Good enough for James Bond

James Bond's espresso maker of choice is the same as mine—the La Pavoni Europiccola. In a scene from Live and Let Die he makes a latté (sort of) for M—who's not impressed.

Unfortunately, his method is completely wrong. To make a latté (or cappuccino) you wouldn't add milk to the espresso and then use the steam wand to froth it. You would froth the milk in a separate container then pour it into the espresso. Also, he has just entered the kitchen to make the coffee and the espresso machine is already up to temperature—you can hear the steam escaping from the pressure release valve. That takes about 5 minutes to get to temperature. But, that's movie making—all that would have taken far too long.

I love M's comment at the end: "Is that all it does?"

Alternate source.

Service tools

A few tools are required to maintain and service a La Pavoni espresso machine.

One of the best cleaners for the metal surfaces on the espresso machine is the Bar Keepers Friend which is readily available. Autosol is a premium metal polishing compound that works great on chrome.

Bar Keepers Friend

 

Autosol

One of the best cleaners for espresso machine is Joe Glo. It can be used to soak parts during disassembly, clean the portafilter, or to back flush the system.

Citric acid is best for the removal of lime scale or other build-up inside the boiler. It is available in powder form. See my de-scaling instructions here.

A number of tools are required to disassemble the unit for maintenance or repair.

This snap ring tool is required to change the seal in the group head of a La Pavoni. I got mine from Princess Auto.

These dental picks are useful, especially for removing old gaskets and o-rings and for general cleaning.

A tool is needed to remove the nut on the boiler tank when doing a major rebuild or restoration of a La Pavoni. As specialized wrench is available which is quite expensive. I use an off-the-shelf automobile oil filter wrench that I got from Princess Auto.

If the group head cylinder is corroded or severely stained, a hone may be required to polish the surface in order to get an effective seal around the piston. A brake cylinder hone, available from automotive supply shops, should work fine.

A food-grade lubricant is used for lubricating the piston seals and piston shaft, and also helps in the installation of the sight glass. The most popular one is DOW Chemicals Molykote 111. The larger 100gm tube is widely available but is far more than you will ever need; the 6 gram packet (pictured on right below) is plenty and can be bought from most espresso parts suppliers. I bought the 100gm tube at Canadian Bearings.

A few wrenches and sockets are needed for serving a La Pavoni. I have a 10mm, 14mm, 16mm and 7/16" wrench and a 10mm, 14mm and 16mm socket. Also needed are a #2 Philips stubby screwdriver for the screw that holds on the base and a large slot screwdriver for the large screw on the top of the sight glass—see below. Q-tips are useful for general cleaning of small nooks and those hard-to-reach areas.

A very large slot screwdriver is needed to remove the screw on the top of the sight glass; a regular slot screwdriver can cause damage to the screw head. The only one large enough that I've found is the Hazet 980-2X13, on a ½ inch drive socket from Germany. The head is 2mm x 13mm; the slot on the screw is 17mm (~⅝ inch) wide by 1.5mm. From the factory the head is not thin enough, so it has to be reduced from 2mm to 1.5mm by machining or filing. It will then fit correctly into the screw slot.

La Pavoni Upgrades

There are a few upgrades to my La Pavoni that would bring it up to date and help improve quality.

I can add a gauge on the tank with a thread adapter. It mounts on top of the sight glass.

Gauge

Adapter

This kit installs a pressure gauge on the group head to monitor the pull pressure. Available from Coffee Addicts.

Group gauge kit

This custom lever bearing for the pull handle reduces the play in the pull action. Available from Coffee Addicts.

Lever bearing

My machine

I believe my La Pavoni Europiccola is the model 2.3 made from 1984-1991. I based this on the detailed model description provided on Francesco Ceccarelli's website. Mine looks like the one shown below except that the drip tray cover on mine is plastic, not chrome, and the outer rim of the plastic base plate is thinner.
I bought it second hand about 15 years ago and did a basic restoration — seals and gaskets (available from Coffee Addicts).

Photo courtesy of Francesco Ceccarelli.

I upgraded my La Pavoni by adding a pressure gauge on the boiler tank. The La Pavoni Professional comes with a pressure gauge, but my Europiccola model requires a custom thread adapter (available from Coffee Addicts) that replaces the cap screw on the top of the sight glass. This is M12 male to the 1/8" M BSP female thread required for the gauge. The gauges on espresso machines always measure pressure in bars; 1 bar is equal to 14.5 psi.

BPlus make an extended adapter which raises the gauge higher though I would think it would interfer with handling the tank knob.

