I should have learned my lesson Christmas Day 2005, but we all want to do the right thing by our guests and treat them to a good home-roasted, freshly ground coffee. :P
Even though Miss Silvia isnt made for mass cafe-style production runs! :-/
So I opened my big mouth, and most of the 20 guests jumped at the invitation. I made a list of who wanted what.
Many ordinary lattes, a small latte, a cocoa latte, lattes with lactose-free milk, several espressos, and a couple of teas for the oldies.
How did the equipment cope? Probably as good/bad as yours truly. We all know men cant do two things at one, dont we? Try doing about 20 things at once! ;D
I went for grouping the production runs: ordinary lattes first. Doing two at a time was relatively easy, especially since most prefer only a single-shot espresso base.
Problems arise when you miscalculate the amount of milk to be steamed, and when the last batch is for one cup, and youre saving your small pitcher for the non-lactose milk.
The big pitcher is too big for one cup, but what do you do without contaminating the smaller? (I now remember I have a spare small pitcher which I never used. Drats!) :-[
I didnt make all the espresso bases first, then steam the milk, because that would have caused an inordinately long wait. Made two, served them, back for another two, and so on.
So boiler temperatures fluctuated wildly, needing manual overriding of the PID with cooling flushes when going from steaming back to brewing .... helping things heat up again when filling the depleted boiler by using the steam switch... I must say, that in such abnormal conditions where speed and mass production is of the essence, the PIDs value was mainly in providing a temperature read out so I knew where I was.
Eventually, everyone got what they ordered --- in the fullness of time! 8-)
I could have dusted off the cobwebs from the old 6-cup and 4-cup stove tops, and saved a lot of time and hassle.... but it was quality, not quantity I was aiming for. >
Will I do it again next Christmas?
Mmmmm....perhaps by then Santa will bring me a three-group La Marzocco. Dream on. ;D
What would I do differently? ---Insist (ever so diplomatically) the dozen dirty champagne flutes waiting to be washed NOT stand on my bench space!
Pre-grind most if not all the beans. An hour or so wont hurt and I doubt many would notice anyway. Just seeing crema in the cups is novel enough for most!
--Robusto
Even though Miss Silvia isnt made for mass cafe-style production runs! :-/
So I opened my big mouth, and most of the 20 guests jumped at the invitation. I made a list of who wanted what.

Many ordinary lattes, a small latte, a cocoa latte, lattes with lactose-free milk, several espressos, and a couple of teas for the oldies.

How did the equipment cope? Probably as good/bad as yours truly. We all know men cant do two things at one, dont we? Try doing about 20 things at once! ;D
I went for grouping the production runs: ordinary lattes first. Doing two at a time was relatively easy, especially since most prefer only a single-shot espresso base.
Problems arise when you miscalculate the amount of milk to be steamed, and when the last batch is for one cup, and youre saving your small pitcher for the non-lactose milk.
The big pitcher is too big for one cup, but what do you do without contaminating the smaller? (I now remember I have a spare small pitcher which I never used. Drats!) :-[
I didnt make all the espresso bases first, then steam the milk, because that would have caused an inordinately long wait. Made two, served them, back for another two, and so on.
So boiler temperatures fluctuated wildly, needing manual overriding of the PID with cooling flushes when going from steaming back to brewing .... helping things heat up again when filling the depleted boiler by using the steam switch... I must say, that in such abnormal conditions where speed and mass production is of the essence, the PIDs value was mainly in providing a temperature read out so I knew where I was.
Eventually, everyone got what they ordered --- in the fullness of time! 8-)
I could have dusted off the cobwebs from the old 6-cup and 4-cup stove tops, and saved a lot of time and hassle.... but it was quality, not quantity I was aiming for. >

Will I do it again next Christmas?
Mmmmm....perhaps by then Santa will bring me a three-group La Marzocco. Dream on. ;D
What would I do differently? ---Insist (ever so diplomatically) the dozen dirty champagne flutes waiting to be washed NOT stand on my bench space!
Pre-grind most if not all the beans. An hour or so wont hurt and I doubt many would notice anyway. Just seeing crema in the cups is novel enough for most!

--Robusto


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