mmccarthy

Most recent activity

• EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 4 hours, 8 minutes

  

  "Boris and Arlene sitting in a magic money tree..."

• EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 4 hours, 30 minutes

  

  Wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing some Boris Johnson statues in West Belfast at this rate ;)

• Coffee Appreciation

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 18 hours, 7 minutes

  

  I remember you posting a similar cool looking 60s/70s lever machine that was also ultimately not all that useful for daily use. What was that one again? As far as I recall it was almost hourglass shape, with the lever almost looking like one from a one-armed bandit.

  Edit: Found it, a La Peppina:
  

  Also found a 1950s Cafelat Robot during my search, the Faema Baby:
  

• Coffee Appreciation

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 18 hours, 9 minutes

  

  Aldo agree with Mick's comment about spending more time cleaning a Classic than actually using it...

  To be fair, I would say that's not specifically a Gaggia Classic issue, just something you'll have to deal with with a pump driven home espresso machine in general. Probably wouldn't be enough of a downside for me to suggest a lever machine to a complete beginner, but it is something to consider.

• Jokes / Joke du jour!

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 18 hours, 57 minutes

  

  I've never sausage a terrible pun.

• Coffee Appreciation

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 20 hours, 37 minutes

  

  Sounds like you need to buy yourself a lever machine!

  Also not having to worry about back-pressure and the associated cleaning is great for home use. Especially if you're only doing one or two shots per day. Think I spent more time cleaning my Classic than making coffee with it.

• Coffee Appreciation

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 1 day, 17 hours

  

  Looks great! One of the trickier aspects of working with lever machines (IMO) is that all the modern advice seems to be centred around your larger doses/portafilters. When I first got my La Pavoni I was somehow cramming in around 16-17g despite it only being a 51mm basket.

  Getting much better results now with 14-15g but I must say I do miss having a larger espresso to drink! Though if you were to pop a 58mm group/basket in there, you'd need around 30% more force going through the lever. So I can see why they stick with the smaller portafilters.

• Video Games

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 2 days, 15 hours

  

  I think I put over 400 hours in in the first year I got it, so damn addictive. Definitely got that 'just one more game' appeal. Hadn't played it for 4 years or so before I picked up the Switch and saw it was free. Definitely a relatively decent implementation of free-to-play too.

• Coffee Appreciation

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 3 days, 19 hours

  

  Sounds like you're on the right track at least! I remember going round to a friend's house to get their new Classic dialled in and had a similar lack of attention on the amount of coffee I was consuming. Got to sleep around 4/5am as far as I recall...

• Video Games

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 4 days, 4 hours

  

  Jedward are looking a bit rough these days