The Number One Highlight of SNBC 2011
The number one highlight of Singapore National Barista Championships 2011, held in conjunction with Tea & Coffee World Cup Singapore (for me) has to be Oriole Coffee Roasters’ brand spanking new espresso machine, the La Marzocco Strada! This is the first Strada to appear in Asia, according to May Soo of Wineberry, the La Marzocco distributor in Singapore. This is the Strada EP (Electronic Paddle).
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- The translucent side panels give us an inkling of the internals
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- From the customer’s viewpoint. Sadly, they don’t get to see the naked pours.
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- So hot it sizzles
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- Leaving no stone unturned, which is what the La Marzocco Street Team did, by re-designing the portafilter …
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- to make it easier for baristi to ….
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- The La Marzocco Pressure Profiling Cheat Sheet
I really should be talking about SNBC and the performances, but this machine takes the cake. While other companies are starting to introduce PID’s and taking into account temperature stability to produce a better cup of espresso, La Marzocco (and Slayer) have taken the next step in the evolution of espresso making, the keywords being “PRESSURE PROFILING.” They have complicated the whole process towards making a cup of coffee. I say complicated, not in a bad way, but more like the Star Trek of espresso making, to go where no baristi have gone before – the sky’s the limit. Before pressure profiling, this was what the barista had to do to make a good cup of espresso:
Freshly roasted coffee that was properly rested and properly stored and freshly ground-on-demand and precisely dosed into a heated portafilter without clumping and then evenly distributed to provide a levelled surface for a thirty pound equally distributed pressured tamp and the portafilter locked into a grouphead that had temperature stability controlled by a PID and a machine that gave the double basket of espresso grounds a pre-infusion lasting 5 seconds of 3 bar pressured water before gradually heading into the 9 bar region lasting another 20 seconds and filling 2 heated demitasses below with an ounce of crema rich espresso each.
Enter Pressure Profiling and the barista’s (several) new routines will be:
Freshly roasted coffee that was properly rested and properly stored and freshly ground-on-demand and precisely dosed into a heated portafilter without clumping and then evenly distributed to provide a levelled surface for a thirty pound equally distributed pressured tamp and the portafilter locked into a grouphead that had temperature stability controlled by a PID and a machine that gave the double basket of espresso grounds an infusion lasting x seconds of y bar pressured water and repeating the infusion process another z times to make 2 demitasses of espresso of w volume but unknown quality where w, x and z are greater than zero and y is greater than zero but less than or equal to 12 bars.
Here is a diagram provided by La Marzocco to give you a vague idea of what to expect from the Strada:
The La Marzocco Pressure Profiling Cheat Sheet
Where do we go from here?
“Second star to the right, and straight on till morning.”
Hey Colin! saw the machine today and it was stunning! :)
by the way, any recommendation on home espresso machine for starters?
For home espresso machines within a budget of about S$3000+ or so, I would highly recommend you to visit Expobar/CuppaChoice’s booth. Expobar brought in a very nice Office Leva. Anders Bäckström, the export sales managers from Crem International personally carried this machine in. And from the specifications he listed about this machine, this Office Leva is commonly known as the Expobar Brewtus IV-R in the US. This model comes custom built with a matt black outer shell. You can pair this machine with a Vario Baratza grinder which CuppaChoice also carries. You can also speak to Suhaimie from CuppaChoice.
For a budget of about S$1600, you should go for the Rancilio Silvia espresso machine/Rocky grinder combo offered by Spinelli Coffee. You can find a lot of reviews about thes 2 machines on cofeegeek.com and home-barista.com.
I would not recommend anything less than a Silvia. In fact, from my personal experience, I will not recommend anything less than an Expobar Brewtus. If you’re serious enough about coffee to visit my blog and SNBC, you should not waste time and money and go the budget/uninformed way like a lot of us went thru, with the Krups and the Brauns.
Today’s the final day of SNBC, therefore, quite a few CGSGers and I are going to be there. Just ask anyone from either CuppaChoice or Oriole Coffee’s booth to direct you to me, and I’ll introduce you around to all my friends who have been thru your path and the local retailers with whom you can get a nice startup machine from.
If I had La Marzocco’s Pressure Profiling Cheat Sheet to go by, looking at Shot #5, there is a way to go back in time, and I would’ve made the Quickmill Anita my first machine. Sorry, make my first machine a Strada EP.
hey!
really appreciate your detailed recommendations. my interest in coffee has spiked in the past few months and it’s about time to upgrade from the saeco at home.
i did see the Expobar at their booth but i was too engrossed with the competition that i didn’t have the chance to ask them about the machine.. anyhow, i met one of the CuppaChoice guys today and i’ll drop him a line to ask about the Brewtus.
i saw your old post on the Anita but i could not find any local distributor. let me check out the Brewtus for now while i drool at the strada :P
it’s unfortunate that i only saw your reply after today’s event. would’ve said hello earlier..
once again, thank you!
p.s. the competition was a close one today eh? it was definitely going to be between Keith and Ryan for the top spot.
[...] when it comes to leading the pack with high tech toys. Just recently, Oriole Coffee became the proud owner of the first La Marzocco Strada EP in Asia. This blog post marks the first of a series devoted to examining how Oriole Coffee integrates [...]
[...] when it comes to leading the pack with high tech toys. Just recently, Oriole Coffee became the proud owner of the first La Marzocco Strada EP in Asia. This blog post marks the first of a series devoted to examining how Oriole Coffee integrates [...]
[...] when it comes to leading the pack with high tech toys. Just recently, Oriole Coffee became the proud owner of the first La Marzocco Strada EP in Asia. This blog post marks the first of a series devoted to examining how Oriole Coffee integrates [...]