Thursday, August 16, 2007

A Feelgood Story ...

Armed with a new charger for my camera, I wanted to post a quick reflection on three events that happened this week.

1. Biscuits?!


One of my regular customers brought in a bunch of biscuits for me, made using some coffee that I had roasted for her the week before. Note the exquisite work with the piping nozzle. (The textbook is pretty good, too.)

2. Catastrophe!


For some reason, I came home to find puddles of water all over my espresso bench, including all around my tampers. This stuff sometimes happens in a shared household. It only took a minute to clean up, but I realised that the handle of this tamper had rotted so that it no longer gripped the threads of the bolt.

Whilst I don't use this tamper any more, it still has a lot of sentimental value. I bought it from Greg years ago when I bought my first espresso machine and grinder combo. Back then, the tampers came with a really long handle, the idea being that you could grab it in your fist. The base was also just a well machined circle of stainless steel. The tamper traveled back and forth between Greg and I as various modifications were made. The first was cutting down the original Jarrah handle. In hindsight, we probably went too short. It didn't take too long until I met up with Greg in Adelaide and he showed me a zany new type of handle - I had to buy it and switched over to it straight away. I can't remember exactly what happened with the base, but at some stage I ended up with a version with the lines that I wished for in my review and the partly chamfered base that Greg Kaan suggested. Of course, along the way it has also been my pleasure to test out various tampers and designs that I'm bound to stay silent about.

Watching Greg's tamper and his business evolve has been a lot of fun. The tamper will continue to occupy a special place in my collection.

3. Syphon



In the photo; Syphon brought back from Japan for me by Pete, cup brought back from Sri Lanka by Nim and copious amounts of advice from the Barismoids.

I have met a lot of very nice people in coffee and I shall miss them very much when (if?) I leave it.

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10 Comments:

At 1:33 PM, Blogger "Grendel" said...

I don't work in coffee and yet I am welcomed by those who do as if I did - so fear not! Once you 'leave' you haven't really left, just expanded your circle a bit.

 
At 2:18 PM, Blogger Michael said...

I'll second grendel's remark. No doubt even if you don't work at first pour you'll still find yourself there behind the machine on a saturday morning (just from the spectators vantage point) & Miroslawa will continue to bring cookies for you :)

 
At 10:24 PM, Blogger Michael said...

How's training for the inaugural australian syphon championship going? ;)

 
At 9:25 PM, Blogger David said...

hahahaha...with his jimny cricket blow torch he has no chance against pete's WWII german blow torch

 
At 10:01 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Ahhh Luca... i have that same tamper, with the checkerboard too. Sexy looking things: far prettier (but a tad less clever) then an Espro.

Im missing the Veniziano gang... will have to drop past firstpour sometime soon.

 
At 10:02 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Veneziano is off course the correct spelling in my above comment. Don't tell Rocky. LOL

 
At 6:28 PM, Blogger Luca said...

Hi guys,

Michael, I swing by first pour during the week and end up sucked behind the machine as it is!

Dave, now that we both have the butane burners I think that we're on an even footing. Besides, that was my small blowtorch. I use the regular blowtorch for the bodum 8 cup syphon.

Mark, great to hear from you. Let me know when you're in the neighbourhood again. Are you 110V side or 230V side at the moment?

 
At 1:11 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My pullman did the same at the start of this year...

 
At 9:56 PM, Blogger Michael said...

Luca,
just looking at your broken tamper & I was wondering if it could possibly be fixed by drilling out the hole & tapping it with a new helicoil thread. I haven't seen the inside of Greg's tampers, so I'm not sure if he taps the wood directly or if he has a metal thread insert.
If it's just the wood that's tapped, you might be able to get a metal tap in there.
Just a thought... I've only done this on worn threads on my motorbike before, so not sure how well it would actually work on wood. May not be worth the effort, except for resurecting something of sentimental value.
What sized thread does the base use?

 
At 11:14 AM, Blogger Westy said...

what do you mean 'leave'? you are coffee man, keep it up.

Cheers
W

 

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