I went to check out James Hoffman's new Faema lever @ Prufrock London…I’ve seen many reconditioned ones but this unit is new/mint - wow.
I ordered their two espressos taster - cup 1 was Red Brick using modern pump machine (Victoria Arduino Eagle One) vs cup 2 Il Grifone blend using Faema vintage lever. I expecting easy pick between the two but they pulled a modern espresso using the vintage lever (fast flowing, 1:3 ratio) which yielded v similar cup to the modern pump. I was able to blind pick which one was lever but mostly because I could tell the origin of the blend (Brazil was clear) - not necessarily the cups were very different. I would have preferred they pull a classic lever style vs modern espresso since for most people, that would be the obvious difference between the machines.
I ordered their two espressos taster - cup 1 was Red Brick using modern pump machine (Victoria Arduino Eagle One) vs cup 2 Il Grifone blend using Faema vintage lever. I expecting easy pick between the two but they pulled a modern espresso using the vintage lever (fast flowing, 1:3 ratio) which yielded v similar cup to the modern pump. I was able to blind pick which one was lever but mostly because I could tell the origin of the blend (Brazil was clear) - not necessarily the cups were very different. I would have preferred they pull a classic lever style vs modern espresso since for most people, that would be the obvious difference between the machines.

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