O Mundo Café now has espresso
02.02.2004
Well. I bought a La Pavoni espresso machine today for the café. It's not a large industrial size machine, which would've been ideal. But rather than wait months for something to arrive by sea/air/land, and in order to have something to serve espresso w/ in the meantime, we bought a Europiccola.
I spent the afternoon calibrating the grinder & using the machine a few times to get the hang of using a traditional hand-press espresso maker. So far, I can't seem to get the normal amount of crema in my espresso. Ideas? Or is it the altitude (3,800 meters); no café in La Paz has yet made me a great espresso.
Either way, I'm happy. After I teach Sergio, José Mario, and Daniel. how to make espresso, cappuccinos, mochas, and all that, we'll have a truly functioning espresso bar. And also beer, wine, and whatnots.
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UPDATE: I've not been able to find an easy solution to the so-called "Denver effect" on espresso. Something about difference in atmospheric pressure. Ah, the advantages (& travails) of a hand-press espresso maker. I've gotten it to make espresso w/ a decent amount of crema once (and two close ones). It's just a matter of pressing the espresso w/ the right amount of force. Time to practice, practice, practice.
Posted by Miguel at 07:59 PM
Comments
Go to 'www.coffeegeek.com' and do a search in their forms for the 'denver effect.' You might also do a google search for 'espresso and denver effect', as I'm sure the 'denver effect' probably applies to many things besides coffee. La Paz is quite a bit higher in elevation than Denver, but the principal should be the same.
Posted by: Grant at February 2, 2004 11:09 PM
According to this URL this is not going to work - http://www.lucidcafe.com/cafeforum/schomertable15.html
The only solution I can think of would be to create a high(er) pressure chamber in which you make the espresso. It need not be much higher, just enough to get water to boil at 98°c or more, so you could probably make this by creating some air tight enclosure with the espresso machine in it and attaching a small pump (e.g. the sort of footpump that blows up inflatable beds/tyres etc.). I guess that you'd only need a couple of pumps to get the pressure up high enough.
I'd suggest you try and find a university physicist / physical chemist to run the actual sums - (s)he might also be able to provide you with a pressure guage to allow you to run tests without making 100s of cups of bad espresso
Posted by: Francis at February 3, 2004 04:46 AM
My office is only 100 or so meters below your cafe and we are able to make very decent espresso. Some joke it's the only reason busy people are willing to come over to chat with us. If you want to stop by, I can show you our setup and treat you to some cappuccino. I know we bought our machines in, um, town.
Posted by: Leslie at February 3, 2004 08:11 AM
Hola Primo,
Ya estoy en casa y estoy aprendiendo a leer las cosas que escribes en tu diario.
Fue muy buena mi vacasion en La Paz gracias por el tiempo que dedicaste para atenderme, la pase muy bien ya que no siempre puedo ir a La Paz hacia 10 ańos de mi ultima visita.
Bueno, ya estoy de vuelta en el trabajo y con nuevos proyectos en el escritorio, solo espero que mi jefe vuelva pronto para poder darle el informe de mis actividades y que posiblemente autorice una nueva visita mia a Puno, ahora tal vez ya no ire solo sino con un grupo de personas.
Aun no tengo noticias de LA. ya que la persona que quiere que trabaje con el tambien aun se encuentra por centro america en este momento esta en Mexico, espero tener buenas noticias por parte de el.
Hoy en la mańana fui a la Universidad y ya tienen el curriculum para las materias de mi maestria ya tienen los precios espero poder cubrirlos.
Bueno, eso es todo lo que tengo por ahora estare escribiendo mas seguido y leyendo tus comentarios en el web site.
Nos vemos!!
David.
Posted by: David at February 3, 2004 12:35 PM
sign me up for some whatnots. they sound great!
Posted by: sam at February 3, 2004 01:56 PM