Inside Gerald's Silvia

This is why you should never trust anyone other than a trained / skilled barista with your precious espresso machine.  Gerald's housemate ran his Rancilio Silva dry and burned out the boiler and welded in heating element

So Gerald and I decided to pull it apart and get the boiler out so we could replace it ourselves - which we did - get the boiler out I mean. The replacement part is not so easy as worldwide demand for copper has meant that prices and parts are at a premium, and the boiler is on backorder.

Although, we did have a local distributor in Melbourne offer to replace the boiler for us at a cost that was almost equivalent to the purchase price of the machine - so we decided to do the job ourselves, now we're waiting on parts

All in all its been been a very worthwhile job pulling the machine apart, as I also now have an ageing Baby Gaggia, and a Eurolab all-in-one machine on my bench,waiting to be pulled apart, as I'm cannibalising the Eurolab to fix the Gaggia

Believe it or not you can actually but a Eurolab new for half the price of a replacement vibration pump for a machine

Wierd but true...

soy piccolo - a minor place

I happen to think that this is the best coffee in Melbourne at the moment: soy piccolo from A Minor Place in Albion Street, Brunswick - using Atomica Dark Espresso Blend on a Synesso Cyncra machine.  Not only great tasting coffee but total cool ambience, great service, and a fantastic total chilled vibe.  

My No 1 pick for Melbourne espresso right now:

some snaps from st ali

panoramic view of st ali

me pride and joy - where does she get those expressions from?

this is how good coffee (or baby chino) should make you feel
st ali hidden groin cam...

some images of the Auction Rooms - Errol Street, North Melbourne

etched into my psyche

doesn't surprise me really: everything else at Starbucks seems to be super-automated, so why not?

latte art machine

smoke em if ya got em...

what to do with all those left over husks from roasting!

the caffeine test

Increasingly caffeine plays a more and more important role in our lives, with ramifications not only for our own health, and that of our nearest and dearest, but our daily consumption has the ability to impact positively or otherwise on the entire planet

I strongly suggest that you take the following caffeine test to assess your level of addiction to this noxious weed, measure the carbon footprint that your consumption is having upon the world, and see how your daily consumption may impact upon the credit rating of third world countries in times to come:


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