I reviewed the Ms Silvia over on CoffeeGeek today. I cleaned up some of the 'cleanup' advice, incorporating Shaun's instructions. 5-month thoughts? Not an ounce of Up-Grade-I-Tis. T'is a pleasure:
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Ratings and Stats Overall Rating: 9.0
Manufacturer: Rancilio Quality: 9
Average Price: $599.00 Usability: 8
Price Paid: $375.00 Cost vs. Value 10
Where Bought: CGeek, Buy/Sell/Trade Aesthetics 9
Owned for: 3 months Overall 9
Writer's Expertise: I love coffee Would Buy Again: Yes
Similar Items Owned:
Bottom Line: One or two 'spressos a day? Say Silvia.
Positive Product Points
Substance. Built well. Solid as a machine can be made. True craftsmanship. An attractive stainless steel complement to the chrome MACAP 4 sitting on the marble counter. Perfect set-up for a daily single or double.
Negative Product Points
Needs time to sufficiently recycle for frothing after pulling a shot, but I knew that going into the purchase. Not for a crowd.
Detailed Commentary
Background:
We are 'weekend only' espresso drinkers, using a Chemex and Bodum gold-filter setup with homeroasted beans throughout the week. I just can't be bothered with the espresso rigamaroll during the week.
I had done extensive reading just to learn about espresso makers and ?knew? the product going into the purchase. (For a very good background read, take a look at Mark's ?How to Buy an Espresso Machine?
http://www.coffeegeek.com/guides/howtobuyanespressomachine). While I wasn't in the market for an espresso maker, when a lightly-used Silvia came available for a fine price on CoffeeGeek's Buy-Sell-Trade forum, I sprung into action. Boom. Hello Ms. Silvia.
Getting It Home:
Ship it or let the daughter bring it home? My daughter volunteered so onto the lite-rail to the airport she and Ms. Silvia went. My daughter got a seat and Ms. Silvia got the closet at the front of the plane. Upon greeting her at the airport, I was embarassed that I had asked her to pick it up and save on the freight. This girl (Ms Silvia, that is) is heavy! (30 pounds). Upon placing it on the counter, I was struck how sharp looking it is sitting there. Nice.
Time to Learn:
There is a ton of excellent posts/reading out there on the Silvia and I had taken them all in. Do the same. It is worth it. For my first step, I gathered all the leftovers (I am a homeroaster) and blended them. I got lucky on about the 3rd attempt with Mr. Stepped Macap. Then it was time to learn the right tamp. About a pound later, I had that voluptuous 2-ounce, crema laden shot, shimmering from an overhead light, shining down on a clear glassed, first of many great coffee drinks from our newest Italian family member.
Suggestion? Get a pound of espresso whole bean from a good local roaster and learn your grinder, tamp, and machine. Learn to pour out bad shots without guilt. This is a learning process and be patient with yourself and Ms. Silvia. It will get to the point where you can replicate, shot after shot, believe me.
And Then:
I purchased a bottomless portafilter for the unit from Chris's Coffee. Chris's has my repeat business as every time I have done business with them, the transaction is flawless and the customer service, in the way of information prior to purchase, is complete, informative, and offered at my level of understanding. But why the naked filter?
You will improve your shots immediately. With the bottomless filter, you can see when the espresso 'channels.' This happens when water slips through the weakest point(s) in the tamped coffee. The naked filter helps you learn much more quickly when you have the tamp correct. Plus, it is so cool just to see water drips merging into one nice, colorful tiger tail as it slides down into the waiting cup. Heavens, it doesn't get any better.
Bean amount? I use 17 grams of homeroasted beans, ground into a stainless steel milk frother. I then put a bottomless yogurt container into the waiting portafilter, and stir it with a dissecting needle. This eliminates any clumping that may have occurred in the grinding.
Result? 2 ounces of espresso with gorgeous crema, time after time, in 23 seconds. (Note: Count from the moment you push the button to initiate the cup until the time that the shot begins 'blonding.')
