The aesthetics of this 50’s machine are just outstanding. It baffles me that 70 years ago, designers where taking more risks than we do now, which makes the machine look like a piece of art.
I think that's just it. They were selling an aesthetic as much as anything else. They didn't care what it costs, they wanted you to go "Wow!" But now, only a fool buys a $6000+ espresso machine based on a 'wow' factor. You want to know statistics, value, materials, maintenance difficulty and cost, etc. Designing something beautiful requires you to hire an artist, which cuts into your profit unless you can justify their cost. I'm torn because I find things that are bare-minimum but quality to have their own beauty. For instance, I adore scientific glassware, I would legit just set up a distillation apparatus as a setpiece in my home. I also hate getting emotionally attached to objects, if it's ugly and it breaks, whatever, I get another one. But by the same token, nobody needs an espresso machine, if you are gonna have something that's inherently superfluous and luxury, why not make it beautiful?
Profits yes, but also design aesthetics change radically over time. It's only very recently that our palate of design preferences has returned to appreciating more flash and "statement" pieces. We lived a very long time in minimalist, industrial, post-modern design worlds, and we likely would have found a machine like this tacky and over-the-top (likely still beautiful in some respects, but in a "nice, but I wouldn't want it in my home" kind of way). Hard to go back in time and remember what you thought about design 5, 10, 20 years ago. Look at all the things you bought in those time periods. Would that machine fit in with those things?
Restaurateurs are always looking for statement pieces. It's a different esthetics, but Kees Van der Westen, XLVI, Slayer make gorgeous machines nowadays. It's La Marzocco that's stuck at the worst period of industrial design.
I want to see the baristas (or you!) make a coffee on this machine beginning to end! Also more B-roll of the machine please, I don’t feel like I had a good enough look at it.
I would have loved to see a documentary about the restoration of the machine or hear more from Enrico on how he brought this machine back to life. Would that be possible?
If James failed to arrange to have someone record the restoration of this machine that would be a shame. However, if that's the case, James should find another machine for restoration, record the restoration process, then do a documentary on the restoration which includes the history of the machines. Then after the video is uploaded on TH-cam put it up for auction on eBay. There are a ton of coffee aficionados out there who would pay a small fortune for such a piece of history...not to mention a piece of art.
Probably not that interesting if he didn't actually do video of the process. I have doubts he did. I'd think James would have thrown in clips of it. Also, it would have exploded his social media if he wanted it to. It's likely that's not the restorers thing
Wished that, too. Two thoughts are coming to my mind. 1. He does not want to spoil the experience of curious visitors by influencing it beforehand. He has a really refined taste and is versed in putting his sensation into words convincingly. If you share his taste, or not, his review would influence your own sensations somehow. 2. He could be underwhelmed by the machine, objectively from a standpoint of his categories of quality. It's a beautiful piece of history, but our taste developed to another place. And, I believe, modern standards of quality, too. So he politely does not destroy the romantic feelings about good old times. I bet, besides the aesthetic appeal of the whole endeavor, his personal interest is more in expanding his knowledge as a scholar of coffee across space and time, than romantic sentiment...
Giving customers the opportunity to have side-by-side espressos from the old world and new sounds almost worth a trip to London! Brilliant James. Thanks.
I genuinely don’t understand why you wouldn’t make this a fixture in your cafe. I can’t afford the time to fly to London on a moments notice, but this is exactly the experience that would put your cafe at the top of things to do in London in the next year or so.
I want to hear from Enrico how he feels seeing a machine like this in a cafe serving customers. I want to hear from the baristas how they feel to use it, like you said at the end of this that would be super interesting. I want to know how the customers felt about it all. Very cool to see this.
I cannot recommend enough the experience of getting your hands on an older commercial machine and having a play. I picked up a ruined Faema off eBay for next to nothing and coaxed it back to life (not perfect but able to pull shots) and learned so much about what an espresso machine actually is in the process. Also nothing exploded and I only flooded the kitchen twice.
Went yesterday morning! So much fun! My partner might have been a bit grumpy about traveling 30 minutes before our morning coffee or tea. But after seeing my shiny childish delight at watching that wonderful contraption handled like a Ferrari in the Scottish Highlands she was drawn in too. We are on holiday from Seattle and this was a fanboy highlight! Thanks so much to everyone who got this fantastical time travel experience created! The only thing that could have made this any better would be to do it again this morning maybe in a TARDIS.
I'd love to have seen more about the machine, how it is to use, the barista's and customer's opinions, etc. We had less than 1 minute of footage in the reveal of the machine and we didn't even see a full pour 😢 Fingers crossed for part 3!
But all it’s history has been erased. I think if the internals were made as new, but the external appearance just given a good clean so that you could see the wear and the history of being an old machine, not something just out of the showroom. Think of the wabi sabi.
I'm not sure how realistic it would be. But I imagine if you let other big names/known roasters around Europe borrow the machine and serve their own blends for some weeks, it would be interesting to see what everyone comes up with. Like Fuglen or Tim in Oslo vs Coffee Collective in Copenhagen.
I'd love to see this machine in a part 2 of a video collaboration with cat and cloud! Entirely selfish, but if it were ever to make a tour of the US, I'd hope that it or something else in the sf bay area would make the list.
A beautiful machine indeed. I was really hoping to see a clip of someone pulling a shot, that is using the lever, instead of just the coffee exiting the portafilter.
This video series was a little bit of a throwback to the initial vlogs on your channel which were more travel- and behind-the-scenes focused, and I love it. The machine isn't too shabby either ;) Great job James and co!
It would be nice seeing you in your studio actually reviewing and using the machine, not just a quick montage of it in action. But still, great video like always!! ❤️
Absolutely drop dead gorgeous restoration. As a thought on what to do next, how about making it portable and placing it in a van and deliver espresso at events around the area. A 1950's Lancia Appia Furgoncino for example ;-) Cheers from Canada!!
Many, many years ago I worked on a film set with Johnny - who went on to found Jet Fuel Coffee in Toronto - as part of the craft servicing team. Him and his partners had a vintage, espresso machine in the back of a cube van powered - somehow - by gas in tanks. They would pull shots for the crew in the morning. The coffee was glorious. The van went to the country, into the city, out to a farm, all over to the locations the film crew went on location to shoot. Unfortunately, the film crew complained because at a 6:00 am call they wanted volumes of coffee, not espresso perfection. Eventually the craft service team got replaced with someone who ran a large scale drop filter maker.
Saving this gem was a great decision to begin with. Making it available to (a small part of) the public is such a wonderful idea, I wish I would need to travel to London in the coming weeks. For sure I entered the coffee give away, but the real question is: now that you have gone through the process of creating a coffee blend, why not offering it as a regular product? You could start a renaissance of the classic espresso. As for the machine… a roadshow might be too much. But a historic coffee bar / working museum might be a tourist attraction!? Add a couple other machines from different periods to the collection and use them in a bar. You only would need a larger batch of your own very good coffee blend for that. ;)
I think it would be interesting to do a blind taste test between this restored vintage machine, a new comparable commercial/coffee shop level machine, a high end home machine and a cheap home machine to see how they stack up and how commercial compares to home and cheap compares to expensive compares to vintage.
Yes! Every weird coffee experiment on this channel has to include putting it through the vintage espresso machine! Genius! You've definitely cracked the code!!!!
I like the idea, but I kinda feel it would benefit from some non-industry tasters... Or newer baristas as opposed to expert roasters who have all the hints for tasting the differences. Or would a panel of newer baristas be able to keep up with James and his tasting team?
I'm certain this has been said over and over....but this restoration is astounding, breath taking. It's a level of beauty and quality I wish were more accessible now.
I love how Onyx does their "Southern Weather" blend (others too I believe). They have a specific flavor profile they want and every 2-3 months they do a blind cupping to find the in-season coffee(s) that will continue give them that profile. Brilliant.
