drain the tank, open the steam valve, and drain the boiler. This works since the vacuum breaker is open, allowing in air. It just takes a bit of time. I only drained out enough to set it on its side without getting leaks from the breaker. The base panel has the boring detailed name plate:



Pop it off, and you get the innards:



There's been some changes since the diagram. The hosing is flexible braid, The safety stat has been replaced by a capillary that cuts off a switch in series with the pstat (it's the box next to the terminal strip for the incoming power wire). The pstat is still a mater, but a heftier looking model than the standard one shown.

No OPV, but plenty of room for one if installed closed circuit so the overpressure discharge goes directly to the suction side of the pump. Was there a hint of overextraction in that last ristretto? Hmmm.

This is as simple as an HX heat exchanger machine can get.

A few notes. The pstat is on the water side of the boiler. The boiler fill is the second pipe underneath, while the HX entrance is an external pipe into the side of the boiler. The heater terminals are concealed by the two pipes.