The tank pressure should be around 0.6-1 bar. At that amount of pressure the water temperature will be about 94°C which is the desired temperature for espresso.

They also make an adapter kit to measure the pressure of the pull as you would find on most automatic machines. This pressure is substantially higher than the tank pressure, from 6-12 bars, with 8-9 as the optimum. The modification adds a gauge to the top of the piston shaft above the lever as seen in the photo below.

To extract the coffee with a pressure of 9 bars (130 psi) on a La Pavoni requires a force of approximately 30 lbs (13.7 kg) applied to the lever.

I also replaced the stock steel roller "nut" (more like a bushing) on the pull lever with a roller bearing version available from Coffee Addicts. I added the Normcore shower screen which helps disperse the water more evenly on the grounds. I also have in stock a replacement thermal fuse in case mine blows. This protects the boiler and element from overheating and being damaged if the tank runs dry. I could replace the thermal fuse with a resetable thermal breaker.

Lever bearing

Normcore shower screen

Thermal fuse

Resetable thermal breaker

I may get the IMS precision filter basket which is considered a worthwhile upgrade to improve extraction. James Hoffman upgrades his basket with ones from VST though these are only available in 60mm diameter. My portafilter came with the dual spout but I would like to get the single spout. They are available as the standard curved version or two different version of the straight spout: short and tall. They are available from CoffeeAddicts.ca.

IMS filter basket

Single portafilter spout
standard curved

Single portafilter spout 
short straight

 Single portafilter spout
tall straight

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My Setup

Beside the La Pavoni espresso machine I have the following espresso setup:

The 1ZPesso-JX-Pro is one of the finest quality manual espresso grinders available, giving two of the most desired features: a very consistent grind and very fine adjustment, everything from the finest Turkish grind through espresso and to French press.

Adjustment dial

1ZPresso grinder

Grinder chart

A scale is really needed to meter the exact amount of coffee. The Neouza and IKAPE tampers result in a level tamping and are calibrated to give a consistent tamp pressure.

Miicoffee Nano scale

Neouza tamper

IKAPE Espresso V3 tamper

The Grindenstein knock box is used to dispose of the used coffee "puck." The Rattleware frothing picture is perfect for frothing milk.

Grindenstein knock box

Rattleware frothing pitcher

The dosing funnel makes pouring ground coffee into the portafilter easier with less spillage. The Yeater WDT is the tool for breaking up lumps and evenly distributing the coffee grinds in the portafilter basket.

Dosing funnel

Yeater WDT

Puck screen holder

The tamper station makes for a tidier countertop with places to store the portafilter, tamper, basket, WDT tool and dosing funnel.

NC Coffee Tamper Station

I have the two basic types of cups that should be on hand: espresso and cappuccino. A regular coffee cup would do for cappuccino. The insulated glass espresso cups add a modern touch and keeps the espresso warmer longer.

 

Glass espresso cups

Glass espresso cups
 

Sweejar cappuccino cups

 

Italian espresso cups

But the latest addition is the Julius Meinl espresso and cappuccino cups with saucers that I bought at the Julius Meinl store in Vienna.

Cappuccino

Espresso

Espresso History

Espresso coffee was developed through a series of steps around the turn of the twentieth century. In 1884, Angelo Moriondo developed a steam-driven coffee machine that was an important precursor to the espresso machine. But espresso as we now know it was developed by Luigi Bezzera who invented a method of making coffee with steam pressure that he patented in 1901. This method provided a quick way of making a single cup of coffee, "espressly" for one. The original Italian may have meant "pressed coffee," but the meaning also had the connotation of speed. (In 1903 Bezzera's patent was bought by Desiderio Pavoni, who founded the La Pavoni company.)

This new method of making coffee had a disadvantage in that the steam gave the coffee a burnt taste, likely from the excessively high temperature. In the 1940s, it appears that a certain Sr. Cremonese, who worked for a coffee grinder factory, developed a screw piston which forced water through the coffee. But it was Achille Gaggia who, in 1947, improved upon the method by finally hitting on a design that incorporated a spring lever piston.

early La Pavoni commercial machine

And espresso was finally brought into the home by Gaggia's production of the Gaggia Gilda which he patented in 1952.

Patent April 26, 1952

Gaggia Gilda

La Pavoni's introduction of the very popular Europiccola in 1961 brought a high quality, fairly inexpensive manual espresso machine to the home.

1961 La Pavoni Europiccola

Sources: see articles here, here and on Wikipedia.