That's a beautiful restoration! As a commercial lever machine user, and a fan of Italian espresso (blended) vs espresso 2.0 (generally single origin or weird blends), this was a wonderful project to follow so far. I absolutely agree that blending is an art that VERY few modern roasters know very well. We're lucking here in the Philadelphia region to have La Colombe, a local company that does an excellent job of roasting blends that make awesome Italian style espresso. There's also Fante's here, which has some blends they've been making for generations that I always enjoy, including blends of variously roasted coffees blended after roasting (a mix of medium and dark roasts, giving the blend a beautiful appearance). I would appreciate seeing more of the use of the lever machine, barista feedback, differences in dialing in grind, etc., but I don't have any better ideas than others for what should ultimately happen with the machine. Something tells me it should maybe make its way back to Italia...
It's absolutely beautiful. Who could have imagined it would turn out like that... I think it should become part of a coffee cart so you can take it anywhere and share the experience with people.
@@Shadowguy456234 And it is true that the oil may not have changed much and it also depends on the thickness but the refining of gasoline has changed enormously since the 50s since they took the lead out and raised the octane it is dangerous to drive an old car with gasoline of the present for that's the lead substitute but that's a topic for motor enthusiasts and here I doubt that people know about it the reality is that vintage things will never work the same as they did in the past since many of those products no longer exist...
@@edwardtan1354 : Would love to see him try to grow one of those !... 🤣... And then sell the plants ! .... Now there's a new shop idea. Why waste those beans? I was going to say should he mix it like old wines and blend it? But that may not past regulation these days... lol... Plants it is.
it's certainly a gorgeous machine. I would've liked to see someone especially you James actually drink some coffee from this long awaited machine. I guess I was waiting for the Wow, that's Sooo good , smooth etc. but we didn't see that.
Oh my God, missed this project by literally one day! Devastated. In terms of the future, please do an episode from your studio showing us the ins and outs, showing you dialing in on it
@@rivenwyrm I really appreciate this positive comment, however I left London last weekend for New York City :-( stuck here and broke lol. BUT I have ordered the amazing new Italian style blend.
Could the machine become part of an ongoing collaboration with some of the “old school” coffee shops/roasters in and around London? A semi-permanent pop up sort of thing? It’s absolutely beautiful, by the way. Would love to be able to visit and try the coffees side by side.
I'd a similar thought, to open a small specialty shop in the coffee lovers' area of London, with this and perhaps a few other machines, and styles (African, South American, Middle Eastern, Scandinavian, etc) prepared in an hommage to their origins. An "International Experience" coffee shop, that is true to the styles presented.
I think this is amazing ! Those machines were built for cafes and seeing one being back into one is just epic.. That to me is Really different than having one at home. It's like owning an old rolls and having it sleeping all year long in the garage compared to really using it to drive people from fancy hotels to fancy restaurants, daily.
I would love to see this beautiful machine from the 50s do a road trip visiting nursing homes to bring some warm coffee love and nostalgia to a generation that may remember such machines from their younger days. I recently bought a modern classic cafe racer motorbike, and love seeing the smiles from older gents and having a chat with them wherever I park up. Congrats on the machine, she’s a beauty 😍
Congratulations! It's beautiful. You can hear and feel James' excitement with this machine, understandably so. Being able to restore something to it's former glory, and more importantly, put it back into use - fantastic! I hope it draws in the crowds. May not be using 70 year old coffee, but it's using 70 year old technology and methods to brew something that you cannot get at your average ****bucks (another good thing). What to do with it after the 6 week trial; showcase it, show it off, enable as many people to get a different coffee experience. When the weather is good, throw it on a bike trailer and travel around the City with it. I guarantee it will pull in the punters and maybe get someone new into coffee!
I always enjoy the softly geeky quality of the videos on this channel. For me, in this episode, James revealed his romantic attachment to coffee perfection which I find utterly engaging.
Just sublime. The original design that is perfectly of its time. It's resurrection into an engineered work of functional art. It's role in delivering a homage to times long forgotten. Thank you for taking us on the journey and I look forward to adventures yet to be discovered. Just buying a bag of Il Grifone now but I may need to (finally) buy the machine I want that will do it more justice than my current bean to cup - Silvia Pro X and predictably a Niche Zero. (unless any of the many experts on here recommend something else)
Why is this video not 3x longer?! You made your own roast for this?! Tell me more!!! Enrico did special training on the machine?!? Tell me more!! You did blind tasting for the Square Mile Team?!?!?! Tell me more!!!!! And yes, we want updates on what the baristas think. We want every ounce of detail about this machine! Every. Damn. Ounce. *Whoops, I mean Gram.
I tried coffee once in my entire life, during my grandad's funeral (back in 1970's Baghdad), and I hated it ever since... The coffee was, super dark, super black, super thick, super bitter Arabic coffee, in a small ceramic cawa cup... I still love ground & roasted coffee smell, when passing the various cafes in Baghdad, and I think that's the reason why I'm watching your videos, to bring back those memories...
I would love a video of it actually being used and talked through the operations and actually see shots being pulled. Maybe compare the actual operations of it to a newer machine.
Bellissima! ...but the journey from it's sorry abandoned state to its glorious rebirth is what I wanted to see... I hope you captured that journey and can share it with us in the future...
As an avid cyclist with a great love for vintage cycling heritage (in which Faema has a beautiful legacy), espresso lover, enthousiastic owner of a Cafelat Robot (the modern interpretation of a Faemina Baby) and admirer of vintage styling in general, this video tugged at all my heartstrings. A tour of Europe in pop-up coffee bars - maybe with references to the Faema Cycling Team from the 50s and early 60s?.. - would be the stuff of dreams. I would definitely make a trip to, say, Brussels for that!
Maybe he and his team, or find local collaborators who might just enter the Red Bull Soapbox Race in London for next year ? It's probably a lot of work though.... You need someone with a basic cart, and a lot of papier-mâché. :)
I'd love to see more about this machine. How it operates and how different the process is, how espresso machines evolved over time, etc. Manual espresso machines are so interesting.
Hey James 👋🏼Greetings from South Africa, Long time since used to walk couple arches down to pick up some Tubes of Square Mile for Kichuli on the Corner of Kingsland & Bethnal Green, watching you and the team pass by headed to the post office to mail off orders. This absolutely transported me from the days of drinking Espresso at "Ace Cafe" on lower Marsh Market in the tiny Scooter shop and Garage. And being served Espresso from their Faima Lever Press it was magical. Thanks for this little treat, looks like your also expanded from the arches congrats Nicholas (formerly from Coffee & Antiques the old Sand Pit om the Corner 🙂)
Congrats on the restoration!!! Make an alive coffee museum, where people can come in and taste of coffee and understand how it would have tasted from these machines (considering you will have more).
It's beautiful!! Fantastic that you roasted a special coffee for it. The machine comes out, along with your specialty coffee for it, during the week of Valentine's Day, each year.
Ideas for future content: 1. Get an equally impressive vintage italian grinder and/or roaster restored and pair them up together - ideally in a small italian motorcycle themed cafe space 2. Deep dive on roasting for blends / making more blends besides il grifone - maybe interview a 2nd wave coffee guru who made a famous blend 3. Video "debrief" with the baristas after using it for 6 weeks - what did they love / hate if anything 4. In-depth review from James - show more of the internals and ideally make newer specialty coffee with the old machine & il grifone with a modern machine to a/b them
Thanks for the bag of coffee! Brewed first cups on a Flair classic (with gauge upgrade) today and 12g in 26 out worked a charm. The 14% Yemen really peaks through - quite interesting. So fare it has been shared with 5 people and all was happy with the result. - even saved the first try that was more like a turbo shot and quite under extracted by taking the puck in a Hario Switch and adding 140g 85 degree water (Celsius) and steep for 1 minute and then combine the shot with the V60 for a nice full extracted pour over - however had to add a touch of cream to really enjoy the cup - but better than wasting it. - Will share with a few other and try a few other machines over the week - but so fare really enjoying the blend and roasting level.
