We're ashamed with ourselves that we've taken this long to sit down and copy, paste, and edit some fairly simple html code in order to extend our coffee subscription to all our European customers. This offering really makes Londinium Espresso extremely good value.
Try it now; http://londiniumespresso.com/pages/coffee-subscription
You'll need to scroll right down to the bottom of the page to get to the European Londinium Espresso coffee subscription button as I haven't quite figured out how to reduce the gap between the two buttons. A problem for another day.
We stumbled across the following article on the internet and found ourselves in agreement from the first word until the last. An extract from the article appears below.
'The WBC standards for temperature stability are quite precise,[i] but no mention is provided for the history or importance of temperature stability in the production of espresso. There is an assumption that the holy grail of espresso machine manufacture is the ability to precisely maintain a specific temperature throughout the extraction process tailored to a chosen espresso blend. Not withstanding that a blend of beans, by its very nature, may require a plurality of extraction temperatures to achieve optimal results, the Italian engineers with whom I have worked take it for granted that a flat line temperature profile is not what they are looking for. To test an Italian machine to this arbitrary standard seems a little problematic.
Even tamping is a bit of a curiosity. The importance of tamping among the Italian professionals seems to have gained in importance as training materials for machines started showing up in English. One would think that tamping should be an obsession in a country in a country with well over 200,000 espresso bars where being a barista is considered a valued profession; if tamping was the key to ones livelihood, baristi would carry tampers around in much the same way that chefâ s carry there knives. Tampers would be handed down from one generation of barista to the next . . . .but they donâ t
When Luigi Lupi (an expert barista working with Elektra at SCAA 2005) was approached by a small contingent of consumer members, he was quizzed as to the role tamping played in his profession. He shrugged and produced the same quality shot he had produced moments earlier without tamping at all. Speculation in response to his effort ran the range of commentary, from simply crediting his experience to whether or not he had secretly tamped the coffee out of view in some stealth-like manner before mounting the filter.
It was the former.
The history of these assumptions is hard to track down. When presenting machines to Starbucks in early 1992, their technical department took substantial space, was full of machines from virtually every manufacturer and staffed by two ex-baristas with no training in engineering.
Even though most of us like to think we have risen above the mass market appeal of Starbucks, the corporation that had developed the gold standard for promoting espresso as we know it in the United States was also responsible for driving much of what we assume to be true of espresso machine standards.
This from a company that, at the time, employed no engineers and had no understanding of the process of pre-infusion, temperature profiles or the importance of metal composition in the constructions of espresso machines.
[i] WBC Procedure for the Measurement of Brewing Water Temperature in Espresso Coffee Machines
Gregory Scace, Barry Jarrett, Bill Crossland, John Sanders
6.2 Brew Temperature of a Brew Cycle:
Specification: The brew temperature shall describe the thermal conditions of water immediately upstream of the simulated coffee cake using two terms, the average brew temperature observed during the brewing cycle, and the one-shot stability. Brew Temperature shall be expressed in degrees plus or minus the stability (for example â 201.5 ± 0.8). In the case of manual data collection, the average brew temperature shall be the temperature observed most often during a specific simulated brew cycle, ignoring temperature observations during the first three seconds of the cycle. Ignoring results during the first three seconds negates the effect of thermometer lag on the result. The one-shot stability shall be one half of the difference between the highest and lowest observed temperatures over the brewing period, negating temperature readings in the first three seconds. For automatic data collection, the average brew temperature may alternatively be the average of all temperature readings during the brew cycle except for those occurring in the first three seconds. The one-shot stability may alternatively be two times the standard deviation of the temperature observations, ignoring observations occurring in the first three seconds.'
A hearty "amen" is all we have to add.
We're putting our money where our mouth is in supporting lever machines to the hilt, and their temperature profiles are about as far away from flat as the Himalayas are. Into the bargain the capital outlay is less, they are more reliable, easier to repair and to calibrate. They do demand more from the barista, but we seemingly live in an age where we've never had more formally trained baristas, so that really shouldn't be a problem should it? If you think levers are intimidating give us a call and arrange to come and try a lever machine. With some basic training you'll be pulling espresso of a quality you never dreamt was possible. There's something magical about levers.
For us coffee is firmly an art, not a science, and it is the elusive elements that continue to defy definition that attracted us to establish Londinium Espresso back in 2004. The magical thing about coffee is two coffee roasters can be given the same green beans, and possibly even the same machine, and produce coffees that taste quite different. This is the magic of coffee, and it ensures a bright future for a multitude of small, local coffee roasters each with their own distinct roasting style.
To advocate one 'right' way of roasting and preparing coffee is opening yourself up to ridicule in our opinion. Gourmet coffee is one of the final frontiers that continues to evade being quantified, measured, and reduced to a series of 'tick-boxes' that the multi-nationals can then deploy across the globe with vast economies of scale. Like many things in life, the enjoyment you derive from an experience is not purely objective, it is heavily influenced by the environment in which the experience occurred. The same is true of coffee; the surroundings need to be something you appreciate, the baristas need to be friendly, and a whole raft of other factors that contribute to your enjoyment.
