Bad Boy
I've been a bad boy and have not posted for a week. Wow! Okay, I'll get everyone up to speed.
The new espresso machine did not arrive on Thursday as advertised. I reached this conclusion when it had not made an appearance by 7:00 pm despite a tracking notification that it was out for delivery. I sent a formmail inquiry, expecting no response. Alas, I received an email with a name and telephone number on Friday morning indicating that the delivery would be made that day.
I began making Plan B and C and D when the machine had not arrived by 5:00 pm on Friday. But, alas, at 5:30 my window was darkened by an Estes Freight tractor-trailer. The trailer had no lift gate for offloading. So we went across the street and offloaded on the dock at Farmer's Hardware. I then rolled all 134 pounds through the hardware store, up the street, across the intersection and into the shop. A good 13 hours remained before the first customers would appear on Saturday morning.
Considering the expense of the machine, I decided to actually read the instruction manual for assistance in commissioning Pearl. The entire set of instructions consisted of "Contact a qualified technician to install your espresso machine."
By 10:30 pm I had converted the 230 vac electrical supply required by the Pavoni to the 120 vac needed by the new machine, connected the machine to the power supply, drain and water softener. I was down to one pipe fitting of being able to connect the water softener to the water supply but, try as I might, no combination of fitting to which I had access would work. What the heck. Blevin's Building Supply would open at 7:00 am, giving me two full hours to buy the fitting, make the connection and learn to make espresso coffee before the crowd arrived.
By 9:00 I was making a passable espresso and sold the first latte soon thereafter. It was the first one I had ever made in my life. The customer pronounced it "perfect". What can I say?
Saturday was a huge day for the coffee shop with the sales volume easily doubling that of the largest day before. I nearly wore Pearl out.
Now, making a cup of espresso is somewhat akin to herding cats. The variables include (a) the beans, (b) the roast, (c) the grind, (d) the volume of ground coffee, (e) the type of filter (single or double shot), (f) the pressure used to pack the coffee in the filter, the (g) temperature and (h) pressure of the water expressed through the coffee and filter, (i) the volume of water expressed during extraction and (j) the duration of the coffee extraction. In theory exactly 1.5 ounces of espresso coffee should be extracted by the barista from the espresso machine in exactly 30 seconds and that should subsequently be consumed by the drinker within the next 120 seconds before oxidation sets in.
Now one of the reasons Pearl was so expensive is that she should dispense exactly 1.5 oz for a single short espresso, 3.0 for a single long espresso, 3.0 oz for a double short espresso and 6.0 oz for a double long espresso. As near as I could determine, she was dispensing espresso at random volumes. The manual offered no help other than "Contact a qualified technician to install your espresso machine." Accordingly, I developed a manual work-around for Saturday.
Bright and early on Monday morning I called my dealer with the problem. "Oh! You have to calibrate your machine to deliver the correct doses of water." By Monday afternoon I had reasonably accurate deliveries of 1.5, 3.0 and 6.0 oz of espresso. Then came the tricky part, namely getting those deliveries in exactly 30 seconds. That were the beans, the grind, the volume, the packing pressure, etc. come into play. By the end of Tuesday, I was getting within plus or minus 5 seconds.
Then comes the problem of how the espresso tastes. The variables include the (a) beans, (b) the roast, (c) the grind, (d) the volume of ground coffee, (e) the type of filter (single or double shot), (f) the pressure used to pack the coffee in the filter, (g) the temperature and (h) pressure of the water expressed through the coffee and filter (i) the volume of water expressed during extraction and (j) the duration of the coffee extraction. In other words, getting the volume and the time right are just the beginning. I can now please everyone but the die-hard espresso aficionados. To that end, two new samples of espresso beans arrived today.
Later.
The new espresso machine did not arrive on Thursday as advertised. I reached this conclusion when it had not made an appearance by 7:00 pm despite a tracking notification that it was out for delivery. I sent a formmail inquiry, expecting no response. Alas, I received an email with a name and telephone number on Friday morning indicating that the delivery would be made that day.
I began making Plan B and C and D when the machine had not arrived by 5:00 pm on Friday. But, alas, at 5:30 my window was darkened by an Estes Freight tractor-trailer. The trailer had no lift gate for offloading. So we went across the street and offloaded on the dock at Farmer's Hardware. I then rolled all 134 pounds through the hardware store, up the street, across the intersection and into the shop. A good 13 hours remained before the first customers would appear on Saturday morning.
Considering the expense of the machine, I decided to actually read the instruction manual for assistance in commissioning Pearl. The entire set of instructions consisted of "Contact a qualified technician to install your espresso machine."
By 10:30 pm I had converted the 230 vac electrical supply required by the Pavoni to the 120 vac needed by the new machine, connected the machine to the power supply, drain and water softener. I was down to one pipe fitting of being able to connect the water softener to the water supply but, try as I might, no combination of fitting to which I had access would work. What the heck. Blevin's Building Supply would open at 7:00 am, giving me two full hours to buy the fitting, make the connection and learn to make espresso coffee before the crowd arrived.
By 9:00 I was making a passable espresso and sold the first latte soon thereafter. It was the first one I had ever made in my life. The customer pronounced it "perfect". What can I say?
Saturday was a huge day for the coffee shop with the sales volume easily doubling that of the largest day before. I nearly wore Pearl out.
Now, making a cup of espresso is somewhat akin to herding cats. The variables include (a) the beans, (b) the roast, (c) the grind, (d) the volume of ground coffee, (e) the type of filter (single or double shot), (f) the pressure used to pack the coffee in the filter, the (g) temperature and (h) pressure of the water expressed through the coffee and filter, (i) the volume of water expressed during extraction and (j) the duration of the coffee extraction. In theory exactly 1.5 ounces of espresso coffee should be extracted by the barista from the espresso machine in exactly 30 seconds and that should subsequently be consumed by the drinker within the next 120 seconds before oxidation sets in.
Now one of the reasons Pearl was so expensive is that she should dispense exactly 1.5 oz for a single short espresso, 3.0 for a single long espresso, 3.0 oz for a double short espresso and 6.0 oz for a double long espresso. As near as I could determine, she was dispensing espresso at random volumes. The manual offered no help other than "Contact a qualified technician to install your espresso machine." Accordingly, I developed a manual work-around for Saturday.
Bright and early on Monday morning I called my dealer with the problem. "Oh! You have to calibrate your machine to deliver the correct doses of water." By Monday afternoon I had reasonably accurate deliveries of 1.5, 3.0 and 6.0 oz of espresso. Then came the tricky part, namely getting those deliveries in exactly 30 seconds. That were the beans, the grind, the volume, the packing pressure, etc. come into play. By the end of Tuesday, I was getting within plus or minus 5 seconds.
Then comes the problem of how the espresso tastes. The variables include the (a) beans, (b) the roast, (c) the grind, (d) the volume of ground coffee, (e) the type of filter (single or double shot), (f) the pressure used to pack the coffee in the filter, (g) the temperature and (h) pressure of the water expressed through the coffee and filter (i) the volume of water expressed during extraction and (j) the duration of the coffee extraction. In other words, getting the volume and the time right are just the beginning. I can now please everyone but the die-hard espresso aficionados. To that end, two new samples of espresso beans arrived today.
Later.
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