Goodbye to an old friend!

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About two months ago, I did a little blog about the possibility of selling my La Pavoni Profesional espresso machine; the reason is not that I am desperate for money but rather I have several espresso machines that either need to be used or needed to be reconditioned and by having the La Pavoni, it would provide me no motivation to finish those undone project because the espresso from the La Pavoni leaves nothing to be desired! I'm thus both glad and sad to anounced that I have found a buyer who have agreed to pay a fair price for my nice little Pavoni!

I spend a fair amount of time yesterday to clean up the Pavoni, descaling the boiler with citric acid, and also polishing the chrome and exterior of the machine so that it would be ready for its new owner. The job is rather simple and it reveal that the Pavoni is still in top notch condition even when it was used by me extensively almost everyday. Not only that, there were several ocasion where I would forget and leave it on for an extended period of time with no harm ( But I would not recommend anyone doing that!). I also spend a good amount of time to properly pack the little machine. The Pavoni is a rather simple machine but it still require care when packing especially for shipping cross country. First of all, the boiler must be completely drained. Any bits that can be detatched should be do so such as drip tray, steaming arm, portafilter, boiler cap. These loose bit are then wrapped in paper towel and then addtionally wrapped in plastic wrap. The whole machine is of course wrapped in plastic bag and place in a paper box that can fit it snuggly; packing peanut is added for cushioning so the machine and parts will not move during shipping. I'm a firm beliver in double boxing and therefore I did that with this machine as well, of course addtionally foam or crumpled paper is used to prevent the inner box from moving in the bigger box during shipping! Furthermore, I paid the the USPS shipping insurance to have complete peace of mind. Now all I have to do is hope that it reach it new owner safely!

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I'm also kind of relieved that finally, I have more space on my coffee cart to work on other machines but at the same time sad to have to let an old friend go!