Belle Époque Gets Fit For Home Use Too
Expect Italian expresso makers Elektra to come with a coffee making masterpiece that will just compel you to fall in love with it. With 61 years of hardwork and brand loyalty preceeding them, Elektra has just launched the home version of the renowned Belle Époque which has been prided by artisanal cafes all across Italy.
So, the famous copper and brass machine has now been hand-hammered, welded and polished for a mirror finish. Standing atop the whole structure is a brass eagle. Good news is that it produces 15 bars of pressure, unlike the 9 bars of commercial espresso makers, to reveal rich and creamy cuppa coffee.
Everything is automatic right from maintaining the correct pressure to keeping the right temperature to extract maximum flavor from the coffee beans. The water reservoir can hold water enough for 60 espressos. So, go ahead and bask in the compliments of your new cosy coffee corner at home. By the way, keep $6,000 aside for this one.
Via hammacher
Tags: Belle Epoque, Coffee, elektra, espresso You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Um ok. Saba, have you actually tried making an espresso, and with this machine? 15 Bar versus 9 bar doesn’t mean a thing by itself, not even combined with temperature holding.
There is so much involved in trying to get a “god shot” of espresso, you could literally be a physicist or statistician, or who knows what else, and still take forever to try to get a good shot of espresso.
For example, different coffees roasted using different methods, at different freshness levels, ground at different times of the day, at different ambient temperature and humidity will respond to heat and pressure in different ways. 15 bars of pressure may or may not be ideal nor may the constant temperature that this machine claims to hold. From my own research 15 bar is normally a bit high in a temperate climate.
Different coffees at different grind levels (from fine to coarse) will effect extraction time, crema density, and taste. Too hot a water temperature for that particular coffee will lead to a harsh overpowering bitter flavour, and too low a temperature will lead to an acidic metallic flavour. Then there is over-extraction and under-extraction…
The goal is to get a balanced cup of espresso. Perhaps bitter on the first pull, medium to no bite (and sometimes taste) in the middle, and a rich, creamy, sweet finish – although ‘perfection’ is different for everyone. The easiest litmus test is a combination of keeping all other variables the same and focusing on time, taste, amount, and look, and feel of the coffee.
Time: a good starting goal is 20 – 25 seconds. Amount: for a double espresso in one cup, a good amount is 2 ounces in that 20 – 25 seconds. Look: tiger striping with dark speckles surrounded by a lighter crema pool with little to no oil bubbles on the surface. Feel: The crema should be strong enough to hold a small amount of sugar without collapsing. Also, the crema should not diminish more than 10% or so within the first minute of pulling the shot, with an exception: fresh, young coffees that have not been properly degassed may have wimpy cremas even though everything else is right.
This machine really is not that special, and does not take care of a lot of the different variables involved in trying to get a really good shot. In fact there are far better machines, but I admit, most cost more than the one you posted and they are not automated.
I guess the different is between buying an automatic Porsche base Carrera versus buying a Porsche GT3: the former is a good all rounder fat man with a middle age crisis car, but the latter while incredibly hard to drive at it’s limit, and taking expertise and patience to (literally) hand tune your own suspension based on the conditions on the track of your choice on a particular day, is by far, the most rewarding if you get it right (and it doesn’t kill you for making a mistake, hahahaha)!
Cheers,
Jay
Self-Professed Espresso Fanatic
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