On Lever-Pulled Espresso and Exploration

Or how being a cheeky American sometimes goes a long way

In May, David and I went to Tallinn to witness the spectacle that is the Tallinn Craft Beer Weekend. We first heard about TCBW in 2019, when we visited Tallinn for the first time and unfortunately missed the festival by a week. Estonian beer culture is not to be trifled with: Estonians drink some heavy beer both in flavor and strength (most beers start at around 6-8% ABV, and it’s not unusual to get some serious bangers at 12-17%). They also really get into their festivals, so we knew we needed to attend this one, along with approximately half of Finland, apparently. I’ll observe that the Finns really like to drink.

Since we’d enjoyed Tallinn before, we decided to stay a bit longer on this trip, which gave us plenty of time to explore non-beer-related places as well. Despite being a rather small city, Tallinn offers some hidden gems both from a culinary and cultural perspective (e.g., the two-Michelin star restaurant 180 Degrees by Matthias Diether and Restoran Old Hansa, a non-kitschy Middle Ages-themed restaurant that was surprisingly good). Tallinn also boasts one of the most well-preserved medieval cities in Europe, dating back to the 13th century.

Additionally, David discovered one other thing Tallinn has going for it is the delightfully unassuming but unimaginably delicious cafe & bakery La Boulangerie. The bakery is bright and open, with an industrial aesthetic and a bakery in the back that seemed to be going all day, turning out a stream of delectable desserts and pastries:

La Boulangerie pastries and desserts taste every bit as good as they look. We tried almost everything during the week of our trip.

La Boulangerie is also known for something else —which is the main reason David urgently suggested we go: a lever-pulled espresso machine.

Normally, I’m not a huge espresso drinker, and prefer a good batch (or drip, as they’d say in America) brew. However, I do appreciate craftsmanship and an espresso done well, so I’ll never turn down quality. And so, on the first day of our visit in Tallinn, we found ourselves at La Boulangerie, sharing a sinful chocolate eclair, and watching, mesmerised as a barista pulled shots of espresso on this beautiful thing:

The Vostok, a beautiful lever espresso machine, with a three group setup.

But before I get too much farther into the story, let’s talk a bit about espresso, its history, and the invention of lever espresso machines.

A Little History on Espresso

It’s worth noting that while humanity’s obsessive love of coffee goes back to at least the 15th century, espresso as a concept is fairly new, less than 150 years old. The first espresso machines consisted of large chambers to store water, along with a boiler to generate the necessary pressure to push steam and water through coffee grounds. They were more like batch brew machines than the typical espresso machines we know and love. This pressure is measured in a unit known as a bar. Atmospheric pressure at sea level is 1 bar. So if you have a machine that can push water through grounds at 2 bar, that would be 2 times as that of natural atmosphere.

The first espresso machines were big, bulky, low-pressure affairs that often produced inconsistent shots at only 1.5-2 bar. Still, they were a vast improvement over other brewing methods, in that they brewed individual cups more quickly, with some early machines able to produce up to 1,000 cups of coffee per hour.

Shortly after WW2, Milanese cafe owner Achille Gaggia, hoping to build a better espresso machine, paired steam with manpower, creating the first lever-driven espresso machine. In addition to being smaller and more consistent, Gaggia’s lever -driven machine substantially increased the amount of water being forced through the coffee grounds to between 8-10 bar. Gaggia’s lever-driven machine worked by pushing water from a boiler into a cylinder where it is further pressurized as the barista manually pulls a lever attached to a spring-loaded piston. When released, the piston expands and forces the water through the coffee grounds in the portafilter (the thing attached to the espresso machine where the grounds are stored).

The increased pressure brought us to the modern espresso standards we expect today, and led to the discovery of crema — the delicious, creamy layer at the top of an espresso.¹ It takes a lot of pressure (usually at least 7-9 bars) to extract the crema. Most espresso makers today produce drinks at around 9 bar (but this like many things in the world of coffee, is a hotly contested subject).²

A modern reproduction of the Gaggia machine - © crazy4espresso @ https://www.home-barista.com/levers/gaggia-achille-revisited-t46326.html

Interestingly, the phrase “pulling a shot”³ comes from baristas using Gaggia’s machines in the 1950s.

Now, with that historical digression out of the way, I’ll get on with the story.

