Have you ever wondered why coffee in the coffee shop is better than coffee at home? Coffee shops use freshly ground and roasted coffee, and machines that can extract the full flavour from that coffee. If you want to replicate this quality of coffee at home, you need a machine that's up to the task. La Pavoni produced the Europiccola in 1961 and, some tweaking aside, they haven't changed the design significantly since then. The machine consists of a boiling chamber sitting on a base, with a glass level on one side and some curvaceous pipe-work on the other side. It truly is a thing of beauty, available (in ascending order of price) in chrome and black, straight chrome, chrome with wooden trim, gold, or gold with wooden trim. Go to www.lapavoni.com (domestic line, lever machines) to convince yourself that this is no ordinary machine. The machine produces eight shots of espresso, or ten minutes of steam, and its workings are detailed below.
How the machine works: If you have seen a Europiccola in a picture, you'll understand that it isn't immediately obvious how this machine turns water into coffee. The large boiling chamber is filled with water and a 1000W heating element heats it to boiling point to produce steam and pressure. When the lever is raised, hot water is forced into the group (the part that holds the coffee) under mild (0.8bar) pressure. The lever is lowered to produce the extra pressure necessary to force the water through the grounds and into the cup.
A tap at the top of the machine vents steam through a pipe to the side for heating and frothing milk for cappuccinos, lattes, espresso macchiato, and the likes. The newest machines have an attachment that sucks milk from the bottle, heats and froths it, then deposits it in the cup. The older machines require you learn the skill of heating and frothing your own.
The net result of the Europiccola's workngs? Control. The user controls many more variables in producing their coffee. The machine can handle finer grinds of coffee, which allows more flavour to be extracted from the grounds. The lever can be lowered at different rates - fast for lighter coffee and thicker crema (the light froth produced by coffee oils during extraction), or slower for a thicker, darker brew. However, with possible control comes a steep learning curve. A user not just can, but must control the variables. You have to experiment with coarser and finer grinds, different pressure while tamping (squashing the coffee grounds into the filter), and different rates of lowering the lever. It's a machine that takes some time to master, but the results can be wonderful. I have owned a number of coffee machines and the Europiccola is the first machine that I have considered keeping, as I often get comments that the coffee at my house is better than the large chain shops!
Why is the Europiccola worth £300+? Quality. Very, very good quality. The machine is made from cast brass and all of the components are solid and dependable. The weight of the machine is a hefty 5kg indicating the strength of the parts, which is highly reassuring when you consider how much heat, steam and pressure is it contains. Brass is the best possible material for coffee machines, as it holds and transfers heat in a controlled manner. The aluminium alloys that cheaper machines are manufactured from heats up and cools down quickly, meaning that water heated in the machine may have cooled by the time it reaches the cup. The Europiccola maintains a steady heat in all of its components, allowing the coffee to keep its heat between boiler and cup. With all of this heat retention, you have to take care not to burn yourself on any part of the machine. For this reason alone, I have given it a lower safety rating.
If you want to consider a used machine, then you'll want to also consider a reconditioning kit for around £12 (to recondition the group, kits for the whole machine are around £20) that contains all of the seals and gaskets, which are the only parts to suffer wear in any substantial way. I recently stripped and rebuilt my 30+ year old machine in an evening with a £12 group only repair pack. There are several internet sites which advise on the strip-down and rebuild, or you could send it to one of three authorised service centres in the UK for a higher cost, but professional, service.
Why is a lever operated machine superior to a pump driven machine? The very cheapest and nastiest espresso makers utilise a boiling cylinder that heats water to produce pressure, and then forces the water through the coffee under its own pressure. This causes water hotter than boiling to scald the grounds and burn the coffee, producing a bitter espresso with no hint of subtle earthy flavours in a decent coffee bean. To get around this problem, the better machines have a 15bar pump that forces sub-boiling water through the coffee grounds. These machines have a thermal block that heats the water instantly and controls the temperature through the grounds. They are prone to breaking as the pump and thermal block take some punishment with repeated usage, and you should really only buy one new and under warranty. The lever operated machines have the best of both worlds. The boiling cylinder is large (800mls) and heats the water to produce steam, and the lever replaces the pump to force the water through the coffee. This produces excellent durability as the mechanical parts in a lever machine are larger and more robust than the small parts in a pump.
You have to carfully decide if you want to part with this much money, as even the used machines push £100. Not a machine for those who want an effortless "quick fix". Rather, a machine for those who love their coffee. You get what you pay for!
More details
User's Manual
Fair
Safety
OK
How much did you pay?
£112 - used
Any repairs?
£12 recondition at home
Special features?
User controls the process
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