This came in just right for my coffee pilgrimage to London. What a surprise! Can't wait to watch this piece of craftsmanship at work. See you at Prufrock.
I have been running this same machine in my house for 8 years (also using VST baskets). It handles modern single origin specialty coffee quite nicely actually. For pure quality in the cup I'd put it against pretty much any modern machine. There are many, very good online communities full of people using lever machines, even vintage lever machines, with modern coffees; they pair quite nicely.
As someone that left the whiskey world for the coffee world, he’s right about the blending. Whiskey blenders go through rigorous tasting tests (triangles, picking the odd one out, etc) and are paid big money to create a consistent product. Hopefully things change and continue to evolve in the right direction.
Italian barista from Naples here! I really enjoyed espresso with Indian monsooned coffee, dark roasted. I don't like lever machines, yeah their pretty but you need to use more coffee, you need a teaspoon to stop your coffee, you can't make a perfect milk foam because the pression is very high. My first coffee machine was a Faema E61 ❤️
I know logistically it could be a nightmare, but I would love to see the machine on a UK tour all around the country so that it’s not just London which gets all the fun from experiencing it
I mean, considering that it's a manual fill machine that can run off gas, mounting in to a portable cart, trailer, or van wouldn't be super difficult, as long as the machine can handle being transported.
You could auction it and donate the proceeds to a local small coffee grower community (there are plenty in Latin America) or any other charity. The machine could be exhibited at a design museum. Or used to train new baristas not just on old techniques but the mechanical equipment allows for a different learning experience. You could set up a slow-coffee shop. Similar concept to the slow-food (opposite of fast-food), where things just take time to be prepared because there is a pleasure in going slow.
The machine should travel the world and do a book tour for you... Instead of just the author touring the world, the machine goes to different great cafes around the world and do a tour, you sell the experience and the book along with it
We just happened to be in London (on holiday from Australia) when part two of this video dropped! So we had to go to Prufrock Cafe today. What a beautiful machine! I'm normally a latte drinker, but the flavours from that espresso. Quite amazing! Great experience and fantastic staff in the cafe too.
This should form the centre-peice of a new Museum of Coffee. Absolutely not a static exhibition but something that gets used and shown off in all it's glory! I would be first inline on openning day. I'd like to sumup my suggestion with a quote for Blackadder III "Sensible policies for a happier Britian"
Using older technology, learning a forgotten skill, is extremely satisfying. I drove an old tow truck for a while whose wrecker unit was made before hydraulic tow trucks became popular. It was direct drive from a pto shaft from the engine. Two winches, 5 controls. One control for each winch to engage it to the drive shaft, another to each winch for the ratchet to keep the cable from upspooling, and the last to work the clutch in between the pto and the drive shaft. Engage the clutch and the cable for the selected winch(es) to wind the cable in, feather the clutch to control the speed the cable winds out, and never, ever engage the ratchets when the cable was unspooling or the gear teeth would break off. All with a couple of thousand pounds of weight at the cable end. And if there was no weight on the cable, make sure there was some kind of tension on it or you'll end up with a rat's nest of the first couple of layers of cable around the drum. Seriously, a lot of fun. And I believe most cranes back in the day worked the same way.
I'm from Melbourne, and naturally fall into the coffee nerd category. As luck would have it, I ended up in London this week and was able to have espresso from the Faema (yes it was delicious). James - please please send this to Melbourne next!!! There are so many roasters like Axil, Seven Seeds, St Ali, Market Lane, Parde... that would love to put a limited blend together and host the machine, as much as there would be so many people in Melbourne that would love the experience. Send it our way James!
It would be interesting to see its operation by different baristas at the cafe profiled and compared to their operation of a modern machine to see how it differs from a modern machine and varies from user to user, including how people feel about using it and why they choose certain workflows. Maybe even comparing profiles from when people first start using it to when it is taken out of service at the cafe. I love seeing how people develop a relationship with tools that provide subtle feedback through things like noises and handfeel. Qualitative and quantitative! I would also be interested to learn about the kinds of coffee supply chains and drinks that would have been most common when that machine was first sold, and compare the drinks it produces from an approximation of those beans to what a contemporary machine would make of them. Maybe its particular pattern of extraction is desirable when all the beans are rubbery and stale? I have no idea! Doesn't have to be ACTUAL 1950s espresso unless you want to punish yourself again!
Suggestion for your consideration James. Get hold of or obtain a few other “old/older” machines of a similar vintage (2 or 3 in all), and open a coffee house specifically serving coffee from vintage machines with a blend style of coffee possibly used in those machines. Retro style decor and seating. Old fashioned biscuits and pastries served as well. Got to be a winner.
Absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing all this. Can't tell you how much joy this brings. I was wondering what type of recipe you are using for the Il Grifone (temp, dose, yield etc). I have ordered a bag and look forward to trying it on my 1968 La Pavoni Europiccola (and possibly even on my GS/3). I'm not as well versed in the preparation of Italian style blends. Look forward to hearing more about the machine as well. Thanks for all you do!
Oh hell yes I'm in the UK (from Canada) for the first time in 30 years this week and I'll be in London next week (AFTER the funeral thank goodness) AND I'm staying within walking distance of Prufrock Coffee so I will most certainly be there.
I love the machine. My father's family is from Brescia, right by the Guarda Lake. I also love Italian traditional espresso, and would be thrilled to try a bag of the blend you mentioned if I could get one here in California.
I've been looking forward to this video, and I look forward to hearing the baristas feelings after working with this beautiful machine for a few weeks. I fell in love with lever espresso machines the first time I saw a La Pavoni, over 15 years ago when I was working as a barista. It became a dream of mine to one day own one. Last year I made that dream a reality when I bought a 30 year old La Pavoni and restored it myself. Before that I hadn't had home espresso, just French press and pour over. Over the past year I've fallen even more in love with my little machine and I love the results I get. I can't imagine using it in a busy commercial setting, however! Of course, it was never designed for a commercial setting and your machine was so I expect that'll make a difference. Still, though, it'll be different and, as I said, I'm really interested to hear how it goes!
I actually stopped the video to check if it was playing at 1.25 speed :D This video left me wanting more. This machine deserves more. A video about the technical aspects of the restoration and how to work it. Benefits and chalenges. Plus, a note on the espresso it produces.
Had to swing by Prufrocks for the head-to/head challenge. Both delicious but (tasting blind) preferred the simplicity of the old school. Gorgeous machine too. Thank you for letting us play!
Been looking forward to the restoration of this beautiful machine. If There's any coffee bags left I'd love to try it. But understand if it's all gone 😁. Keep the video's coming. Love them.
My suggestion for what to do with the machine going forward is to leave it at the café, but only have it operating on certain days, like "way-back Wednesdays". Every Wednesday patrons can visit the café and have an espresso from a beautiful vintage machine - this way the machine is used regularly, but not daily. Whatever you do going forward, hopefully the machine will be used and not left to deteriorate. Beautiful restoration by the way and great to see people enjoying the fruits of your and Enrico's labour!
Really hope you consider make this a permanent installation. I'm sure many international viewers would love to come by when they next have a chance to travel.
And also.. based on his various videos... it is for certain that, a more "modern" piece of equipment, actually makes a different cup of coffee, in comparison to one that was based on a more rustic method. I can see why he keeps referring to a "lighter roast". Cos if you grind any more finer, you basically is just eating the raw coffee bean. Which is a seed, of a berry. One thing I have not seen him do, is to check how much caffeine exists in a lighter roast, to a darker roast. I think if he did that, he will find that interesting. Cos the result speaks for itself, why the preferences between light and dark. e.g. modern machine + light roast + more (finer) grams = osmosis, surface chemistry older machine + darker roast + coarser grams (pressure based) = atmospheric pressure extractions I can see why pods are popular... cos its also extracting the oil. Not just the flavour based off the surface chemistry ?