As low cost, mass produced goods have become ubiquitous a curious thing happened. We have begun to seek and prize unique hand crafted goods more than before. Until fairly recently hand made goods were often derided for not being uniform and homogenous. The wheel seems to be turning, and unique individual objects made by real craftsmen are being sought. It is apparent in high end exclusive luxury goods, but it has also permeated throughout modern society I think, and at the most accessible end of this change we have hand roasted coffee that conveys the unique attributes of the roaster's vision for how they would like the coffee to be experienced.
It worked with hamburgers, but the humble coffee bean is a beast with seven heads that continues to defy the efforts of the corporation to standardise it. Long may this continue.
Is the teutonic styling of the Olympia Maximatic a little too restrained for your taste? No matter, if you have a spare CHF13,500 we can have a gold plated special edition Maximatic custom made for you.
It may not happen today but we are pleased to announce that we are now selling the Everpure Claris water filters. This conclusion is the result of much research and playing with the vast array of kit that clutters the world of water filtration. Our aim is to bring you a plug and play solution that you can set and forget, bringing you peace of mind that your machines are adequately protected. Water filtration only works while the filters have capacity; forget to change them when they need to be and you'd be better off without any filtration as you just have a big pool of pollutants in the system. For this reason our system is sold with a digital meter that ensure you only change your filter when you need to, not on the margin enhancing 'time based' change intervals advocated by most water filter companies. Claris system also allows you to blend unsoftened water to ensure your water does not become too acidic and result in corrosion in your espresso machine, left unchecked this is as undesirable as filling your machine with limescale. The 5 stage filtration process also ensures the removal of Chlorine, heavy metals, and bacteria.
Apologies for the delay in bringing a comprehensive parts list for the Bacchi to the table. This has been rolling around in our in-box for far too long. We will try to publish this today.
Deploy your Londinium Espresso coffee beans as an espresso and surprise yourself with just how smooth a ristretto can be. Don't know where to start with a ristretto? The formula is easy, 14-16g of coffee in the double basket, but only allow enough water through to give a total volume of 30mL. Ristretto: 'restricted' in English, and that's why; half the amount of water, or a doubling of the brew ratio if you prefer. Our espresso roasts are so smooth that if you prefer a bit more shove, restrict them, and discover the smoothest, most complex, and enjoyable ristretto you've ever tasted.
The Bacchi is a very clever and simple design, and easily serviced.
One tip we have is to ensure that the piston continues to slide very freely inside the cylinder sleeve when you push up on the piston from underneath (if you own one you'll know exactly what we mean, if you don't it won't make any sense at all). If you are washing the Bacchi in detergent, and I'm guessing most of you do, obviously you will fairly quickly strip the grease off all the moving surfaces. In our experience the Bacchi needs the thinnest of coatings of 'food grade' approved grease to ensure that the piston seals do not bind or stick on the piston walls. This smooth sliding of the piston is essential if the Bacchi is to operate correctly. If you think about it, you have steam building up in the lower chamber as the Bacchi heats. It is imperative that as the pressure in the lower chamber rises that the piston is able to be easily driven upwards as the steam pressure increases. You don't need to coat it in grease like you would with shaving cream on your face; you only need the tiniest smear of grease, then work the piston up and down by hand and spiral it a little to ensure you work the grease right around the circumference of the seal. It is easy to check if the Bacchi needs this kind of treatment; run your finger down the cylinder wall; if it is dry metal with no greasy feel it needs lubricating. We would suggest you dont wash the cylinder and piston assembly of the Bacchi with detergent. In fact it shouldn't really need to be washed at all. Dose it in cold water after use if you are in a hurry to wash and clean it, disassemble once cool enough, the dry lightly being careful not to remove the grease from the cylinder wall. This will ensure you only have to apply more food grade grease occasionally.
We think it goes without saying, but these days I always wonder, so here goes: DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BE TEMPTED TO USE ANY LUBRICANT THAT IS NOT FOOD GRADE APPROVED. Similarly, do not be tempted to use olive oil or similar unless you want your espresso to taste like olive oil. If you are having trouble obtaining the correct lubricant please contact us.
Hope this helps if you suddenly think your Bacchi has stopped working because steam is hissing out of places it shouldn't, and it isn't making coffee anymore. The Bacchi is a simple, easy to live with, durable machine that makes wonderful pure espresso. We've tried an awful lot of machines in this class and everything that precedes the Bacchi is a pretender; the Bacchi makes real espresso, that's the difference.
Thousands of others already are. Try us and discover why.
You've most likely read our blog on the 10 cup Chemex maker paired with the KF4 Swissgold filter.
So, we now have a 10 cup Chemex brewer going free to a good home.
The next person to place an order of GBP30 or more who accompanies it with an email requesting the 10 cup Chemex will get it for free and that includes the shipping charges for the Chemex brewer.
Obviously we can not claim that it is 'new' but it is in 'as-new' condition, having only being used 4 or 5 times in our testing.
The box might have a mark or two, and no doubt a water mark or two on the Chemex so we wouldn't recommend it for a gift, but other than that it is as new.
Help yourself.
Now selling the Mazzer Robur electronic grinder here
