I must be mad or something. I have not mentioned anything about my new digital camera, or the 2nd hand slide scanner I am about to acquire... but I am talking about this low-tech home-use espresso machine which I just bought today. It's a Krups Espresso Primo, which is no longer made. The local agent is doing their annual grand sale. Espresso machines like this starts from about HK$2K, but I got mine for HK$500. Not bad at all.
But it's not all without problem. When I took it home, it wasn't working. Although the boiler became hot, the pump wasn't working. I took it back (just under an hour's journey each way) and had it exchanged (the unit comes with a three months warranty and three days one-for-one exchange). The technican who handled it was very kind and nice about it. He agreed to my request to test the new one. No luck with it either, and good thing we tested it. The kind technican then took the machine apart and fixed it on the spot while I was watching, and now I know how to take it apart myself. Cool. It turned out that one of the power connectors to the pump came off so it was an easy fix.
At the office where I work during the day we have a Nespresso machine, which is a high-tech consumer version of the normal espresso machine. Every month from a choice of about 4 to 5 different tastes you order from Nestle little cartridges of concentrated coffee extract to make cups of espresso. To keep the machine relatively fool-proof, the pressure it creates is nowhere near as high as the 15 bars created by my Krups. As a result the fluffy milk (called froth) it generates is pretty pathetic. Having said that, one thing that is good about the Nespresso machine we have is that it is much quicker. It would fill up a mug in about 30 seconds. My Krups on the other hand was slow. Maybe I had the coffee powder compressed too tightly or something, but it was dripping rather slowly when I was making my first cup of coffee. I waited for about 5 minutes, and the cup wasn't even half full...
Home-use espresso machines are no good for entertaining your guests. One could only do two tiny cups at a time, and by the time you are on your third and fourth cups, the first and second cups would have gone cold. Cup warmer you say? In fact there is a newer model that features a cup warmer at the top of the machine, but there wasn't any at the sale so I couldn't get it. In any case, it would take forever to prepare four tiny cups of espresso. Might well just bring out the scotch instead.
I made the first cup of coffee into a Cappuccino, which is half espresso half fluffy milk and a bit of chocolate powder on top. The milk-frothing thingy worked really well, and it was actually quite alright.
I have a little idea about a web project that involves my Krups. I shall reveal it in due course. In the meantime, you may be interested in the original Trojan Room Coffee Machine. I have been told that my Krups makes much better coffee.
9:57:04 PM 
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