# My Expobar Leva HX



## SlowRoast (Sep 24, 2010)

Urm, I may have caught upgraditis and bought myself an E61 Expobar Leva HX. I still have my Ponte Vecchio, with no intentions on selling yet, but the coffee from this is pretty incredible...

Rang up Bella Barista this morning and put it on hold, went to Bewiched and tried some Lusty Glaze from Hands On (the new blend they're trying), and had a good ol' chat. Head off to Bella Barista, walked in and there's my Expobar all set up ready for me to test! Next to a Rocket someone else was testing...

Claudette was lovely, very helpful. I just got to test the machine on all parameters, try some latte art, taste the shots. Even had a go with one of those Espro Tampers.

After about half hour, machine was drained off and packed up for me. Came home with lots and lots of beans, a shot glass, some Pulycaff, a wooden tamper and a big smile on my face.

First impressions, I LOVE it, love it love it. Pulled some Square Mile Red brick, buckets of very tasty crema compared to my PVL.

I have some unknown beans in a 1kg gold bag. Made a nice flat white though.




























I ain't sleeping this week.


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

Its like Brewtus's cousin! : )


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## funinacup (Aug 30, 2010)

Wow, lovely! Lots of people getting these shiny machines at the mo, makes me want one!

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2


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## SlowRoast (Sep 24, 2010)

It is, Gary!









They change your life, Michael... I must admit this is the result of watching too many videos on them and wanting to train for the UKBC...

The steam power is weaker than what I'm used to but the microfoam seems to be better, which is nice.


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Boom! The lad continues his journey on the path of righteousness.


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## SlowRoast (Sep 24, 2010)

I shall vow to never look back from the E61, it's some incredible stuff. And I think these beans have a lot of robusta too... How long would you recommend pre-infusing for?


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## lookseehear (Jul 16, 2010)

After cupping robusta next to some really great arabica at extract I don't think I'd be keen on a blend that includes it. Having said that, coffee is generally better than no coffee and if I had a new machine like yours I would be pulling shots of 5 year old Starbucks beans if that was all I had. Congrats!


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## SlowRoast (Sep 24, 2010)

I'm not too keen on robusta myself anymore, but a 1kg for free ain't bad. Shall provide me something to experiment with different weights and tamp pressures and get me in the ball park before I order some more Square Mile. I've had worse than this though for sure.


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## Filthy_rich85 (Jan 20, 2011)

lookseehear said:


> After cupping robusta next to some really great arabica at extract I don't think I'd be keen on a blend that includes it. Having said that, coffee is generally better than no coffee and if I had a new machine like yours I would be pulling shots of 5 year old Starbucks beans if that was all I had. Congrats!


The robusta cupping was a real eye opener (in more ways than one)!!!


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## benbaldwin (Dec 30, 2011)

Ah HUGE congrats and welcome to the shiny new machine club! B E A utiful


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## Tryfan (Apr 11, 2012)

One word: Jealous.

Seriously, congrats mate. I'd love something like this, but alas I have 'commitments'. Wouldn't change them for the world... Hmmm...


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## SlowRoast (Sep 24, 2010)

Thanks everyone!







I love it so much. My mum's going to put it on the house insurance too.

Should have my scales tomorrow thanks to CoffeeGeek, let the God shots begin...


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## SlowRoast (Sep 24, 2010)

I haven't done a shot like this in ages!







I might take it to work with me and use it instead of the CMA ...


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## jimbow (Oct 13, 2011)

Lovely, lovely looking machine James. Congratulations!


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## SlowRoast (Sep 24, 2010)

Thanks, I'm getting on with it so well now, the scales CoffeeGeek very kindly sent me are helping immensely. I've made some lovely shots on it, it's very quick to clean, and looks amazing! It heats up so much quicker compared to my PVL (Great in the mornings), the group starts to get hot in minutes, the anti vac valve which the PVL didn't have is a dream. Drawing hot water is VERY quick.

The one pet peeve is the single hole steam tip, I'm very used to three, four and five hole tips, and shall try and get a four or five hole one if I can. I can get a perfectly good microfoam but not a good whizz in the jug and it takes a while. Whilst I understand this will drop the pressure a lot more, I've normally pulled my shot by the time I've started steaming.

I'm a happy chappy


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## SlowRoast (Sep 24, 2010)

Here's a video of my Expobar in action, with some milk steaming and one handed latte art!














That was 18g of Bella Barista Italian roast, a bit slow, double ristretto.

The steam tip wasn't screwed on properly, hence the camera steaming up but I still got a good microfoam.


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## dobber (Jun 22, 2012)

awesome looking machine little bit jealous


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## thomss (May 9, 2011)

I like it! - Looks amazing


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