The fact that Bezzera is coming out with a straight plumbed in Strega illustrates an interesting point.....that they do not consider the pump function any more than a way to supply the group with water in a pour over format. Otherwise they would never consider a line plumbed machine as this would defeat the whole point of pressure profiling in such an inexpensive format, or compared to the Slayer inexpensive.

It seems clear that they have not considered the extended possibilities of the pump, as Jim has...to them it is but a water supply device.

another_jim wrote:I'm not sure how that would affect the taste. Gary and Alf think you can probably reproduce the initial state of the pump primed lever with a line primed lever and few extra pumping motions. I defer to their far greater experience with levers on this.

I defer to the professor (Jim) who has a bit more experience than me. A little over a year and a half ago he was trying to drum it through my thick head that I was wasting my time with a Saeco home machine! Something about a wide deadband? I'm indebted to Doug Garrott's suggestion on multiple pumps to increase pressure, something I'd also stumbled upon when trying to overcome almost choking my Pavoni EP and then trying Doug's technique with other vintage levers I've started to collect. I also read much of what Jim writes about extractions and tasting to dial in my home espresso, like this gem here: http://coffeecuppers.com/Espresso.htm or very fine explorations by people like Greg Scace, Jim, and other HB experts here: Brew pressure profiling update 3 -- all to try and begin to understand what he's doing.

another_jim wrote:When Gwillym Davis talked about commercial lever, he said that the minimum commercial configuration is a three grouper, since the groups should be idled for three to five minutes between shots. My impression is that the thermal recovery of the Strega is faster, around one and a half to two minutes.

As part of immersing in this lovely past time, I visited Blue Bottle Coffee at the SF Ferry Building last week, and they were pulling delicious shots of a Brazilian SO (Fazendo Sertaozinho) on a Kees van der Westen commercial lever with three groups. I was interested to see that the barista was using only the left-most lever and if memory serves, he was not giving it anything like three minutes' recovery time. He commented that the coffee was very lightly roasted, and the chocolate I was tasting was in the bean itself. The crema was a bit unpleasantly sour, but the espresso underneath had enough clarity to reveal gentle flavors of dark chocolate and light marzipan syrup with a hint of cherry. I infer* that he may have been keeping the group a bit hot to tone down the brightness of that coffee and the lever profile was softening the shot nicely. Perhaps with a bit more pressure profiling he might have been able to tame the intensity of the crema. Since my home spring levers don't produce much crema, that isn't a problem, and the Pavoni can be finessed with heating flushes to tame its ample crema (though less rich than what one can pull at 9 bars). What I'm reading of the Strega shows it's at another level of capability than these home machines.

* Later add: My inference was wrong. Today, 11/16/11, I asked the barista at the lever machine why he sticks with one group at a time. He said the temperature on all the groups are stable but that they're all tuned slightly differently so he stays with one for consistency.

orphanespresso wrote:It seems clear that they have not considered the extended possibilities of the pump, as Jim has...to them it is but a water supply device.

Thanks for joining the thread. You may be right. But why use a 9 bar pump in that case? When the machine first came out, I asumed they would use the same 3 bar (Zoshirushi/Keurig) pump as one finds in the Pavoni Pub lever. Everyone was ind of astonished that they did not.

It could be that they are simply building such a small number that it is more cost effective to use the Ulka. But that leaves a second puzzle -- including the OPV and setting it to the conventional 10 to 11 bar. They could have just as easily set it to 5 bar.

It would be nice to get their direct from the horses mouth take on all of our speculations and manipulations

I was thinking about your comments of handling commercial levers on low counters when I made the second video -- I apologize for not mentioning it; I was discombobulated enough to get the information onto the chip. I hope the technique I settled into avoids some of the pitfalls.

It's worth noting that a lot of the hardware inside the Strega is retrofitted from existing Bezzera pump models, so I wouldn't necessarily read in to the pump choice too much. I assume they re-used parts to cut down on manufacturing costs.

Hi Jim! I think your review does bring up a lot more questions about Bezzera's intent than it answers. Yes, the OPV puzzle....seems that the 10-11 bar setting would indicate that they actually did think of the machine as either/or. That it could be used as a pump OR a lever, which is interesting in itself. But if they were aware of the pressure profiling potential, why not have a pressure gauge to show pump line pressure to assist the user, or even an accessible easy to reach and change OPV....adjustable through the face of the machine for example?

The wholesale price of a CMA group is about €300 but an E61 group sells for about €100, so the inclusion of the lever group to be run in pump mode seems a little far fetched (the either/or idea). Too much money for mere eye candy.

