The espresso machine at a tiny cafe in Portland broke my pour-over habit

Was on a trip to Portland last fall and stopped at this hole-in-the-wall spot called Oblique Coffee. The barista handed me an espresso shot from a machine that looked older than me. Said it was his granddad's from 1974. Tasted like chocolate and burnt sugar mixed together. I've been doing pour-overs at home for years but that one sip made me grab a used Gaggia off Craigslist the next week. Still figuring it out but man the learning curve is steep. Anyone else have a random coffee moment that sent you down a new rabbit hole?

2 comments

2 Comments

iris_schmidt4d ago

Is it weird that I think the espresso machine itself changed how you taste coffee, not just the flavor? There's something about watching a vintage machine pull a shot with all that hissing and mechanical noise that makes your brain think it tastes better. I read a study once about how the ritual around making coffee affects your perception of it. Maybe part of why that shot was so good was because the barista treated it like an art form, handed down from his granddad like a family recipe. It might explain why your Gaggia is so hard to figure out too - you're trying to recreate a moment, not just a drink.

jenny_lane124d ago

Push back a little here. The ritual stuff is real but I think you're overcomplicating it. That machine from 1974 probably just had decades of seasoning and a barista who knew exactly how to dial it in. My buddy has a La Pavoni from the 80s and his shots taste like someone boiled a tire, no matter how much theater he puts into pulling them. Good espresso is good espresso whether it comes out of a plastic Mr. Coffee or a brass museum piece. Maybe your brain does trick you a bit with the aesthetics but bad extraction tastes bad no matter how pretty the machine is.