hi A (above) londinium is a coffee roaster in london that specialises in single origin espresso roasts i've always enjoyed the involvement of lever espresso machines as time has worn on I've always wondered if they couldn't be improved, particularly in terms of ease of use and back to back shot consistency we have sold 2 lever machines to date, C & B C is unique because of its tiny footprint, but as a result it has to be a manual lever because a commercial spring would tip a machine with such a small footprint over. This is simple physics, and so all domestic spring lever machines have had to be low pressure springs, like the Mica Casa Leva from Elektra. Manual levers are more difficult to achieve consistency with than a spring which regulates the extraction for you in the most perfect way. The trouble is a low pressure spring can give you a nice shot, but never the thick dense mouthfeel that the pure grunt of a commercial spring brings. A manual lever allows you to exert the required pressure, but it is more difficult to achieve consistent results C is an awesome machine, but in my experience the quality control isn't good enough when I am asking you to give us the thick end of GBP3000. To be clear I am almost always talking about cosmetic defects, not things 'breaking'. For reasons already outlined these defects have been killing us. Whilst the manufacturer will send us the replacement part at their cost we get hit for the VAT & duty as it enters the UK and because we are selling globally the cost of getting the replacement parts to the customer is considered by the manufacturer to be our cost too. Its not just money, it erodes the customer experience, and for us it takes up a lot of our time. While C is an exceptional machine and highly regarded, we still have customers that I just know from the post sales support struggle to get the best out of it. I feel bad about this, as a spring lever eliminates this. There are people who will say that a manual lever gives them the ultimate freedom, and its true, but in our experience espresso machines that help you control the variables are best for most users, and so that's the kind of machine we want to sell. B has a taste that surpasses C, but then it is a full commercial group so i think that is to be expected. There are those who think a 49/50mm group beats a 58mm, but I'm not one of them. Given the way a lever machine works, the more metal you have in the group to act as a heat sink, the better life is. So the plan is to build a machine with the build quality of C, and the taste of B. I don't think anyone would mind if we were going to sell it for a similar price to C & B. The problem is its going to be less expensive. reiss.
