The advantage of Lever machine

Lever espresso machines, they are cool looking and they make good espresso; but one of the easily overlooked aspect of lever machine is its quiteness. And I experienced this first hand Saturday's night. I was staying up late at night studying for the biochemistry exam on monday and felt really sleepy at some point. There is only one thing that is going to save me right now and it is drinking a shot of double espresso, yes, at 1am in the morning!!!

Since my wife is a very light sleeper, I didn't want to wake her up by my Musica to blast noise through out the house while making espresso; so I pick my weapon, the two groups Ponte Vecchio Lever espresso machine.

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After about 15 minutes heating up, and several ouces of heating up flushes through the group head, the Ponte Vecchio is ready to pull shot. I decided to run 12 grams of my Brazil/ Sumatra blend through this. I guess the grind setting on the Vario, and briefly grind the coffee hoping that it was not too loud (the Baratza Vario is a relatively quite grinder and fast too!).The extraction was not spot on but with a lever like the Ponte Vecchio Lusso, it can be very forgiving with regard to grind setting and the espresso was very good.

In the end, I was saved by the espresso shot; I really appreciate the silence of this espresso machine in situation like this!