Its an undeniable fact that our shift from lever machines using a group with a diameter of around 50mm to the commercial standard of 58mm has impacted our roasting at lot, a change which we are still very much in the transitional phases of
for example, our brazilian yellow bourbon rainha estate coffee that tastes about as good as espresso gets on a 50mm group lever machine tastes bland, flat, insipid, and one dimensional on the LONDINIUM I and other 58mm groups
why is this? I’ve no idea, possible explanations are varied and numerous and I’m not about to embark on a dissertation to even begin to discover why
instead we are just changing, and this will of course upset some of our long standing customers, but i am confident that some of the new coffees we introduce will work well on the 50mm lever groups too
i would love to do roasts that were optimised for every kind of espresso machine; pump, lever, big group or small, but we simply don’t have the bandwidth to pursue such ambitious goals and we’d just end up being average at everything
no, the LONDINIUM way is to stay small and be ruthlessly focused on a very niche area; lever espresso. I’ve no ambition to employ a small army of people; now or in the future
instead we have elected to move to a 58mm machine which brings us in line with the commercial standard and despite a short term upheaval the goal is to obviously roast coffees that are at their best on commercial espresso machines so we are better placed to win more business from cafes
in making this shift we didn’t want to leave our core business cut adrift, which is why we developed the LONDINIUM I – a commercial lever machine that fits nicely into your kitchen without dominating the entire space
LONDINIUM II & III are technically identical to LONDINIUM I, but they give us a platform from which to win more espresso roasting from commercial customers
The end result will mean you can enjoy LONDINIUM espresso roasts on a machine that has been optimised to bring out the best in our roasts, whether at home or in your retail coffee operation. This ensures the roast will match the machine, reducing one more of the many variables in making great espresso