Espresso shot with La Pavoni

A few months back, I promised myself that once I got a real tamper (see my previous video), I would be ready to make a new coffee video. Last week I visited Reg Barber at his shop in Central Saanich, BC, Canada, and he cut a 51mm C-Flat tamper for my Pavoni Professional machine (I severely regret not video taping him doing it), so here I am, delivering on my promise.

As you probably know, the learning curve for a lever machine is quite long. I have had my Pavoni Pro for over a year now and it has only been in the last few months that I've really begun to understand how to use it. My experience when I bought it was that although there were Pavoni videos out there, but not enough of them were made by experienced owners. There were some good written resources, however, such as gurus.net and this video was helpful (though the guy talks a lot and over complicates things). I hope I understand this machine well enough now to make a useful contribution!

I pull a shot of espresso into a clear shot glass. I use a Rancilio Rocky grinder and the coffee is the Causeway Blend from Caffe Fantastico. The music I used is performed by a Chilean group called Los Melódicos: Orlando Patiño, Jorge Segura, Leoncio Hidalgo. I hope they appreciate the exposure.

A couple more notes on extraction time. As you can see, that was a 35 second shot, but the first lifting would have been about 20-25 seconds. I have not been able to lift the lever twice and stay within the right amount of time, and I am beginning to think that the machine was not designed for that. I can estimate the volume of the compressed coffee by assuming it is 1.5cm thick. Using (height)x(surface area of end), I can calculate the volume of the coffee puck as {tex}1.5*\pi*(5.1/2)^2 \text{cm}^2 = 30.6\text{cm}^2{/tex}. In a 58mm puck, this works out to {tex}39.6 \text{cm}^2{\tex} which is about 33% more coffee. I'm inclined to say that the Pavoni is meant to make long single shots, and that if you lift up twice, the second pull should should be brief or cut off.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• pavoni
• espresso
• professional
• europiccola
• la pavoni
• coffee
• reg barber
• c-flat
• 51mm
• tamper
• rancilio
• rocky
• howto
• how to

[eastcoastdiki]

Hi that looks a proper shot of coffee wish i could get mine like that ? as soon as i put the leaver up full the coffee starts comming out, every vid i have seen the leaver is put up but the coffee doesant start to come out until the leaver is pulled down, what am i dooing wrong ? i also purchased the Jolly Dosato grinder and played about with the setting but its still the same, when i lift the leaver coffe starts to come out, i'v even changed the seals on the piston

[lutherdriggers]

@eastcoastdiki Make sure your coffee was roasted not more than 2 weeks prior to using it, and that it is not over-roasted or decaf. If it still leaks under steam pressure, tamp harder and evenly (ie horizontally) and/or grind finer. Good luck!

[astrella]

you should try lifting the lever slowly for abour 8-10 seconds and SLOWLY pull it down

[lutherdriggers]

@astrella I will try that, thanks :)

[mattack4444]

great looking coffee and great music.

what album/song is this? I need to get my hands on it.

[lutherdriggers]

@mattack4444 A Chilean group called Los Melódicos: Orlando Patiño, Jorge Segura, Leoncio Hidalgo. I don't know how to get their music, but it might be a cover song.

[ribchop]

@astrella , yo, i got a total of 14 grams, for the double shot basket. The grind shown here is set at 14, i couldn't go that "course". Got it at 8, and doing the slow pull. Taken me two months from yesterday to get this far. Need more direction...

[zepoe]

Thanks! I got my Europiccola second-hand yesterday and I think it's a fun machine to learn to use! I was wondering how much coffee to use and from your vid I get a clear picture of how to proceed. I have the RB tamper as well. Ascaso grinder on its finest setting.

[lutherdriggers]

@Zeratul1981 I still use it at 2-4 times daily and I'm still completely in love with it. You made a great choice!

[Zeratul1981]

I like this. I ordered a la pavoni pro last week and ordered a rocky a couple of days later. Ordered a Reg Barber just this morning and then I found this vid. Glad to see you getting decent results from the exact same equipment. Can't wait for it all to arrive.