I see, thanks man...

i think there's a lot of pump based machines but levers seem very limited in terms of variety...

TheJavaCup77 wrote:Aren't the Londinium and Strega both Bosco groups???

Just my educated guess

No. Bezzera's group is heated.

The "Bosco" group is used by a number of manufacturers - but the group is made by a third party - Bosco uses one configuration, Nuova Simonelli another, Londinium, Quick mill, etc. Each machine manufacturer customizes the group to their needs. AFAIK. there are one or two-spring configurations, various options for delivering water to the cylinder, and dipper vs. thermosyphon base. Note that 'base' refers to the group, not the machine, e.g., Nuova Simonelli uses the dipper configuration in an HX machine.

TheJavaCup77 wrote:Aren't the Londinium and Strega both Bosco groups???

Just my educated guess

Although they are both large spring levers, that's where the similarities end. The Strega is a very unique hybrid design using a pump to preinfuse the cylinder, at least on the reservoir models.

Hence...

IMAWriter wrote:1.5 bar of pre-infusion is a bit difficult..impossible on the reservoir pump version of my Strega...without the "dimmer switch" Mod.

Exactly, you can't just use line pressure or less pressure easily on the strega to preinfuse. You can count X seconds of the pump being on and guess at what the pressure is inside the cylinder. At least with a given coffee/dose it should be roughly repeatable. My experience with the Strega is that trying lower pressure preinfusions without modification was difficult, usually I overshot and ended up at full pressure.

As to the IMS basket on the Strega, I never had one at the time to try out unfortunately. Looking at videos of the VST vs IMS baskets, it looks like given the same grind/dose, the VSTs tend to flow faster. But I could be wrong as I haven't tried out both yet.

IMAWriter wrote:1.5 bar of pre-infusion is a bit difficult..impossible on the reservoir pump version of my Strega...without the "dimmer switch" Mod.

That's just what mines set at since I use a flojet. Otherwise it might be a higher preinfusion. I will say that the IMS single requires a grind a few steps finer then my 15g vst. So the CC claim that you use the same grind as a double is false.

Man you guys are lever gurus!


I thought i had something going on with levers when i got my LP

brianl wrote:I will say that the IMS single requires a grind a few steps finer then my 15g vst. So the CC claim that you use the same grind as a double is false.

Interesting to note. I believe they compare the same grind with IMS doubles to IMS singles. But even still, I would have expected that the VST would require a finer grind (if their claim is correct). I'm planning to get a set of the IMS baskets to test out. Hopefully then I can report back how they compare to the HQ baskets.

Andre, all I can say is the HQ basket, especially for the money is hard to beat. I get the most consistent shots from the Strega. I believe it was a wise choice for you to incorporate them in your "Forge."