That looks fantastic. I feel like there's at least one video in doing a back to back three way comparisson: a modern roast in an old cafe machine, an enthusiasts home setup, and a new cafe machine. You could continue this further with a more old fashioned roast, and maybe your grifone roast in the same way. I'm really very curious as to how your customers experienced their coffee through this older machine, whether they noticed an appreciable difference and how the older way of doing things might open up possibilities like longer draws or different ratios. You're well placed to answer whether the maths of an espresso translates directly to the consumer experience.
The supply-chain is still working ? Fantastic ! Just 3 days for shipping? Really ? With the scaremongering of burning potatoes and things... many of us is not sure...So how come he managed to get this out so quickly then when we have a customs-based issue right now in exporting process?
Hello James! if you'd ask me about the journey of the vintage lever machine, I would suggest maybe give it its own cafe? I mean thinking about it, how would it blend into to the coffee world of modernity? maybe recreate its own cafe as to reminisce and for the people to reminisce what kind cafe would it be like inside of the vintage machine. Would love to brew some coffee on that machine. Thank you for letting us see it! Enjoy the day!
Leave the mashine right there in that café! let it become that icon that it is! with the right marketing people will come from all over the place just to try it! with time it'll become more and more famous and voila! you have got yourself a coffee-tourist attraction! I would personally go there just to try it if I've ever around London! so please, keep it available to the public :)
Yeh.... those marketing execs..... ;) Some have moved back up North though ! Oops. They can afford it to be frank... What do I think ? I think that he should provide some kind of outsourced machine and coffee blend to the local council's Christmas office party. ;) (You did not hear my suggestions from here....) Lol.... I'm sure that James & co have paid enough business rates.... :) Now, THAT is how you do business. Not just online, offline can be a possibility too.
I think adding it to the studio setup to occasionally use coffee-related things would be nice. When reviewing a grinder or something else James could be feeling vintage that day.
It was only a couple of days ago that I was wondering whatever had become of this story/machine. How delightful that it is back in service in a commercial situation. Heart-breaking that I'll never get back to London to try it. Perhaps it needs to go on a Grand World Tour!
You give the details of the espresso blend profile to six different specialty roasters around the world, and they do their best to create their own style of that blend for the machine. You then tour the machine around to those roasters and they host it for four weeks selling their blend in it (much like you did in this video). Customers can pay for an espresso from it, or they can order the comparison tray to see if they can taste differences, and thus expanding their coffee knowledge/experience. You also get to travel with the machine, profile the roasters, and try their version of the blend. Which gives you an adventure as well as some interesting content.
Wow to see how this machine has been restored, and back and doing what it was designed to do serve great espresso. Can’t wait to see how the Baristas enjoyed using it or not. We have it easy with push button machines. Bring back some showmanship behind the machine.
This is one unforgettable video to watch! I had a goose skin the moment the crate was open - instantly recognized FAEMA! We chose FAENA E61 for our small vintage coffee shop in China, and the design of E61 hasn't changed a bit since 1961! The one Mr.Hoffmann has chosen is almost identical in design, but, of course, the modern one is less fun to play since the water supply is automatic! (might think different during rush in the shop) FAEMA is truly a piece of art! I'm not paid to advertise it, but my heart skips a beat when I see it!
Enrico really did do an amazing job. Those classic espresso machines really had a range of aesthetics, but some of them just transcend a functional piece of equipment into becoming a work of art unto themselves. It's a work of art with permanence, being made of polished steel and plastic, that makes very ephemeral works of art for the customer to enjoy and consume. Truly stunning.
Love to see this machine take a world tour, James should tag along as well. Maybe some Barista fans have a locations to properly feature the machine and the art of coffee it can provide.
I'd actually like to have seen someone actually make an espresso on it! It is incredibly beautiful as an art piece of chrome, brass & plastic... but its a working thing. I'd love to see that. Your analogy of a classic car was good...but that was what I love about driving them, the experience, the feel, seeing those engineered parts move in unison to produce something. I received my signed copy of your new book the other day. One of many books on food & drinks for my Autumn reading enjoyment. Have only dipped in so far, but very enjoyable. Especially with a good coffee & a savoury treat.
It's just so cool to see your take on application of craft coffee, coffee culture and development, etc. I feel like you are putting your money where your mouth is and following your inspiration. Hard work really shows and flows into others. Amazing job
Oh, James, you have stirred old memories and new lust. There is a balcony above Gargnano on Lake Garuda that is my favorite place on earth. And, your new machine is lovely beyond words. I want to stroke its polished chrome and just stare at it’s magnificence. Enjoy!
The aesthetics of this 50’s machine are just outstanding. It baffles me that 70 years ago, designers where taking more risks than we do now, which makes the machine look like a piece of art.
It was about making a statement, creating something beautiful. Now, most people want as much profit as possible
I think that's just it. They were selling an aesthetic as much as anything else. They didn't care what it costs, they wanted you to go "Wow!" But now, only a fool buys a $6000+ espresso machine based on a 'wow' factor. You want to know statistics, value, materials, maintenance difficulty and cost, etc. Designing something beautiful requires you to hire an artist, which cuts into your profit unless you can justify their cost.
I'm torn because I find things that are bare-minimum but quality to have their own beauty. For instance, I adore scientific glassware, I would legit just set up a distillation apparatus as a setpiece in my home. I also hate getting emotionally attached to objects, if it's ugly and it breaks, whatever, I get another one. But by the same token, nobody needs an espresso machine, if you are gonna have something that's inherently superfluous and luxury, why not make it beautiful?
Profits yes, but also design aesthetics change radically over time. It's only very recently that our palate of design preferences has returned to appreciating more flash and "statement" pieces. We lived a very long time in minimalist, industrial, post-modern design worlds, and we likely would have found a machine like this tacky and over-the-top (likely still beautiful in some respects, but in a "nice, but I wouldn't want it in my home" kind of way).
Hard to go back in time and remember what you thought about design 5, 10, 20 years ago. Look at all the things you bought in those time periods. Would that machine fit in with those things?
@@segamble1679 Apple’s minimalist design language spilled over to so many other areas. Things look so sterile now.
Restaurateurs are always looking for statement pieces. It's a different esthetics, but Kees Van der Westen, XLVI, Slayer make gorgeous machines nowadays. It's La Marzocco that's stuck at the worst period of industrial design.
I want to see the baristas (or you!) make a coffee on this machine beginning to end!
Also more B-roll of the machine please, I don’t feel like I had a good enough look at it.
This is what I was going to comment.
This. Would love to see a shot pulled start-to-finish in real-time.
Yes!
I would have loved to see a documentary about the restoration of the machine or hear more from Enrico on how he brought this machine back to life. Would that be possible?
Oh yeah I was really hoping for more details about that.
I'd love that too
That would make for a wonderful and informative experience, if it was possible
If James failed to arrange to have someone record the restoration of this machine that would be a shame. However, if that's the case, James should find another machine for restoration, record the restoration process, then do a documentary on the restoration which includes the history of the machines. Then after the video is uploaded on TH-cam put it up for auction on eBay. There are a ton of coffee aficionados out there who would pay a small fortune for such a piece of history...not to mention a piece of art.
Probably not that interesting if he didn't actually do video of the process. I have doubts he did. I'd think James would have thrown in clips of it. Also, it would have exploded his social media if he wanted it to. It's likely that's not the restorers thing
This might sound obvious but I’d love to see James’ impressions from using the machine at the studio and his detailed review.
Yes!
Me too! Was waiting for his thoughts of the espresso.