Temperature Surfing:
I will be honest. More has been written about temp surfing with the Silvia than I care to read. As a household that consumes the shot within a latte (the Coffee Czarina's drink of choice) or a capp (mine), I find the temp surfing unnecessary. The frothed milk covers a multitude of sins. However, if you are a shot sipper, I would suggest you get up to speed, starting with Greg Scace's approach in the Espresso My Espresso (
http://home.surewest.net/frcn/Coffee/HowToTemperature.html). If that isn't enough to sooth your frazzled caffeined nerves, read The Gospel of Glass, 58th Chapter, Temp Surf or Time Surf (
http://www.espressomyespresso.com/). I use Randy's website as a beginning point any time I have a question with espresso.
Regardless, for our needs, getting Ms Silvia to temperature is simple. I turn the unit on and wait about 15 minutes. Then, I mount the empty portafilter and basket and run a cup using the 'brew' button to warm up the groupead. I pour out that cup and do a second one using the brew button. That cup is placed on top of Ms Silvia as I turn on the 'hot water' button and open the value to the frother/hot water stem. This warms all the interior parts of the unit while getting the boiler to recycle and bring the entire unit up to temp. Next, bleed 6 ounces of hot water out of the unit and turn the 'hot water' button off. Then, when the boiler light turns back on, bleed out the remaining water from the wand. To do this, put a pitcher under the frother wand and turn on the 'steam' light, opening the valve until all the water spits and sputters its way out of the line. You are now good to brew.
Frothing:
Frothing is the next challenge that loom on the horizon with Ms. Silvia. My immediate suggestion is buy a small stainless steel pitcher and a thermometer with a nice large facial dial. Get a gallon of 2% and again, suck up the guilt meter and froth away (and dump). It is very difficult to work with Silvia's small wand in some of the larger pitchers out there.
Aaron De Lazzer has a superb series of articles right here on CoffeeGeek so I needn't try and duplicate his material:
http://www.coffeegeek.com/guides/frothingguide. Read it and read it again. It is excellent. For me, it needn't be that complicated. Tricks that have helped me include:
* Using a smaller bell-shaped pitcher, 12-ounce
* Tip the pitcher so you are creating a whirlpool
* Stretch the milk so that it is light by keeping the tip of the wand just under the surface
* Good microfoam should be poured, not spooned (I am not quite there yet)
* Try, try, and try again
* Wait until the boiler recycles and there is a good charge of steam behind your steaming effort. It reaps dividends and the foam is tighter and lighter.
Last week I had the opportunity to work on a La Marzocco down at Intelligentsia's workshop in Chicago. Now there is a frother and when I started up Ms. Silvia this morning for the first froth, I thought there was something missing under the hood. Oh well.
My latte art? Well, it is coming along. What I usually do it pour it and then (and then only) name it. This morning I poured a sparrow (Jack, that is) and an elephant dancing among cumulous nimbus clouds. Everyone can pour a rosetta; but try and do Jack Sparrow sometime.
Cleanup?
Simple. Make sure that you take the portafilter off from the grouphead as soon as you have finished making the espresso. Put a cup underneath and hit the brew button so that residual oils and grinds don't linger. Take a brush to any remnants that remain on the screen and gasket. Wipe down the frothing wand, getting any milk off of it. Wash the drip pans, wipe it down, refill the reservoir, and shut it off. You are good to go.
Periodic Cleaning
I run a total of 4 doubles through the Silvia every week, using spring water. As such, I clean Ms Silvia only about every 3 months. Here is how I go at it, after reading a ton and learning as I went along and getting some advice from a friend over at the Green Coffee Buying Club (
http://greencoffeebuyingclub.com), a groups of homeroasters. Steps:
1. Use a small stub screwdriver and take the screen filter and associated parts off the grouphead. Yuck. Lots of oils. Put the filter, screw, spacer and heavy metal piece is a disposable yogurt container. Add about 3/4 t. of Cafiza, add boiling water, and let soak for 30 minutes.
2. Watch you eyes - Cafiza is strong. I used needle nose to hold the pieces while I scrubbed with a grouphead brush so I didn't have to hold the pieces in bare hands. When finished, place pieces in sink (with drainer in the sink) and pour some boiling water over the pieces. Voila, new parts.
