Baby steps

I am a complete novice in the world of Espresso. I have had a Chinese 'no-brand' Espresso maker for a few years, but have decided to take a step up and embark on a new hobby (also I couldn't stand the rubbish I was making at home any more).

This blog documents my progress, and might even contain the odd nugget for others.

I live in NZ, and Ebay hasn't made any impact on the local scene, instead we have a local equivalent called Trademe. This was where I began my search for quality second-hand machine. I much prefer buying used gear, its cheaper and I really get a kick out of repairing and modifying machinery. I enjoy 'Ghetto' engineering, so I am definitely looking at the cheap end of the market. I have a history of car restoration through to the repair of iPods.

Anyway...

First off, the ubiquitous google search revealed two websites full of goodness, coffeegeek.com (CG) and www.home-barista.com (HB). I looked at all the reviews and decided I was after something in the midrange, Gaggia, Imat (all versions) etc. Something Italian with a quality brass group-head and portafilter.

Having looked on Trademe for a couple of weeks, the only thing I had seen was a rather expensive Gaggia Coffee. Then a Gaggia Carezza 'Silver' was listed. I checked on CG and yes it had the same internals as any decent non 3-way valve Gaggia. Nasty plastic case, but the quality was where it needed to be, it also had very good reviews Gaggia Carezza.

It was going pretty cheaply with 2 mins left on the auction, and a short bidding war later it was mine for the grand total of NZ$72 - or about US$50. It was a local seller and I collected it the next day. I brought it home, filled it with some old pre-ground coffee I had in the freezer (yes I know, I know, but I couldn't wait) and made myself a Cappuccino. It was so much better than my old machine even on that first pull.

I drank it.

Then I looked at the white gunk at the bottom of my cup.

Then I looked at the dispersion screen and the portafilter.

I probably should have given it a good scrubbing - before drinking anything. Oops.

I also noticed a leak around the grouphead, and guessed it needed a new grouphead gasket/seal. I decided since it needed a good clean, I might as well take it apart and give it a good service.

This machine is the easiest thing ever to dismantle. 1 screw in the water funnel, 1 from the steam knob and the top comes off. Looking down inside I saw that there was corrosion on the 4 bolts holding the aluminum boiler to the grouphead. It was pretty obvious that the leak was here rather than the grouphead, so I ran the machine, and sure enough out the water came.

I loosened the 4 allan headed boiler bolts, removed the 4 self tapping screws, and the entire guts of the machine lifted out. The boiler was in pretty good condition, but there was a little scale which I removed manually. The most buildup was on the boiler o-ring and mating surface. I sanded this until smooth and popped down to the local bearing/seals shop and bought a high temp o-ring for NZ$2. I removed the dispersion screen and dispersion disc from the group head, and gave everything a good soaking in Tartaric acid (the Gaggia descale is Tartaric acid based). I avoided citric acid because of the aluminum, but it probably would have been OK. You can find the parts diagram here.

I then watched the video that came with the Carezza. I can now say 'Gaggia' and 'Carezza' properly.

Next day I bought a Sunbeam EM0480 grinder which also had great reviews on CG etc. Put my Carezza back together, ran through the 'new machine' start up sequence, turned the grinder to '11', ground my 3 day old beans into the portafilter (got coffee everywhere in the kitchen even with the silicone extension nozzle on the EM0480), tamped and brewed the best coffee I have ever made in my life! I had what looked like tiger stripping, and a beautiful thick mottled crema.

I think I like this hobby.

Shame about the milk frother. I did better next time with just the bare wand after removing the plastic pannarello and reading the milk frothing guide.

Things I do like about the Carezza:

1. Great quality bass group head and portafilter.
2. Wonderful coffee.
3. Very easy to service.
4. Amazing bargain.

Things I do not like about the Carezza:

1. World's worst drip tray.

I should probably at this point, admit I had also bid on an almost unused Francis Francis! X3 on Trademe. Which I also won. 1 day later. Hmmm.