Wished that, too. Two thoughts are coming to my mind. 1. He does not want to spoil the experience of curious visitors by influencing it beforehand. He has a really refined taste and is versed in putting his sensation into words convincingly. If you share his taste, or not, his review would influence your own sensations somehow. 2. He could be underwhelmed by the machine, objectively from a standpoint of his categories of quality. It's a beautiful piece of history, but our taste developed to another place. And, I believe, modern standards of quality, too. So he politely does not destroy the romantic feelings about good old times. I bet, besides the aesthetic appeal of the whole endeavor, his personal interest is more in expanding his knowledge as a scholar of coffee across space and time, than romantic sentiment...
Definitely a good follow up video
Giving customers the opportunity to have side-by-side espressos from the old world and new sounds almost worth a trip to London! Brilliant James. Thanks.
I was thinking the same, haha
Believe me, its worth it
It would be worth a trip to London to share a cup 'o Joe with you James.
I just want him to whisper coffee facts into my ears while I slowly sip away my espresso. No homo
I genuinely don’t understand why you wouldn’t make this a fixture in your cafe. I can’t afford the time to fly to London on a moments notice, but this is exactly the experience that would put your cafe at the top of things to do in London in the next year or so.
I want to hear from Enrico how he feels seeing a machine like this in a cafe serving customers. I want to hear from the baristas how they feel to use it, like you said at the end of this that would be super interesting. I want to know how the customers felt about it all. Very cool to see this.
Yes
Yes, too
Agreed!
Hell yes !!
I agree with the agreeers
I cannot recommend enough the experience of getting your hands on an older commercial machine and having a play. I picked up a ruined Faema off eBay for next to nothing and coaxed it back to life (not perfect but able to pull shots) and learned so much about what an espresso machine actually is in the process. Also nothing exploded and I only flooded the kitchen twice.
Haha, that's a bit much for me but I sometimes see cheap Pavonis. That might be within my capabilities to restore. Faema is a complicated machine.
😅😅😅
"If there's no explosions, then what's the point" is a sentiment I find applicable in every aspect of life
How was the coffee you produced?
Went yesterday morning! So much fun! My partner might have been a bit grumpy about traveling 30 minutes before our morning coffee or tea. But after seeing my shiny childish delight at watching that wonderful contraption handled like a Ferrari in the Scottish Highlands she was drawn in too. We are on holiday from Seattle and this was a fanboy highlight! Thanks so much to everyone who got this fantastical time travel experience created! The only thing that could have made this any better would be to do it again this morning maybe in a TARDIS.
Where is it, I want to got too? Can’t find the address.
I found the location. It was a perfect espresso ☕️
I can’t brew such a perfect espresso at home *sigh* 🖖🏼
I'd love to have seen more about the machine, how it is to use, the barista's and customer's opinions, etc. We had less than 1 minute of footage in the reveal of the machine and we didn't even see a full pour 😢
Fingers crossed for part 3!
the restoration is superb! 😌
But all it’s history has been erased. I think if the internals were made as new, but the external appearance just given a good clean so that you could see the wear and the history of being an old machine, not something just out of the showroom. Think of the wabi sabi.
I'm not sure how realistic it would be. But I imagine if you let other big names/known roasters around Europe borrow the machine and serve their own blends for some weeks, it would be interesting to see what everyone comes up with. Like Fuglen or Tim in Oslo vs Coffee Collective in Copenhagen.
I second this
Love the idea! I would add The Barn from Berlin to the list.
Yes please!
I'd love to see this machine in a part 2 of a video collaboration with cat and cloud! Entirely selfish, but if it were ever to make a tour of the US, I'd hope that it or something else in the sf bay area would make the list.
I like this
A beautiful machine indeed. I was really hoping to see a clip of someone pulling a shot, that is using the lever, instead of just the coffee exiting the portafilter.
Exactly, I was anticipating the lever "money shot" but was left unsatisfied :(
I agree, at least one shot of someone pulling the lever! Please!
Me three on this one. I would also have loved to have heard how the coffee tasted, and what the baristas thought about the experience.
The video os 80% talking, 10% ad, 5% pixels and 5% a shaky view of the machine. Shame on James :(
This video series was a little bit of a throwback to the initial vlogs on your channel which were more travel- and behind-the-scenes focused, and I love it. The machine isn't too shabby either ;)
Great job James and co!
Agreed got flashbacks to James walking around Central London in those videos all those years ago
It would be nice seeing you in your studio actually reviewing and using the machine, not just a quick montage of it in action. But still, great video like always!! ❤️
Absolutely drop dead gorgeous restoration. As a thought on what to do next, how about making it portable and placing it in a van and deliver espresso at events around the area. A 1950's Lancia Appia Furgoncino for example ;-) Cheers from Canada!!
Many, many years ago I worked on a film set with Johnny - who went on to found Jet Fuel Coffee in Toronto - as part of the craft servicing team. Him and his partners had a vintage, espresso machine in the back of a cube van powered - somehow - by gas in tanks. They would pull shots for the crew in the morning. The coffee was glorious. The van went to the country, into the city, out to a farm, all over to the locations the film crew went on location to shoot. Unfortunately, the film crew complained because at a 6:00 am call they wanted volumes of coffee, not espresso perfection. Eventually the craft service team got replaced with someone who ran a large scale drop filter maker.
Different cities could race each other to see how many shots they can pull before the Lancia breaks down ;)
Saving this gem was a great decision to begin with. Making it available to (a small part of) the public is such a wonderful idea, I wish I would need to travel to London in the coming weeks. For sure I entered the coffee give away, but the real question is: now that you have gone through the process of creating a coffee blend, why not offering it as a regular product? You could start a renaissance of the classic espresso.
As for the machine… a roadshow might be too much. But a historic coffee bar / working museum might be a tourist attraction!? Add a couple other machines from different periods to the collection and use them in a bar. You only would need a larger batch of your own very good coffee blend for that. ;)
I think it would be interesting to do a blind taste test between this restored vintage machine, a new comparable commercial/coffee shop level machine, a high end home machine and a cheap home machine to see how they stack up and how commercial compares to home and cheap compares to expensive compares to vintage.
That would be sick
Yes! Every weird coffee experiment on this channel has to include putting it through the vintage espresso machine! Genius! You've definitely cracked the code!!!!
I like the idea, but I kinda feel it would benefit from some non-industry tasters... Or newer baristas as opposed to expert roasters who have all the hints for tasting the differences. Or would a panel of newer baristas be able to keep up with James and his tasting team?
I'm certain this has been said over and over....but this restoration is astounding, breath taking. It's a level of beauty and quality I wish were more accessible now.
I love how Onyx does their "Southern Weather" blend (others too I believe). They have a specific flavor profile they want and every 2-3 months they do a blind cupping to find the in-season coffee(s) that will continue give them that profile. Brilliant.
That's a beautiful restoration! As a commercial lever machine user, and a fan of Italian espresso (blended) vs espresso 2.0 (generally single origin or weird blends), this was a wonderful project to follow so far. I absolutely agree that blending is an art that VERY few modern roasters know very well. We're lucking here in the Philadelphia region to have La Colombe, a local company that does an excellent job of roasting blends that make awesome Italian style espresso. There's also Fante's here, which has some blends they've been making for generations that I always enjoy, including blends of variously roasted coffees blended after roasting (a mix of medium and dark roasts, giving the blend a beautiful appearance). I would appreciate seeing more of the use of the lever machine, barista feedback, differences in dialing in grind, etc., but I don't have any better ideas than others for what should ultimately happen with the machine. Something tells me it should maybe make its way back to Italia...
It's absolutely beautiful. Who could have imagined it would turn out like that... I think it should become part of a coffee cart so you can take it anywhere and share the experience with people.
