Just a random thought...

Lever machines produce shots with a different flavor profile from pump machines; each style has high points.

Anyone here ever experiment pulling side-by-side dialed-in best shots of the same coffee from both lever and pump machines and blending them together? Sort of mix the best of both - the complexity of a pump with the sweetness and body of a lever. Or would it all just get lost?

If I ever have my lever machine (currently at home) and my pump machine (currently at work) side-by-side, I'm gonna have to try this.

allon wrote:Anyone here ever experiment pulling side-by-side dialed-in best shots of the same coffee from both lever and pump machines and blending them together? Sort of mix the best of both - the complexity of a pump with the sweetness and body of a lever. Or would it all just get lost?

I've carefully tasted dialed-in shots from pump and lever machines side-by-side, but it never occurred to me to combine them.

I think that's because - no matter what I tried - the shots of certain SOs that reward the lever's pressure control (such as Don Pachi) were so much better than I could get from the big pump machine that I was enjoying them too much to mix them. On the other hand, blends from the other side of the spectrum - toward the silky chocolate/caramel side with big body, richness and/or those "comfort" blends - seem to have these positives magnified by the GS/3, and the levered La Pavoni can't really keep up. So there doesn't seem to be much point in mixing these either.

I'll be the first to admit that both these types of outcomes may well be due to my failings in the "mano" department, and others may coax better results from either type of machine. Still, it's tough for me to imagine a true interlocking situation with the same coffee, where the weaknesses of each shot would, when combined, produce an overall superior drink. This doubt stems from the inherent strengths of each process and capability.

BTW, my skeptical comments above relate to the value of combining shots of the same coffee extracted via two different machines, e.g. a lever and a pump machine. The hybrid Strega, however, may well be closing in on the theoretical objective that Allon is seeking.

A related topic - but one largely unexplored on this board it seems - is combining shots of two different complementary coffees immediately post-brew. (Difficult as it is just to achieve one great shot from one blend or SO, those running screaming from the room upon contemplating the resulting explosion of variables and production problems must be entirely forgiven.)

Still, the ability of one bean or blend to complement another - no differently than takes place with all manner of other foods and by definition every recipe in existence (not to mention coffee blending to begin with) - makes this well worth exploring. For an easy example, comfortable but boring blends can be livened by a bright Central that would by itself be too citrus-focused or naturally aggressive or sharp-edged for most to enjoy solo.

Also, some such combinations can be very effective when called upon to produce milk drinks, with one blend providing the chocolates and leathers and caramel flavors while a complementary coffee breaches the natural sweetness of the milk and opens the palate. (Yeah, yeah, this admittedly sounds far-fetched, but try it sometime: you'll discover winners impossible to create any other way.)

Besides, you will unlikely ever summon a better justification for the necessity of a new dual-group machine.