The Finns are hot ?

SS Lau

I happened to see a program on "60 minutes" about Finland sunday nite. Here is what they say about the Fininsh male ( in case you missed the program)---that they are shy, love to drink and tend to be suicidal. Now I thought that was a general discription for all male, not just Finish male, wouldn't you say ? Then came the next part which I did not know at all about the Finns---Finns love to tango ( yes, the south american hot dance). I did not know that. The Finns seem too stolid to be doing this sort of things.<BR>
Then came a Finish Tango Queen, every night she sings in a tango ballroom<BR>
in English or in another language. Her name I can't remember, but she is very very popular among the Finns. Why ? because she sings about something all Finns want to say or even want to think, but Finns are too shy to say thses things or even think about these things. I wonder what these things could be. My afterthought is ---" 60 minutes" should have gone to VTT( the semi-government lab I visited) and interview some Finish girls. Some of them are pretty daring , the story about the Finns may just be of a different color.

My association with the Finns dated back some 20 years ago. Those Finns whom I know well are of my age or a few years younger, they do not present the younger generation. What " 60 minutes" showed was of the old image, so I was led to believe. I did learn something about expresso from a 30 something Finn. Here is what you need to do for a good cop of expresso ---an Italian hot drink. So the cold Finns love to drink hot drinks and dance hot dances. Do I detect yin-yang here ?

Read this only if you are interested in making a good cup of superbly extracted expresso---- Have not had a cup of good expresso, since coming back, and I don't expect   to be having one any time soon.

Hey, you shouldn't give up so easily! Your best bet might be to start looking into brewing at home in a serious kind of way. Based on your description, my guess is that your lever machine is a La Pavoni Europiccola. While it may not be the intuitively easiest machine to use, it is a good one. As you pointed out yourself, the main limitation is the small capacity of the boiler.

What you need is a good espresso grinder (I'm talking about burr grinders here, _not_ the cheap $20 propeller types). Simply buying pre-ground 'espresso grind' at the store is not enough, as the odds are that the grind is off. No matter how good your espresso machine is, it is virtually useless without a grinder because the grind has to be matched to the machine _exactly_ (you'll also find that you may have to adjust the grind a little bit from day to day (depending on the local humidity, temperature and barometric pressure (and maybe the phase of the moon!) and also when switching to another kind of beans (or just to a new batch)).

The prices for good espresso burr grinders start at around $200 in America (there are cheaper ones available but you wouldn't be happy with them). La Pavoni makes a grinder called Jolly; it's available either in black or chrome ('Lusso') finish, and with or without a doser ('Dosato'; the doser is not essential, but it admittedly helps to create a coffee bar atmosphere in the home (also, the doser in the Jolly is a somewhat flimsy plastic affair)). But the grinder itself is good and reasonably quiet. La Pavoni also makes a matching chrome tray/base, on which the espresso machine and the grinder can be mounted, resulting in a handsome-looking combination.

Two other good burr grinders that I know of are the Gaggia MDF and the Rancilio Rocky. While I have personal hands-on experience on both the La Pavoni Jolly and the Gaggia MDF, I've never used the Rancilio Rocky. But it is heavier than the other two, has an impeccable pedigree and is consequently on my equipment wish list, maybe one of these days...

Besides a grinder, you will also need a tamper. The Pavoni usually comes with a cheap plastic tamper, which--while not totally useless--is rather pathetic. The diameter is too small, so that it does not match the inside diameter of the filter basket closely enough (a fit within 0.3 mm would be about right). Also, it has a convex bottom (it should be flat, to match the shape of the shower head), and the shape is not very good, ergonomics-wise. You'll have to tamp the coffee with a pressure of about 10-11 pounds/sq.in., which in the case of the Pavoni means a total force of about 18 kg (40 pounds). I've made custom tampers for all my machines out of round aluminum stock on the lathe and they work nicely.

A final point: Forget the single-shot filter basket that came with your machine. Always use the double basket, even for a single cup of coffee (about 1 fl.oz. or about 30 cc). You'll need to load it with about 12 grams (about 2 level scoopfuls (using the scoop that came with the machine)) The double spigot at the bottom of the filter holder is just for looks; a single spigot would be much more practical (I think the double spigot can be screwed off). If you want to make two cups, say, one for Kwai-Ling and one for yourself, you'll have to brew them sequentially.