La Pavoni Europiccola and Pilon Gourmet Espresso

[ray5961]

You're on the right track, but I see some areas where you could make major improvements. Check out the videos on my page for tips. As mentioned, invest in a good quality grinder, such as the Kyocera hand grinder.  Also, forget pre-ground coffee. The La Pavoni is very, very touchy about fresh beans in my experience. Try some LavAzza or locally roasted - less than 2 weeks old. Or something from Peets maybe. Also, your machine looks like it's not building enough pressure in the boiler.

[dergitarristde]

That is seriously not very good. Do yourself a favour and spend that 300 bucks on a grinder...

[rggarner]

Thanks for sharing your adventures with the Peacock!

A couple of things you may want to consider:

1. Extraction should take between 20-30 seconds. Anything faster and you are underextracting. Judging by your force on the tamper, your grind is probably too coarse.

2. You may want to watch a few videos on tamping techniques as well. Your method creates large amounts of variation from tamp to tamp.

Love your enthusiasm for a great machine and an amazing crop!

[aldibruno]

Thanks for the tips, rggarner!  Continuous quality improvement is what we're after!

[Gweezian]

@aldibruno What about lifting the lever again? I heard if you can do this and pull 2 shots under 30 seconds it can still be successful. Well done video by the way. I have a brand spanking new La Pavoni (which sits side by side with my Rancilio).

[aldibruno]

@Gweezian Thanks for the positive vibes, Gweezian! Yes, whenever I use the larger double shot filter insert I do a double pull. I happen to have made this video using the smaller single shot filter insert, so I just pulled once. Just now I posted a video response to this video in which I did the double pull. I let it go a little too long - more like 45 seconds from start to finish, but it tasted great! Thanks again! -Al di Bruno