Video Overview| La Pavoni Europiccola

The La Pavoni Europiccola is a simple lever machine first released in the 1950s. The newest iteration has a 51mm portafilter and baskets with all the classic components intact. In this video, Steve walks us through the compact EPC and then shows how to brew espresso and steam milk with it.

Transcript

Hey. I'm Steven of Prima Coffee and today we're going to take a look at the LA Pavoni Europiccola.The Europiccolo is your classic lever machine. This has been around since the 1950s. And if you've seen our previous video, you'll know that very little has changed on this. If you are looking for accessories, you should know that the one thing that has changed is the porta filter used to be a 49-millimeter porta filter and in 2000 that has changed to a 51-millimeter porta filter and basket. Being a classic lever machine, the Europiccola is very simple. You will have total hands-on control of the extraction with this lever here. What that means is that you will feel if it's too fine because it's hard to push down, or if it's too coarse because it's too easy to push down. So it's a very tactile machine. It gives you that instant feedback on the coffee extraction. As far as the parts go, you have access to all of them. Even the boiler, which is back here. It's a copper boiler, chrome plated. Here's your lever to operate the extraction. Your group head here. This is your steam wand. It is, you can tell, a little bit smaller than your standard steam wand, and also has a tip that has three holes in it. Making espresso on the Europiccola is very simple as well. You can fill up the boiler by taking off this lid and directly filling. And you can see here in the sight glass how much water is in that boiler. You want to fill it up to the top but you do not want to overfill. To turn on the machine, there is a button here on the side and when we turn this on, it'll be green, and when that green light down here goes out, that means that you have reached temperature. So that green light has gone out for us. However, the first thing you need to do is go ahead and bleed out any extra air that is in that boiler. So open up the steam wand, let that air out. Okay. When you see some water, you can close it. The green light comes back on to say that it is heating up to temperature. So we've had a little bit of false pressure in there. So now that the light has gone off a second time, we are ready to start making coffee for real. So we got 13 grams here in the basket, we went ahead and tamped with the metal tamper, not with the plastic one.

So to make coffee, we go ahead and lift the lever up about halfway. And then we'll insert our basket. Turn the porter filter over to the side and we'll start lifting up all the way. When we get to the top, you should do that slowly not to crack the puck, you can hear water start to go in. Get it ready here. I'll bring it down a little bit. Make sure there's water pre-infusing the puck. And when we see a little coffee start to come through. Then we can go ahead and bring the lever down. So there we go. There's our espresso. See, it looks great. After brewing your coffee, you're immediately ready to start steaming milk. Let's turn this over here a little bit. Be careful because you have access to all the very hot parts. So you probably don't want to move it like I just did. And also, you do not want to fill this when it's hot. So if you run out of water, you do need to turn it off and let it cool down, let that pressure go down before you fill the boiler. So I'm going to open the valve here. Start aerating the milk. You'll have to do a little more or spend more time on this than you will, of course on a standard machine aerated and then start to get that vortex. Close that valve. So there's that milk. You can see that it is nice and silky. There we go. And that is a nice texture. It also comes with an automatic cappuccino steaming attachment, which basically replaces that steam wand. But we found that this kind of over aerates the milk and causes it to be just too foamy. So a couple of notes about the Europiccola, the first one is that the temperature can be volatile. Meaning that after you've pulled a couple of shots, you might see that there's flashing at the group head which means the temperature's way too high. So you will need to turn it off. Let it cool down before you can make the next shots. And with that temperature you have access to all those really hot parts so be very careful when you're using this not to move it, for instance, when it's hot, so you can touch the boiler that is very hot. Even the base here, especially in the back does get very hot. And kind of a third note is that it's a light machine. When you are lifting the lever, because all of the weight is mainly here in the back where this boiler is and all that water is, it may raise here in the front, as you can see when you're lifting it. So it does kind of require two-handed operation. That said, the Europiccola is your classic lever machine. So it has that style. You can make great espresso with it, you can steam milk to the right texture with it. So it really has everything that you're going to need and you have total control over the extraction.