La Pavoni Europiccola - Tremendous
This is not something I normally would do, but after looking at my starbucks tally at the end of each month and considering just where things were at with my Delonghi press the button machine, I decided I needed to enter flavor country.
It’s not that the Delonghi was bad, but there is something to be said for the manual process of extracting coffee. It is often said that the Pavoni is for people who drive stick and I think that has got to be true.
There is definitely an art to it and I think that is what makes the coffee something special. It really is a crafted work, and different people use different methods to get coffee the way they like.
My personal preference is to do what most independent roasters do here in Portland, which is a heavy, slow-draw, densely wood/nut flavored shot. This is something that I have never seen a pump machine do, aside from the shops themselves. Perhaps the grind was not fine enough at home? Plus the portafilters on those shop machines are huge.
In any case, I finally struck gold – though the silver and bronze weren’t bad either. Capresso Infinity conical burr grinder – fine setting second from the finest – not in the extra fine turkish coffee zone… it’s moldable powder – not powdered sugar.
The finest of the fine group requires a little too much pull on the lever, and the third coarse from the group doesn’t quite extract enough. This is with a fill to filter rim and a hard tamp to 30 lbs.
There is a certain satisfaction that comes from all of this. I think part of it is saying goodbye to the big green sign.
I am also glad I didn’t go for the newer model – I got a reworked antique chrome model off of ebay that was not as pretty as the Williams-Sonoma $700 version but cost SO much less ($250) and functions flawlessly. And it’s nice to know that ‘reworked’ doesn’t generally mean more than replacing gaskets every year or so for the 50 years that this thing will last.
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© 2007 Jacob Gorny