This was one of those weeks where it seemed my ear was welded to the telephone.

I actually don't enjoy using the telephone much, but this week was so busy with it, I ran down BOTH our cordless phones in the officespace™ almost daily. And most of the calls were coffee related. And many of them involved some juicy stuff that gets me all giddy :) I must be a coffee geek.

There's not much I can tell you - there's a lot of confidential stuff being said these days, all gearing up for the Specialty Coffee Association of America conference in May (which, by the way, I'm definitely attending - look for me at either the Baratza booth or the ESI / La Marzocco booth), but what I can say is this - there's a lot of very cool things coming down the pipe in the next few months. Many of them for the consumer / prosumer marketplace. Some grinders, some machines, some improved machines, it's all good.

More machines around the house

Elektra Micro Casa Recently sent by Elektra in Italy for a Detailed Review (in early June) on CoffeeGeek.

Speaking of good, I took delivery yesterday of a seriously impressive machine. You may have noticed we did a First Look at the Pavoni Professional lever machine at CoffeeGeek. Yesterday I got a second lever machine - an Elektra Micro Casa e Leva, in the best colors - the brass and chrome model. It was also shipped with Elektra's elusive and exclusive aluminum travel case. Stunning's a word I've been using a lot lately at CoffeeGeek, but even that word doesn't fully describe this work of art by Elektra. Look for the first look about this machine soon. And here's some sneaky-pete info about the Elektra. Normally they sell online in the US for about $1000 to $1200. Well, if you contact www.spinazzola.com and mention CoffeeGeek and the Micro Casa, you can get it for $795. Only about $70 more than the base La Pavoni Pro, and by many accounts (not just my own), it's much more a machine than the Pavoni. In other words, most people in the biz think the Elektra is worth the $300+ premium over the Pavoni Pro machines. This is you chance to get it for nearly the same price.

Another machine making its way up here is a Solis SL70. The folks at Baratza feel this machine is a virtual "unknown" and doesn't deserve to be, so they asked me to give it the detailed review treatment, which I was happy to oblige. And if you want a good quality, but inexpensive espresso machine, some of these SL70s are on sale right now - check out this New and Noteworthy page at 'Geek for more info, but the short version is, white with green button SL70s are just $269! Wow.

Excellent blend candidates around here
In my last rant I wrote about a couple of blends I made up. The Yirg blend was especially good, so good in fact, it may become my semi-regular blend.

Blending coffees is not normally my forte. I just don't have the decades of experience in blending, so I just lump a with b, hoping for the best. I wish I could develop my blending skills more, but I've learned that this is a skill that can only develop with time. I'm much better these days than I was 3 or 4 years ago, but I still bow to the amazing abilities of guys like Barry Jarrett who have this down to an absolute art form.