uscfroadie wrote:On a side note, was the machine a GS2 4-group? Wish we could have seen more of it.

It's discussed here a bit, and you'll find in my post a Flickr Link to David White's (of EPNW) photos of the restoration. I believe that is not only an original 1972 La Marzocco GS2, but is also from Starbucks, with a somewhat debated/confusing provenance.

Sorry for the link-dense post. Plenty more to see of the machine, though.

timo888 wrote:I didn't even realize I was having a "side-discussion" when I asked Nik if he meant to address his comments to someone else...

To clarify, this sort of meta-discussion is an ideal example of where PMs and e-mail are helpful (e.g., querying someone who may have inadvertently addressed the wrong person in a post). For reference, I prefer e-mail and my contact info is linked from the bottom of each page. Thanks.

HB wrote:To clarify, this sort of meta-discussion is an ideal example of where PMs and e-mail are helpful (e.g., querying someone who may have inadvertently addressed the wrong person in a post). For reference, I prefer e-mail and my contact info is linked from the bottom of each page. Thanks.

I don't seek out this sort of discussion. I just don't like having what I've written misstated, and simply responding to that by PM or email leaves the misstatement in place, giving the impression that I agree with the mischaracterization of what I actually said.

That is all.

ken

shadowfax wrote:It's discussed here a bit, and you'll find in my post a Flickr Link to David White's (of EPNW) photos of the restoration. I believe that is not only an original 1972 La Marzocco GS2, but is also from Starbucks, with a somewhat debated/confusing provenance.

Sorry for the link-dense post. Plenty more to see of the machine, though.

Nicholas,

Thanks for the links!! Also, thanks for posting the beautiful pictures of your Elektra restoration. Hope it went to an appreciative home.

I'm reasonably confident that an open-minded viewing of that video would accelerate the development of quality espresso for 99% of all home baristas.

Nice work Kyle and Intelli.
Should be required viewing.

shadowfax wrote:It's discussed here a bit, and you'll find in my post a Flickr Link to David White's (of EPNW) photos of the restoration. I believe that is not only an original 1972 La Marzocco GS2, but is also from Starbucks, with a somewhat debated/confusing provenance.

Sorry for the link-dense post. Plenty more to see of the machine, though.

No it's from the 80's. The GS2 didn't come out until 81.

Paul

uscfroadie wrote:Also, thanks for posting the beautiful pictures of your Elektra restoration. Hope it went to an appreciative home.

Merle, 'sadly' it's still in my home, though not in use at the moment. It's technically still up for grabs, but I'm not really trying to sell it. It's excellent backup and may come in handy in the future.

Paul_Pratt wrote:No it's from the 80's. The GS2 didn't come out until 81.

Paul, I guess I should read my references more thoroughly, as I've turned victim to the presumably unintended misinformation that was spread about the machine. Thanks for the clarification.

Hi guys,

malachi wrote:I'm reasonably confident that an open-minded viewing of that video would accelerate the development of quality espresso for 99% of all home baristas.

Can I ask how exactly do you think that's going to happen?

Regards,
dsc.

Maybe the kneading of the grinds is a bit showing off. You could pull a shot with the same amount of coffee, and then you'd have seasoned the group, plus you _know_ instead of 'feel' if the grind is off.
Also, it's not applicable to home baristas. Your hands will smell of coffee the entire day.
The video editing folks would've had a blast though.

Well, I am no Chris Tacy, but I'll take the liberty of assuming that his '99%' is code for 'a vast majority' of home baristas. I'll also take the liberty of interpreting that perhaps if you're thinking, "how does this help me?" you might be in that '99th percentile' of home baristas that already got the memo, making you peers. Of course, there are other possibilities, but I'll leave those as a thought exercise for interested readers. For those that aren't in that group, this is a visually appealing, concise explanation of what makes espresso special, geared at newbies and people who fancy themselves familiar with coffee, but haven't been truly exposed to true specialty coffee.

While such people might be better-advised to read the "Getting Started" section of our Resources page, this video seems a great place to start to get people interested and clue them in to something better. It seems obvious to me that this kind of thing is really helpful—the sad truth these days it that people don't like to read, and most people find wading through discussion to be tiresome; they even seem to shy away from what I think is pretty approachable stuff. I'd like to think videos like this could be great stepping stones toward getting deeper into this hobby (maybe to the point of actually reading that long-winded stuff!).

Anyway, that's my take on Chris' comment, and my thoughts really just reflect Jim's previous comment. If you've been getting your beans over the internet from artisan roasters like Intelligentsia, Square Mile, etc. for a long time, and are also a longtime student of espresso, then this probably isn't going to teach you something new. But that's not to say you shouldn't be able to appreciate it for what it can be to others who aren't so far along, or for how strikingly well-made it is.