I mean he did spend a lot of money on it, so it's not like it'd look like crap 😂 but seriously it's beautiful
yup this was what I was thinking, have it as a mobile coffee experience
Brings back memories. It looks so much like the machines I used to get espresso from when I first started drinking espresso in the mid '60s.
James: goes into intricate detail about making an Italian espresso blend
Me, an intellectual: duh, 1950s machine means 1950s coffee
James needs to revisit the old coffee beans from previous videos
... a bit like running a classic car with oil and gas from that era 😅
@@Shadowguy456234 And it is true that the oil may not have changed much and it also depends on the thickness but the refining of gasoline has changed enormously since the 50s since they took the lead out and raised the octane it is dangerous to drive an old car with gasoline of the present for that's the lead substitute but that's a topic for motor enthusiasts and here I doubt that people know about it the reality is that vintage things will never work the same as they did in the past since many of those products no longer exist...
Time to bring out the green beans from the 1930s
@@edwardtan1354 : Would love to see him try to grow one of those !... 🤣... And then sell the plants ! .... Now there's a new shop idea. Why waste those beans? I was going to say should he mix it like old wines and blend it? But that may not past regulation these days... lol... Plants it is.
it's certainly a gorgeous machine. I would've liked to see someone especially you James actually drink some coffee from this long awaited machine. I guess I was waiting for the Wow, that's Sooo good , smooth etc. but we didn't see that.
Oh my God, missed this project by literally one day! Devastated. In terms of the future, please do an episode from your studio showing us the ins and outs, showing you dialing in on it
That was my thought too! I would love to see a dialling in episode. Perhaps also with a modern reference point. Just like the set up in Prufrock.
He says it'll be in prufrock for about 6 weeks from posting of the video. You have time...
@@rivenwyrm I really appreciate this positive comment, however I left London last weekend for New York City :-( stuck here and broke lol. BUT I have ordered the amazing new Italian style blend.
@@tristanmccoppin5761 Oh... damn... Well that is a major bummer. I hope the blend is delish though.
@@rivenwyrm metoo
Could the machine become part of an ongoing collaboration with some of the “old school” coffee shops/roasters in and around London? A semi-permanent pop up sort of thing? It’s absolutely beautiful, by the way. Would love to be able to visit and try the coffees side by side.
I'd a similar thought, to open a small specialty shop in the coffee lovers' area of London, with this and perhaps a few other machines, and styles (African, South American, Middle Eastern, Scandinavian, etc) prepared in an hommage to their origins. An "International Experience" coffee shop, that is true to the styles presented.
I think this is amazing ! Those machines were built for cafes and seeing one being back into one is just epic.. That to me is Really different than having one at home. It's like owning an old rolls and having it sleeping all year long in the garage compared to really using it to drive people from fancy hotels to fancy restaurants, daily.
I would love to see this beautiful machine from the 50s do a road trip visiting nursing homes to bring some warm coffee love and nostalgia to a generation that may remember such machines from their younger days.
I recently bought a modern classic cafe racer motorbike, and love seeing the smiles from older gents and having a chat with them wherever I park up. Congrats on the machine, she’s a beauty 😍
I'm supposed to be working right now!!! Aah well, this is waaaay more interesting :o)
Congratulations! It's beautiful. You can hear and feel James' excitement with this machine, understandably so. Being able to restore something to it's former glory, and more importantly, put it back into use - fantastic! I hope it draws in the crowds. May not be using 70 year old coffee, but it's using 70 year old technology and methods to brew something that you cannot get at your average ****bucks (another good thing). What to do with it after the 6 week trial; showcase it, show it off, enable as many people to get a different coffee experience. When the weather is good, throw it on a bike trailer and travel around the City with it. I guarantee it will pull in the punters and maybe get someone new into coffee!
Or he can do odd events at the London's local Art schools and unis... Or use it as lecture theatre materials on product designs.
I always enjoy the softly geeky quality of the videos on this channel. For me, in this episode, James revealed his romantic attachment to coffee perfection which I find utterly engaging.
Just sublime. The original design that is perfectly of its time. It's resurrection into an engineered work of functional art. It's role in delivering a homage to times long forgotten. Thank you for taking us on the journey and I look forward to adventures yet to be discovered. Just buying a bag of Il Grifone now but I may need to (finally) buy the machine I want that will do it more justice than my current bean to cup - Silvia Pro X and predictably a Niche Zero. (unless any of the many experts on here recommend something else)
Why is this video not 3x longer?!
You made your own roast for this?! Tell me more!!!
Enrico did special training on the machine?!? Tell me more!!
You did blind tasting for the Square Mile Team?!?!?! Tell me more!!!!!
And yes, we want updates on what the baristas think. We want every ounce of detail about this machine!
Every. Damn. Ounce.
*Whoops, I mean Gram.
That’s exactly what I feel too!. Would be nice to see where the lever catches and it moving up as the expresso is being extracted.
There could probably be three more parts to this series lol.
100%!
I tried coffee once in my entire life, during my grandad's funeral (back in 1970's Baghdad), and I hated it ever since... The coffee was, super dark, super black, super thick, super bitter Arabic coffee, in a small ceramic cawa cup...
I still love ground & roasted coffee smell, when passing the various cafes in Baghdad, and I think that's the reason why I'm watching your videos, to bring back those memories...
It's my day off and a new James Hoffman video comes out. It's going to be a great day
I would love a video of it actually being used and talked through the operations and actually see shots being pulled. Maybe compare the actual operations of it to a newer machine.
Here's an idea: have a pop-up bar do a tour of the country (or at least a feasible section of it) with the Faema in tow! Gorgeous machine at any rate.
Bellissima! ...but the journey from it's sorry abandoned state to its glorious rebirth is what I wanted to see... I hope you captured that journey and can share it with us in the future...
I really wish I were living in the UK to experience it in person. What a beautiful looking machine!
I know, right? We need somebody to invent teleportation within the next 6 weeks, we really do.
@@si-melamme7837 feel like it😅
As an avid cyclist with a great love for vintage cycling heritage (in which Faema has a beautiful legacy), espresso lover, enthousiastic owner of a Cafelat Robot (the modern interpretation of a Faemina Baby) and admirer of vintage styling in general, this video tugged at all my heartstrings.
A tour of Europe in pop-up coffee bars - maybe with references to the Faema Cycling Team from the 50s and early 60s?.. - would be the stuff of dreams.
I would definitely make a trip to, say, Brussels for that!
Maybe he and his team, or find local collaborators who might just enter the Red Bull Soapbox Race in London for next year ? It's probably a lot of work though.... You need someone with a basic cart, and a lot of papier-mâché. :)
I'd love to see more about this machine. How it operates and how different the process is, how espresso machines evolved over time, etc.
Manual espresso machines are so interesting.
Love it, bought the book and signed up the drawing. What fun thank you for sharing your talents and experience! Always a joy.
Audible released the audiobook yesterday, book arrives Oct 4th! Never thought this much about water before. Great details.
So happy to see this sequel!! It’s gorgeous and inspiring!
Hey James 👋🏼Greetings from South Africa, Long time since used to walk couple arches down to pick up some Tubes of Square Mile for Kichuli on the Corner of Kingsland & Bethnal Green, watching you and the team pass by headed to the post office to mail off orders. This absolutely transported me from the days of drinking Espresso at "Ace Cafe" on lower Marsh Market in the tiny Scooter shop and Garage. And being served Espresso from their Faima Lever Press it was magical. Thanks for this little treat, looks like your also expanded from the arches congrats Nicholas (formerly from Coffee & Antiques the old Sand Pit om the Corner 🙂)
Congrats on the restoration!!! Make an alive coffee museum, where people can come in and taste of coffee and understand how it would have tasted from these machines (considering you will have more).
THAT IS A BRILLIANT IDEA!!!
