I've had a Rancilio Silvia for over 10 years and a Rocky for even longer. In that time, I've been making cappuccinos for myself nearly every weekend morning. When I started, I'd make drinks occasionally for my girlfriend, now, she's my wife and generally has a decaf americano. After 10 years, switching to home roasted coffee, changing homes 4-5 times, and innumerable other life changes, I started to get an itch to improve my espresso a few months ago.
The first steps were some machine maintenance (I had gotten lazy with some of it over the years) and upgrades. Rocky got new burrs and a good cleaning, Miss Silvia got a descaling, backflush, rebuild of the steam wand, new IMS grouphead screen and bottomless portafilter.
Paying closer attention to the espresso and using the bottomless portafilter really showed that I had been getting lazy with my process too, so I started reading up and got a few more toys, a VST portafilter basket, a portafilter dosing funnel, leveler/distribution tool and a small mirror (so i didn't have to crouch down in front of the machine to see how the espresso was coming out of the bottomless portafilter). I felt like i was starting to get somewhere with the espresso.
In order to get a shot like the one above, I had to overdose the filter basket and tamp fairly hard. That's when the real upgradeitis hit and i decided to look into a new grinder...
The first steps were some machine maintenance (I had gotten lazy with some of it over the years) and upgrades. Rocky got new burrs and a good cleaning, Miss Silvia got a descaling, backflush, rebuild of the steam wand, new IMS grouphead screen and bottomless portafilter.
Paying closer attention to the espresso and using the bottomless portafilter really showed that I had been getting lazy with my process too, so I started reading up and got a few more toys, a VST portafilter basket, a portafilter dosing funnel, leveler/distribution tool and a small mirror (so i didn't have to crouch down in front of the machine to see how the espresso was coming out of the bottomless portafilter). I felt like i was starting to get somewhere with the espresso.
In order to get a shot like the one above, I had to overdose the filter basket and tamp fairly hard. That's when the real upgradeitis hit and i decided to look into a new grinder...