admin wrote:
Hi mate, sounds great; glad things are going well enough for the upgrade... just a quick one: would be interested what made you decide on this one, rather than some of the other 'high-end' names around [eg Syncra, Synesso, & La Marzocco]? A
I think I've answered some of these questions previously, but essentially I'm attracted to both the styling and the aesthetic of the machine, which fits in with the retro theme of the cafe Also, that the machine is essentially mechanical (as opposed to tricked up electrical) appeals to my analogue aesthetic - I've owned and worked with E61 machines before, and I like the look and the feel and the coffee that they produce And as has been mentioned just in my immediate vicinity is a plethora of Synesso and LM machines - I would hazard a guess and say that there are at least ten of these machines within a 2km radius from my cafe - and probably double that within a five km radius So for one, I want to set myself apart from the rest of the crowd, and two, as a semi-automatic machine I feel its pretty aligned and compatible with what we already do, in that with the presets on the machine (controlled extraction times etc) - its particularly well suited to our environment, in that during our busy coffee periods its not unusual to get hit with 50 coffee orders at one time, and having the presets allows us to focus on tamp and grind, knowing that the extraction side of things should largely take care of itself Personally I would love to own a paddle machine, but the reality is that I'm not the only person on the machine, and realistically, I'd only trust one other full time person in my cafe to have manual control over the extraction rates, without compromising shot quality / maintaining consistency between shots etc I feel that a paddle machine is better suited to a different type of environment, one where there is one, or two tops, operating that machine in total We've also got the foot pedal for steam control on / off switch coming with the Mirage, which I'm really looking forward to using Also, somewhat subjectively, there are plenty of baristas out there, but I would argue that there are very few exceptionally good ones - and thankfully I've got some great staff - so I'd like to reward them with a machine which is compatible with their experience, and, in the case of my manager / head barista, Michelle, she has already worked on one of these machines at Degraves Espresso in the city I also need to keep myself interested and focused on what I'm doing, and to be able to set myself new challenges to constantly refine and improve what I and my team do, and I think the (hopefully mild) learning curve on the Mirage will help both myself and my staff to engage with what we're doing in a more meaningful way And lastly, I believe that we've been consistently producing exceptional coffee for a long time, and I have a very close working relationship with my roaster to ensure that this happens But there are most certainly some segments of the public, and the print media, who, it would appear, seem to think that you can only get amazing coffee from an amazing machine - I know because I've met them, and read certain guides that only seem to feature the LM / Robur combo So, to cut a long story short, its a reward for my tireless efforts, an extreme from of upgraditus, and a fitting testimony to the quality of the coffee that we produce In addition its a reward and a thank you to the tireless efforts of my dedicated staff who remarkably share my passion for what we do!