It's beautiful!! Fantastic that you roasted a special coffee for it. The machine comes out, along with your specialty coffee for it, during the week of Valentine's Day, each year.
So cool seeing this old machine get a second life! I would have enjoyed seeing the restoration process.
Looking forward to the update on how it went!😊
What to do with it next? Keep it there. I've had the il grifone from it and it was fantastic, quite a bit nicer than the red brick from the VA machine
What was the roast level like?
Ideas for future content:
1. Get an equally impressive vintage italian grinder and/or roaster restored and pair them up together - ideally in a small italian motorcycle themed cafe space
2. Deep dive on roasting for blends / making more blends besides il grifone - maybe interview a 2nd wave coffee guru who made a famous blend
3. Video "debrief" with the baristas after using it for 6 weeks - what did they love / hate if anything
4. In-depth review from James - show more of the internals and ideally make newer specialty coffee with the old machine & il grifone with a modern machine to a/b them
Gorgeous machine ! Top notch restoration, 10/10
Would love to experience a shot from it!
Thanks for the bag of coffee! Brewed first cups on a Flair classic (with gauge upgrade) today and 12g in 26 out worked a charm. The 14% Yemen really peaks through - quite interesting. So fare it has been shared with 5 people and all was happy with the result. - even saved the first try that was more like a turbo shot and quite under extracted by taking the puck in a Hario Switch and adding 140g 85 degree water (Celsius) and steep for 1 minute and then combine the shot with the V60 for a nice full extracted pour over - however had to add a touch of cream to really enjoy the cup - but better than wasting it. - Will share with a few other and try a few other machines over the week - but so fare really enjoying the blend and roasting level.
Whatever the experience may be for the baristas, no denying it's an incredibly pretty machine that oozes style and ... well .. coffee.
This came in just right for my coffee pilgrimage to London. What a surprise!
Can't wait to watch this piece of craftsmanship at work. See you at Prufrock.
This machine looks sooooo beautiful!
I have been running this same machine in my house for 8 years (also using VST baskets). It handles modern single origin specialty coffee quite nicely actually. For pure quality in the cup I'd put it against pretty much any modern machine.
There are many, very good online communities full of people using lever machines, even vintage lever machines, with modern coffees; they pair quite nicely.
When you drop everything to watch this.
Lol same
Right?!
I did that and now i have a sore foot
Been waiting for this for months.
Yup.
As someone that left the whiskey world for the coffee world, he’s right about the blending. Whiskey blenders go through rigorous tasting tests (triangles, picking the odd one out, etc) and are paid big money to create a consistent product.
Hopefully things change and continue to evolve in the right direction.
I cannot understand how you could make this video without including a clip of you pulling shots on your newly restored machine.
Italian barista from Naples here! I really enjoyed espresso with Indian monsooned coffee, dark roasted.
I don't like lever machines, yeah their pretty but you need to use more coffee, you need a teaspoon to stop your coffee, you can't make a perfect milk foam because the pression is very high.
My first coffee machine was a Faema E61 ❤️
Just a little feedback: I rarely watch the sponsor ad part, but here I really like your justification to why there is an ad, and I'm okay to not skip!
Get a restored classic 1950’s van and set up a mobile vintage coffee van…nationwide tour! 😀
I know logistically it could be a nightmare, but I would love to see the machine on a UK tour all around the country so that it’s not just
London which gets all the fun from experiencing it
Agreed! I live in the U.S. and I’m planning a trip over there in November. I would love to make a day out of finding where in the UK this machine is.
I mean, considering that it's a manual fill machine that can run off gas, mounting in to a portable cart, trailer, or van wouldn't be super difficult, as long as the machine can handle being transported.
You could auction it and donate the proceeds to a local small coffee grower community (there are plenty in Latin America) or any other charity.
The machine could be exhibited at a design museum. Or used to train new baristas not just on old techniques but the mechanical equipment allows for a different learning experience.
You could set up a slow-coffee shop. Similar concept to the slow-food (opposite of fast-food), where things just take time to be prepared because there is a pleasure in going slow.
The machine should travel the world and do a book tour for you... Instead of just the author touring the world, the machine goes to different great cafes around the world and do a tour, you sell the experience and the book along with it
We just happened to be in London (on holiday from Australia) when part two of this video dropped! So we had to go to Prufrock Cafe today. What a beautiful machine! I'm normally a latte drinker, but the flavours from that espresso. Quite amazing! Great experience and fantastic staff in the cafe too.
You mean, you’re not going to be serving coffee from 1958 from it??
You mean I’ve been practising my James-Hoffman-Drinks-Old-Coffee face for nothing!
While that's the most James Hoffman thing we could ask James to do, I think it would also invoke actual war from Italy as a nation.
This should form the centre-peice of a new Museum of Coffee. Absolutely not a static exhibition but something that gets used and shown off in all it's glory! I would be first inline on openning day.
I'd like to sumup my suggestion with a quote for Blackadder III "Sensible policies for a happier Britian"
Using older technology, learning a forgotten skill, is extremely satisfying.
I drove an old tow truck for a while whose wrecker unit was made before hydraulic tow trucks became popular. It was direct drive from a pto shaft from the engine.
Two winches, 5 controls. One control for each winch to engage it to the drive shaft, another to each winch for the ratchet to keep the cable from upspooling, and the last to work the clutch in between the pto and the drive shaft. Engage the clutch and the cable for the selected winch(es) to wind the cable in, feather the clutch to control the speed the cable winds out, and never, ever engage the ratchets when the cable was unspooling or the gear teeth would break off. All with a couple of thousand pounds of weight at the cable end. And if there was no weight on the cable, make sure there was some kind of tension on it or you'll end up with a rat's nest of the first couple of layers of cable around the drum.
Seriously, a lot of fun. And I believe most cranes back in the day worked the same way.
I'm from Melbourne, and naturally fall into the coffee nerd category. As luck would have it, I ended up in London this week and was able to have espresso from the Faema (yes it was delicious). James - please please send this to Melbourne next!!! There are so many roasters like Axil, Seven Seeds, St Ali, Market Lane, Parde... that would love to put a limited blend together and host the machine, as much as there would be so many people in Melbourne that would love the experience. Send it our way James!
It would be interesting to see its operation by different baristas at the cafe profiled and compared to their operation of a modern machine to see how it differs from a modern machine and varies from user to user, including how people feel about using it and why they choose certain workflows. Maybe even comparing profiles from when people first start using it to when it is taken out of service at the cafe. I love seeing how people develop a relationship with tools that provide subtle feedback through things like noises and handfeel. Qualitative and quantitative!
I would also be interested to learn about the kinds of coffee supply chains and drinks that would have been most common when that machine was first sold, and compare the drinks it produces from an approximation of those beans to what a contemporary machine would make of them. Maybe its particular pattern of extraction is desirable when all the beans are rubbery and stale? I have no idea! Doesn't have to be ACTUAL 1950s espresso unless you want to punish yourself again!
Suggestion for your consideration James. Get hold of or obtain a few other “old/older” machines of a similar vintage (2 or 3 in all), and open a coffee house specifically serving coffee from vintage machines with a blend style of coffee possibly used in those machines. Retro style decor and seating. Old fashioned biscuits and pastries served as well. Got to be a winner.
Absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing all this. Can't tell you how much joy this brings. I was wondering what type of recipe you are using for the Il Grifone (temp, dose, yield etc). I have ordered a bag and look forward to trying it on my 1968 La Pavoni Europiccola (and possibly even on my GS/3). I'm not as well versed in the preparation of Italian style blends. Look forward to hearing more about the machine as well. Thanks for all you do!
You could do a version of a supper club, but a morning or mid-day version, once a month, using this machine. Maybe even a 50s dress theme!
Yesterday, I was making an espresso and started to wonder - why there was no follow up on your vintage machine. And here it is... Thank you!
