Very long time readers of this journal will no doubt not remember that my very first post, in March 2008, was a muse on my most excellent coffee machine, a La Pavoni Professional:
It was a bitch to master; but once conquered, provided daily coffees for more than ten years before finally expiring.
Whilst proponents of a healthy lifestyle will not doubt recommend excluding coffee from the diet; they probably also recommend avoiding cough syrup mixed with a certain type of mushrooms, so what do they know? And anyway, I love coffee and will not be without it. So for some months we have been descending on coffee shops for our daily fix. But once the official period of mourning for La Pavoni was over, we went looking for a replacement machine.
I would like to tell you that the model we chose was the result of many weeks of on-line research, price/feature comparisons and extended tasting sessions at accommodating local outlets. But all that would be bollocks because we just happened to be passing and we spotted one that matched the colour of thekitchen cabinets.
Apart from the kitchen cabinet coloured bits, it also features plastic components coloured in such a hue that makes it very clear that are trying to look like wood but are failing miserably. Plus there are some shiny bits and some buttons to press.
Using it is pretty simple. Press one button to heat the water and press another to push the water through the coffee. Of course the coffee has to be properly compressed before pushing water through it, and the machine has a built-in tamper which is perfectly situated such that you will never use it without ejecting coffee over a wide area; minus twenty design points. The final button turns on the foaming spout which is adjusted with a rotating knob on top of the machine.
Results so far have been patchy. The coffee tastes pretty awful; but maybe I just need to try some different coffee. On the plus side, it knocks out much better milk foam than I managed with my previous machine. Anyway, I am stuck with it until we change the kitchen cabinets.