Slayer Envy

One thing that impressed me about the Synesso at Water Ave. Coffee in Portland was the old school paddles on the group heads. I didn't pay much attention to these until I did some research and discovered the Slayer. The Slayer is an American made espresso machine that is considered the utlimate in pressure control for espresso. This machine gives the barista delicate control over the brew pressure. Varying the pressure can prevent over or under extraction to get the holy grail of espresso, a smooth if not slightly sweet shot of espresso. Not too bitter, not too sour. Question was how can I afford a $18000 machine... I can't. So looking at the Linea form La Marzocco, it has a manual paddle group version although with very limited capabilities.  There are some modifications you can do which will get you close to the same control the Slayer gives you. Replacing the valve pins to allow you to read the pressure at the individual head instead of the boiler pressure is one thing. The other is to adjust the microswitch which turns the pump on to activate early before the pre-infusion stage. This is how a La Marzocco Strada paddle group is setup. These modifications allow the Linea to control the pressure similar to the way the Slayer does. The only difference is that the Slayer and the Strada both have individual brew boilers with allows two shots to be pressure controlled at the same time, where as the Linea because of its single brew boiler can only start one pre-infusion cycle at a time. I need to test this aspect though as it may not be an issue at all if the valves on each group respond independently.
So I did some research after thinking this through to see how much converting my machine would cost versus finding the machine I want. Had my machine been a new model with welded heads (2003 or later) I could have converted it a manual paddle system with relatively little expense compared to buying a ready made version. It wasn't, so I looked around. I found a 2 group Linea with manual paddles from local123cafe at a price that was less than the conversion cost. As a 2010 model it was in decent shape and perfect for what I want to achieve.

My second espresso machine restoration

After finishing my first Linea in July, I sold it to Top Gun Roasters in San Luis Obispo. It was a basically a wash but I managed to learn how the machine works and what the pitfalls are for the thing. I realized I didn't need a 3 group machine for small cafe and the even a moderately busy cafe seemed unlikely to really need anything more than a 2 group machine. Water Ave. Coffee was fairly busy and using a 2 group Synesso which was more than adequate for the task. I think designing a good work flow helped too. I notice they designed their bar to be low, at an average person's waist height, which I liked because the barista feels closer to the customer. They also had the cashier pour the milk in the steaming pitcher and set the cup with saucer for the barista to make the drink. This work flow seemed to work out since they didn't have a ticket screen for the barista.
With this in mind, I found another old Linea on craigslist and went to pick it up at Four Barrel Coffee in SF. It was not in good shape though as it had a bad control board and the body had taken a beating. I got it home and began disassembling it and found it had was worse than I thought as the brew boiler had been modified by welding bolts to the tank. Not unfixable though. I decided to powder coat the outside and add the latest control board and touch pads which would also give me pre-infusion. At first I wanted to go with a light blue/green like turquoise color with bright orange cups. This turns out to be a bad idea for now as finding good cups which are also orange is nearly impossible. So I looked around for inspiration and found this.

I decided to make the base a root beer flake and the top a carmel crema color, and use white or red cups. It should look really cool but not unsual or flashy. I dropped the parts off at the powder coating company NRI near the SF airport early this week. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Updates will come as it is finished....

My first espresso machine restoration

I picked up an old La Marzocco Linea 3AV from John's Cafe in Palo Alto this past June. At first I didn't realize how old it was or how bad the condition it was in when I bought it. I got it because it was available and seemed like a reasonable restore. I learned practically everything about the the machines. La Marzocco machines are known for their temperature stability due to the two boiler system they came out with. These machines have a boiler specifically for steam and a separate or sometimes multiple brew boilers which are used exclusively for that purpose. The brew heads are headed with water from the brew boiler. These machines are solid and if properly maintained can last for years and years. Both boilers are stainless steal which adds to the value by providing anti-corrosive properties. The pump motor is external and a series of solenoid switches control the flow of water into and out of the boilers. On the AV models a little box called a flowmeter with a propeller inside is used to measure volume. the propeller is turned by water pressure provided by the pump. On the propeller are two tiny magnets which as they spin induce a current in a coil just above the propeller. The current is read by a control board and is used to time the opening and closing of the solenoid switch to provide to proper volume for the espresso shot.  The solenoids also contain coils of wire which current is flows through them created a magnetic field which opens and closes the inlet for water to flow out the brew head.

The Linea I bought was filthy inside and out as you can see from the photos. I have my work cut out for me. The process of discovery took time too. The older models used a bolt and nut system to attach the brew heads which created lots of problems with leaks and scaling inside the brew boiler. Finding parts and going through years of grim took more than a month.

Some Weird Notion

I guess as far back as the early nineties when I was still in college, there was this idea in my head about having my own cafe. I thought about a cafe at the time as a place to hang works of art and lounge around thinking about big questions. The idea has always been for me that it was a place where people meet and want to be, not just to consume coffee. I think a cafe's function is as a place where the mind can roam free from the mechanics of everyday living. Cafes that succeed, I think, are simple places where organic materials such as wood and stone combine in ways to give the people that come there the sense that the place has been and will be there for a very long time. They create warmth and a home like atmosphere, much in the same way the facade of many old banks once give depositors a sense of stability and security. These big hulking buildings with marble floors and grand ceilings, giant columns guarding the entrance, all combined to appeal to people's sense of permanence. Banks may not be paragons of permanence or security but we sure seem to have responded to the elements of architecture they utilized. Cafes are different from banks but people don't necessarily need to be enticed to enter with use of facades especially not patiently false ones. People want to be in a cafe to see and be seen, to socialize with others in a comfortable setting which is not an implied party the way a bar which serves alcohol might be. I think it's easy for cafe owners to get caught up in the commodity "coffee" they are trying to sell and forget that the real attraction is "place". There has to be harmony between the business of coffee and the social aspect of the "coffee house". As cheeky as it may sound and I'm sure it's been said before, every cafe should strive to be the third most important location in peoples lives behind work and home, the home away from home. This isn't some weird notion, just something obvious that's been out there all along.