3. Use the solution in which the parts were soaking as a bath to scrub the exposed parts of the grouphead, with particular attention to the groove. If your gasket is leaking, now is the time to replace it by anchoring a couple of screw into the old gasket and pulling the gasket out via screws/pliers. Use screw driver to ensure all parts of gaskets are out but be cafeful, that is soft brass.
4. Now, time to demineralize. Make sure the boiler is up to temperature. Add 1 ounces of Dezcal and fill the reservoir to the fill line.
5. Use a spoon to ensure the Dezcal is dissolved.
6. With a cup under the wand, run a good cup of water through the steaming wand.
7. With a cup under the empty grouphead (no portafilter on), run about 6 ounces of water through and turn the 'cup' switch off.
8. Let this sit for 20 minutes, repeat. Wait 20 minutes and repeat until the reservoir is empty.
9. Refill the reservoir and run the water thru the grouphead and hot water spout, draini the reservoir. Refill the reservoir. Do the entire process, 3 reservoir's full. You are trying to ensure that you are flushing residual Dezcal from the 20 oz boiler.
10. Reassemble grouphead parts, not going too tightly on the screen holding the screen filter in place.
(Note well: You are your own if you follow the next steps. Rancilio insists that backflush is not needed. You might well be voiding the warranty.)
11. Bring the unit's boiler up to temperature. (Websites disagree on that point) Put a blank in the portafilter and put 1/2 t. (about 3 g) of Cafiza in the blank. Pour a bit of hot water into it.
12. Put the portafilter into the grouphead, being careful not to spill the Cafiza mix. Lock in the grouphead.
13. Pull blank shot for 5 seconds. Stop, wait 10 seconds. Pull for 5 seconds, stop. Wait 10 secs, etc. This sequence should be done approx 8-10 times. You will know when things are clean as based on the color of foamy residue through the overflow valve.
Once things look clean in the foamy residue, remove the portafilter and remove residual cleaner from the blind, put it back in the grouphead and repeat the sequence with clean water for several repeats. Then start pulling blind shots, after each blind pull, remove from grouphead, dump the water, back into grouphead. Pull a blind, dump the water, back into grouphead, blind pull, etc. until things look clean.
- No need to wait any time after this step. The entire process should take less than five minutes.
1. Take the portafilter off, running the portafilter under the hot faucet to rinse the Cafiza off of it.
2. Run an entire reservoir through both the steam wand/hot water wand as well as the grouphead. You are making sure that the lines are clean throughout.
3. Repeat #16 above.
4. Grind some old beans and pull some shots. Dump them. Once you think that you are good to go, try some fresh beans and pull a shot. Sip. Ah, that is the way espresso is meant to taste.
Tampers:
There is only one thing that can complete your Silvia ? a tamper from Les Albjerg. Think wood. Think wood. I have one being handmade by Les over here at Thor Tampers. (
http://www.thortamper.com/gallary.html). Mine will be the 58mm for the Silvia. The irony is that the piece of olivewood from which my tamper is being made arrived from Bethlehem on Les's front door stoop on Christmas Eve, December 24th.
This machine is a treat. It is a well-crafted, handmade, solid piece of equipment. Perfect? Of course not. If you are brewing for a crowd, you will want a unit with a heat exchanger or a double boiler to keep things rolling. If you don't like to futz and putz with your coffee, buy an automatic espresso maker. But if you want rich coffee, as in oozing with crema that you crafted from scratch, look no further. Ms. Silvia is the ticket.
Credits:
Mark Prince, Greg Scace, Randy Glass, and Shaun Taylor. I can't take any credit for any of this. Just a ton of good advice from good people and some time working over the controls of my Ms. Silvia. Oh, and special thanks to my Coffee Czarina who didn't wince at this or other coffee toys along the way. Life is good.
Buying Experience
Buying from a CoffeeGeeker in the Buy-Sell-Trade forum was a piece of cake. CCFore described it as lightly used and it was in 'mint' condition. A couple of emails, phone calls, PayPal, and voila, I was the proud owner of my adopted Italian delight.
B|Java
