Hand Built Espresso

With all the coffee world chatter about $20,000 halogen siphon machines and the breaking news of Starbucks buying the exclusive rights to the technology-driven Clover brewing device. We thought it was a good time to let people know about a trip Caffé Vita took last month to visit the BOSCO plant in Naples, Italy. Below is a choppy little video from our trip to the quaint and rustic little workshop.

BOSCO has been meticulously crafting artisanal espresso machines by hand for the past 50 years - the machines are arguably the most carefully built machines on the planet. The BOSCO requires the care of a trained barista - no push button operation, each shot must be hand pulled, but with dedication the slender and towering levers are mastered and the machine extracts an incomparable shot.

There are less than a dozen BOSCO machines currently in the U.S. - one famously resided in Francis Ford Coppola’s office at American Zeotrope and now has migrated to his Bay Area café by the same name.

Hand Built Espresso in Naples. from hebberoy on Vimeo.

New machine arrives from Naples.

Here are some pics of the new 5 group monster we just had imported from Naples. Mike and Tom just got back from visiting the workshop and hanging with the founder Atillio - his machines are like intricate clocks - hand-made - carefully tuned - every detail is attended to and the espresso it pulls is remarkable. and imagine the sheer joy of grabbing a hold of one of those towering handles...

We have been bench testing it for a few weeks and it is headed to the Fremont location in a couple days...

starbucks buys clover?

i just heard that the leaning-giant snagged the indie-darling: clover.

(clover is a super fancy - super expensive - and pretty remarkable piece of brewing equipment - for more info go to clover)

is this true? does anyone have any info?

just back from ethiopia - a few pics.

a quick peek at the hundreds of photos we captured while in ethiopia during our recent sourcing trip - it was an intense amazing trip - much more to come - videos, essays, and of course coffee. the beans we found in sidamo and yirgacheffe will be available this week, here is the link: farm direct coffee

these photos were taken by brian wells the talented proprietor of the tougo coffeehouse in seattle (one of our most dedicated customers) who vita brought along to experience coffee at the source.

a quick video from ethiopia

vita founder mike mcconnell caught this footage while exploring the back streets of yirgacheffe.

kids dancing and singing in ethiopia from hebberoy on Vimeo.