Oh hell yes I'm in the UK (from Canada) for the first time in 30 years this week and I'll be in London next week (AFTER the funeral thank goodness) AND I'm staying within walking distance of Prufrock Coffee so I will most certainly be there.
I love the machine. My father's family is from Brescia, right by the Guarda Lake. I also love Italian traditional espresso, and would be thrilled to try a bag of the blend you mentioned if I could get one here in California.
I've been looking forward to this video, and I look forward to hearing the baristas feelings after working with this beautiful machine for a few weeks. I fell in love with lever espresso machines the first time I saw a La Pavoni, over 15 years ago when I was working as a barista. It became a dream of mine to one day own one. Last year I made that dream a reality when I bought a 30 year old La Pavoni and restored it myself. Before that I hadn't had home espresso, just French press and pour over. Over the past year I've fallen even more in love with my little machine and I love the results I get. I can't imagine using it in a busy commercial setting, however! Of course, it was never designed for a commercial setting and your machine was so I expect that'll make a difference. Still, though, it'll be different and, as I said, I'm really interested to hear how it goes!
I actually stopped the video to check if it was playing at 1.25 speed :D
This video left me wanting more. This machine deserves more. A video about the technical aspects of the restoration and how to work it. Benefits and chalenges. Plus, a note on the espresso it produces.
Had to swing by Prufrocks for the head-to/head challenge. Both delicious but (tasting blind) preferred the simplicity of the old school. Gorgeous machine too. Thank you for letting us play!
Been looking forward to the restoration of this beautiful machine. If There's any coffee bags left I'd love to try it. But understand if it's all gone 😁. Keep the video's coming. Love them.
Great job everybody! This project definitely warrants a series of videos Covering the different aspects as many other commenters mentioned
My suggestion for what to do with the machine going forward is to leave it at the café, but only have it operating on certain days, like "way-back Wednesdays". Every Wednesday patrons can visit the café and have an espresso from a beautiful vintage machine - this way the machine is used regularly, but not daily. Whatever you do going forward, hopefully the machine will be used and not left to deteriorate. Beautiful restoration by the way and great to see people enjoying the fruits of your and Enrico's labour!
Really hope you consider make this a permanent installation. I'm sure many international viewers would love to come by when they next have a chance to travel.
And also.. based on his various videos... it is for certain that, a more "modern" piece of equipment, actually makes a different cup of coffee, in comparison to one that was based on a more rustic method. I can see why he keeps referring to a "lighter roast". Cos if you grind any more finer, you basically is just eating the raw coffee bean. Which is a seed, of a berry. One thing I have not seen him do, is to check how much caffeine exists in a lighter roast, to a darker roast. I think if he did that, he will find that interesting. Cos the result speaks for itself, why the preferences between light and dark.
e.g. modern machine + light roast + more (finer) grams = osmosis, surface chemistry
older machine + darker roast + coarser grams (pressure based) = atmospheric pressure extractions
I can see why pods are popular... cos its also extracting the oil. Not just the flavour based off the surface chemistry ?
That looks fantastic. I feel like there's at least one video in doing a back to back three way comparisson: a modern roast in an old cafe machine, an enthusiasts home setup, and a new cafe machine. You could continue this further with a more old fashioned roast, and maybe your grifone roast in the same way.
I'm really very curious as to how your customers experienced their coffee through this older machine, whether they noticed an appreciable difference and how the older way of doing things might open up possibilities like longer draws or different ratios. You're well placed to answer whether the maths of an espresso translates directly to the consumer experience.
You folks are incredible! I have a bag of Il Grifone in my hand today, Sept 16, in Florida that was roasted on 14 Sept in London! Awesome! Thank you!❤
The supply-chain is still working ? Fantastic ! Just 3 days for shipping? Really ? With the scaremongering of burning potatoes and things... many of us is not sure...So how come he managed to get this out so quickly then when we have a customs-based issue right now in exporting process?
Hello James! if you'd ask me about the journey of the vintage lever machine, I would suggest maybe give it its own cafe? I mean thinking about it, how would it blend into to the coffee world of modernity? maybe recreate its own cafe as to reminisce and for the people to reminisce what kind cafe would it be like inside of the vintage machine. Would love to brew some coffee on that machine. Thank you for letting us see it! Enjoy the day!
Leave the mashine right there in that café! let it become that icon that it is! with the right marketing people will come from all over the place just to try it! with time it'll become more and more famous and voila! you have got yourself a coffee-tourist attraction! I would personally go there just to try it if I've ever around London! so please, keep it available to the public :)
Yeh.... those marketing execs..... ;) Some have moved back up North though ! Oops. They can afford it to be frank... What do I think ? I think that he should provide some kind of outsourced machine and coffee blend to the local council's Christmas office party. ;) (You did not hear my suggestions from here....) Lol.... I'm sure that James & co have paid enough business rates.... :) Now, THAT is how you do business. Not just online, offline can be a possibility too.
I think adding it to the studio setup to occasionally use coffee-related things would be nice. When reviewing a grinder or something else James could be feeling vintage that day.
It was only a couple of days ago that I was wondering whatever had become of this story/machine. How delightful that it is back in service in a commercial situation. Heart-breaking that I'll never get back to London to try it. Perhaps it needs to go on a Grand World Tour!
You give the details of the espresso blend profile to six different specialty roasters around the world, and they do their best to create their own style of that blend for the machine. You then tour the machine around to those roasters and they host it for four weeks selling their blend in it (much like you did in this video). Customers can pay for an espresso from it, or they can order the comparison tray to see if they can taste differences, and thus expanding their coffee knowledge/experience. You also get to travel with the machine, profile the roasters, and try their version of the blend. Which gives you an adventure as well as some interesting content.
Wow to see how this machine has been restored, and back and doing what it was designed to do serve great espresso. Can’t wait to see how the Baristas enjoyed using it or not. We have it easy with push button machines. Bring back some showmanship behind the machine.
World Tour!!! The machine must travel for the adoring fans everywhere.
This is one unforgettable video to watch! I had a goose skin the moment the crate was open - instantly recognized FAEMA! We chose FAENA E61 for our small vintage coffee shop in China, and the design of E61 hasn't changed a bit since 1961! The one Mr.Hoffmann has chosen is almost identical in design, but, of course, the modern one is less fun to play since the water supply is automatic! (might think different during rush in the shop) FAEMA is truly a piece of art! I'm not paid to advertise it, but my heart skips a beat when I see it!
Enrico really did do an amazing job. Those classic espresso machines really had a range of aesthetics, but some of them just transcend a functional piece of equipment into becoming a work of art unto themselves. It's a work of art with permanence, being made of polished steel and plastic, that makes very ephemeral works of art for the customer to enjoy and consume. Truly stunning.
When I was in Bordeaux in 2018 a coffee shop down the road had a similar Faema. Loved the design of it.
Love to see this machine take a world tour, James should tag along as well. Maybe some Barista fans have a locations to properly feature the machine and the art of coffee it can provide.
I'd actually like to have seen someone actually make an espresso on it! It is incredibly beautiful as an art piece of chrome, brass & plastic... but its a working thing. I'd love to see that. Your analogy of a classic car was good...but that was what I love about driving them, the experience, the feel, seeing those engineered parts move in unison to produce something.
I received my signed copy of your new book the other day. One of many books on food & drinks for my Autumn reading enjoyment. Have only dipped in so far, but very enjoyable. Especially with a good coffee & a savoury treat.
It's just so cool to see your take on application of craft coffee, coffee culture and development, etc. I feel like you are putting your money where your mouth is and following your inspiration. Hard work really shows and flows into others. Amazing job
Oh, James, you have stirred old memories and new lust. There is a balcony above Gargnano on Lake Garuda that is my favorite place on earth. And, your new machine is lovely beyond words. I want to stroke its polished chrome and just stare at it’s magnificence. Enjoy!