I Talk My Way Into Making Some Espresso

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am rarely content to simply sit by and watch, and within five minutes I’d sidled up to the barista, introduced myself and started asking questions on how his machine worked. The barista, Dmitri also runs Teemekohvi Estonia, the official distributor of lever machines, so I was in luck — I was chatting with the veritable expert on this machine. Not only was he kind enough to answer all my burning questions (“HOW?” being the first one), discuss the distinctions between lever-pulled versus vibration or rotary pump espresso makers (the kinds you’d find in most cafes), but he also graciously let me pull a few shots of my own!

A better picture of the espresso bar and setup.

Ages ago, when I was young and foolish, I took a job as a barista in Southern California. I lasted a whole two weeks — not because I was bad at making espresso drinks, but because I learned that a) I am absolutely not, and would never be a morning person, and b) I am especially not a customer-service morning person. There was one bit of good that came out of my two weeks of pain: I learned how to make decent espresso drinks.

That said, pulling a shot using a lever machine is a very different experience compared to pushing a few buttons on a typical espresso maker, not only in terms of the making, but also in the preparation of the shot. For one, there is an immense amount of physicality in a lever machine. It doesn’t require weightlifting, but it does provide a bit of a workout. I could see how pulling hundreds of shots a day might lead to well-defined triceps.

The model at La Boulangerie (the Teeme-Kohvi Vostok), is a modern twist on the Gaggia machines of yore. There’s a ton of technology under the hood to ensure that adequate water pressure and temperature are maintained, but baristas still need to ‘know’ the machine in order to extract quality shots. Much of that knowledge comes from a combination of understanding how to prepare the grind and machine itself — flushing leftover bits of previous that may linger in the portafilter, ensuring an appropriate grind size, tamping the coffee “puck” — timing — what level of pressure the machine needs to reach before pulling the lever, how far to pull the lever and long to hold before releasing, and even hand placement. Finally, there’s an observational step — knowing how the coffee channels through the portafilter is critical. And many or all of these elements may vary depending on the coffee roast used, and the grind size chosen.

Here’s an example where the water channelled centrally, as opposed to evenly through the whole puck. Dmitri claimed this made a less tasty shot, but honestly, it tasted great to me.

Dmitri was a very kind soul, and we pulled five shots together (he did a few demo shots, and then let me pull three on my own). We discussed technique, played around with different lengths of extraction, pressure, timing and coffee varieties. We nerded out so long, that one of Dmitri’s colleagues had to gently prod him to tend to the ever-growing line of customers. It ended up being a ton of fun, and now I kinda want a lever machine of my own. I’m pretty sure David would divorce me if I added yet another coffee contraption to our growing kit though, so I’ll hold off. For now.

As for the espressos themselves — every single one, including the examples that were supposed to be over- or under-extracted were sublime. Even the shots that I pulled. Most were almost ristretto-like, which is to say, a shorter, more concentrated shot compared to typical espresso shots. I personally adore ristrettos - despite getting a smaller amount of coffee, but the coffee you do get is usually free of bitterness, sweeter, more creamy, and bolder. But here, the machine was pulling full espresso shots that maintained the characteristics of a ristretto, and so I got the best of both worlds.

Some Final Thoughts

I delight in serendipitous experiences like this, where I get to learn from someone who is so passionate and committed to what they do, that their passion rubs off on me. People like Dmitri remind us that mastery comes in many forms, and many experts are unassuming, kind, and eager to share their knowledge if you’re just a bit bold about asking.

Part of my goal with this newsletter will be to dive in and explore these types of situations. I want to grow and learn from others who love what they do, and share what I learn and their passion with my readers. If this kind of thing is interesting to you, I hope you’ll stick around (and share these articles with others who might also be similarly curious. If you’re one of those passionate fellow nerds (or know someone who is), drop me a line, and let’s go get a coffee. Or you know, whatever your thing is.

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1. Much of the espresso knowledge comes from Jimmy Stamp’s “The Long History of the Espresso Machine,” (Smithsonian Magazine, June 19, 2012) and James Hoffman’s book, How to Make the Best Coffee at Home - especially Chapter 6 which covers espresso exclusively. The book is a great read, but the font is a crime against the eyes, and whoever decided on the layout and color scheme should consider why they want to give their readers a headache. This is the first book that should have been finished in a day but took a week to finish entirely because of the typography.

2. Hoffmann spends 4 pages on this (pp 161-165) in his book, and the amount of discussion I found online could have filled a blog post in its own right.

3. Kenneth Davids, Espresso: Ultimate Coffee, Second Edition.