Coffee. I've always been a big fan. Well, maybe not when I was a teenager. But I got all excited about coffee in college. From that point on, I've taken pains to parse and improve my coffee intake. I won't go to certain nutso extremes (civet crap coffee being the most extreme recent example I've seen bandied about). What I use to brew it up, though, has always been a topic of improvement and refinement.
That's why I'm flummoxed and nonetheless excited this morning after getting my manual La Pavoni out of the shop. I bought it online from Italy a decade ago. It's had some issues over the years, mainly from overuse. But when it's been at the top of its form, it sits in the center of our kitchen and I commune with it a few times daily. That's why when those "issues" require a professional's help, I'm a bit off my game. A french press works fine when necessary - I still use one extra-large pot that I bought 15 years ago. But who am I kidding. I need my baby back. Which is what I got yesterday. Some new parts were required (one lever pin and the associated roller). The piston had slipped again (happened years ago for the first time - akin to functional sciatica that will never fully go away without major surgery). The real change is that this local repair guy (Home Espresso Repair on Phinney Ridge) seemed to have reset enough things so that it feels utterly different when pulling a shot. As if your spouse went in for a medical check-up, but came home a few inches shorter, smelled different, developed an ability to speak Portugese and became a raging nymphomaniac. So things are a bit different, to say the least. I like the way it's working. And my love affair with coffee is rekindled.
Hope your own appliances give back some good lovin' today. Rock on.
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