I do think that they were using the pump as an engineering solution to deliver water to the group and did not see the machine as you do. To me, you have approached this machine as it were a blank slate with no preconceived notions.....your technique of stopping and holding the lever and massaging out that Geisha shot with steady state flow would likely have most old school lever guys scratching their heads.

One think I notice most strikingly on your videos is that when you release the lever it stalls in the near down position with very little travel toward the top. Do you think this is due to enhanced compression of the air in the cylinder by increased pump pressure? It actually looks odd to me to see the lever at such a low position when first released. All of my commercial lever experience sees the lever travel generally to about 10 o clock, even 11 before maximum pressure builds and it stalls, with the lever hitting the back stop before blonding occurs.

And you would likely be the first to observe that you might need a taller counter!

I had the machine at a meetup on a counter about the same height as mine. People were fine doing one pull; but I started to feel it in my elbow and wrist after doing about twenty shots with flushes (but none of the manipulations, which I hit upon later). So now I pretend I'm working out and bend my knees. With a taller counter, all you have to do is lean back a little to pull down the lever.

I'm a little out of my depth on how the air behaves in a lever. I noticed when I let the pump run until one saw flow (about 10 to 11 seconds), the lever engages all the way down. If you go 8 to 9 seconds, the lever goes to about 9 to 10 o'clock. This is what I saw on the Victoria Arduino, so I assume this is the 3 bar level. If I want a shot that tastes like an Elektra a Leva, I need to run about 7 seconds, and the lever goes to 11 o'clock.

However, the gaseous component of the cylinder is likely to be a mix of steam and air, so I'm not sure if the simple gas law rations (50% air for 1 bar, 25% air for 3 bar, and 10% air for 9 bar) is accurate.

Obviously, I would love to have a pump pressure meter. The inclusion of the group heater means there is no longer a ball valve in the neck as in the standard group, and the back pressure is blocked at the OPV. So a panel pump/lever pressure meter is certainly easy to do.

I expect it will happen if the machine finds a market. I wonder if you have a feel for who may buy it -- we like the taste, but the potential market has us scratching our heads.

another_jim wrote:I expect it will happen if the machine finds a market. I wonder if you have a feel for who may buy it -- we like the taste, but the potential market has us scratching our heads.

The direct connect version is pretty much exactly the machine I've seen lever people clamouring for whenever the subject comes up. A regular consumer machine with a commercial lever group bolted on the front. Bezzera has solved the problems all the naysayers constantly brought up, like heating the group and balancing the lever with such a small body. If it doesn't sell, then it basically means there is no real interest in serious lever machines for home use.

Lever heads: Put your money where your mouth is.

I would definitely put up or shut up on this one but I have yet to see a firm price on the machine in the US or a committed vendor....As it is Bezzera I assume that 1st line would be the only source in the US.

I think that Jim's pressure profiling work so far really kicks this one up a notch. Some of the SO's out recently just do not work well on my Faema....I get great standard shots, and big ones at that, but anything that is high on fruits is tough for my machine (mostly due to heat and the inability to control it well). I have a line pressure valve so I can introduce some preinfusion pressure differences but not above 3 bar and not with any predictable way since we have a well and pump. I appreciate the chocolates and the balance but seldom get to enjoy some of the fruity central americans coming out from various roasters.

I agree that this one will be the test for a home adaptable lever machine market and if this one can't bring in the buyers then it may just be a push button world after all.

orphanespresso wrote:Some of the SO's out recently just do not work well on my Faema....I get great standard shots, and big ones at that, but anything that is high on fruits is tough for my machine (mostly due to heat and the inability to control it well). I have a line pressure valve so I can introduce some preinfusion pressure differences but not above 3 bar and not with any predictable way since we have a well and pump. I appreciate the chocolates and the balance but seldom get to enjoy some of the fruity central americans coming out from various roasters.

Doug:

As one who has tried more lever machines than most of us will ever see, are there ones that excel in that challenging type of coffee -- even home machines? Are machines specifically built for pressure profiling the only ones capable of that?

As a novice user of several levers and two pump machines, I'm getting the impression that different machines have their own flavor and mouthfeel personalities, so matching coffee, machine and method seem essential. This of course gets people like me to "put up or shut up" and have multiple espresso machines -- I think that's called "shopping addiction"!

For me, to see Jim staggering around after tasting that Geisha shot was a real classic. We usually will comment that this or that was a "good cup" but to actually see him go weak in the knees makes me really want to have one of these machines, and Jim's special recipe also!