The La Pavoni at work

La Pavoni Pub Espresso Machine

The company for which I work takes great pride in supporting the "Coffee Culture" at the office. They provide very nice La Pavoni Pub commercial grade espresso machines and matching grinders in each of the buildings in our campus. I sit in an Engineering building, close enough to the kitchen to hear our macine and estimate it regularly pulls 10-15 shots a day. Until recently I avoided them totally, here's why.

When interviewing here 6 months ago, I tried to pull a shot on one of them and, as usually happens with no time to work up a proper shot on a new machine, it was shit. Still I was impressed at the sight of a commercial machine. After starting, I took a good long look at the La Pavoni in my building and realized it was absolutely filthy. It was beyond filthy -- it is easily the blackest, most scum covered espresso machine I've ever worked with. The grinder was also in sad shape with so much build up around the adjusting collar it was frozen in place. I ignored the machines for months, drinking tea instead, resigned to the fact that anything it produces will taste of rancid coffee oil and little else. 

I'll admit is was probably the sound that got me. The siren song of grinder, pump and the scream of the steam wand. It called to me. So I started to clean it up -- working in the mornings before anyone else gets in. I brought some Cafiza and a back-flush basket from home and started using them a couple of times a week. The first session with Cafiza was disgusting. Large chunks of black -stuff- started coming out and the water was black. I ended up flushing a more than a dozen times just to get all that -stuff- out. I cleaned both portafilters thoroughly; I don't think the baskets had ever been removed as there was a 1/4" of scum under both of them. I used dental tools to clean the grinder collar and free it so the grind can be adjusted. It's taken a couple of weeks to get most of it cleaned up. On Friday afternoon, after a good clean, I spend a little time dialing in the grinder and produced my first "good" shot -- it was the first one that doesn't taste like a dirty machine.

This morning I pulled another pretty good shot, not best shot ever, but made a little sweeter by the clean machine. I'll admit a little satisfaction from the effort. Now if we can just get some freshly roasted beans to grind we'd be in business.