Philips Saeco Poemia Espresso Machine Hands On

So I bought an espresso machine.

The intention being that by having an espresso machine at home, I will save on the enormous amount of money I spend purchasing coffee when I am out and about.

Rest assured, Starbucks will not be going out of business as a result, and indeed, as I type I am sitting in Jo Jo's Coffee Club, with a latte not two inches from me. But I digress.

Buying an espresso machine is not the easiest thing to do in Korea, despite the varitable caffine-fueled orgasm that has erupted all over Korea in the last 10 years. (I can remember when there were only three Starbuckseseses in Korea) My current cafe latte aside, I generally drink straight espresso - not that common a beverage amongst Korean coffee consumers who are more interested in coffee with steamed milk or indeed various other blended and weird steamed beverages (Green Tea lattes? Pumpkin lattes!!?), or, if they really need a coffee hit, the simple Americano (Long black for my New Zealand readers).

This translates to a situation where most home brewed coffee solutions are drip coffee machines, reasonably priced, but not to my liking.

Thus a true espresso machine is a somewhat rare commodity, or if you do find one it is either a really good one at a price well beyond what I can justify spending, or simply pretty crap.

Enter the Philips Saeco Poemia.

At W290,000 its certainly not the cheapest option, but is far less expensive than, say, an Illy espresso machine which will set you back over a grand! The key to the home espresso machine is finding one that will give you as many bars of tank pressure for what you are willing to spend. The more bars of pressure the better the water will be pushed through the grinds, and, if you like that sort of thing, the better milk steaming experience you will have.

Plus It was my Christmas present to myself :-)

The Poemia will get up to about 15 bars, which is more than sufficient for brewing espresso, and if I am patient enough, will build up a good enough head of steam to steam and heat enough milk for about two cappuccino. 

The shiny black and chrome of the Poemia fits the aesthetic of my kitchen quite well, but is a bit of a fingerprint magnet. While I am enamoured by the machine at the moment having recently purchased it, I can't help but think I will stop constantly wiping it and cleaning it down after every use as the novelty of fresh, home-brewed espresso wears off.

Operation is fairly simple with a power switch on the back and the control knob up front. Turning left will brew espresso, turning right will activate the steam wand. Green lights to the left indicate when the boiler is up to temperature or when a good head of steam has been built up. On the right side of the machine is the valve for opening up the steam.

The portafilter is a little disappointing, made mostly of plastic, the head and screen are made of reasonably cheap feeling aluminium as well. Nevertheless, the screens fit tight in the head. The Poemia comes with a single and double shot sized screen for the portafilter, along with a rubber insert for the single shot one. The extra screen and a coffee scoop, that doubles as a tamper fit in little niches on the back of the machine under a cover that also doubles as the cover for the water tank.

 In terms of actual brewing, the length of time of the pour is entirely up to the user. Turn the knob to the left, water is pushed through the ginds. Return it to the central position it stops. If the grind of the beans is sufficient and I have tamped the portafilta properly, a 18-20 second pour will usually render a good couple of shots with good, rich body and a reasonably thick crema. Grind and tamp are important since the portafilter doesn't make the greatest seal when placed in the group head. I am scared that I am going to snap the plastic handle of the portafilter as I have to, quite aggressively, pull the handle to the right to really get the required seal. The chintzy spring loaded handle doesn't help either, snapping back to the middle after I let go.

What I wasn't prepared for was the noise that this thing makes! When brewing espresso the machine really chugs along as it pushes the water through the coffee. Using a couple of shot glasses to catch shots to put into a larger vessel results in a noise not unlike an earthquake as the glasses shake, rattle and roll. The steam wand is increadibly loud as well, but to my mind this confirms that this little machine can get a good head of steam up for milk.

And I like good head.

Sealing the deal for the Poemia was that it came with a box of Illy Espresso capsules.

These are not the best solution for decent espresso. Placing the pre-ground capsule in the single portafilter brews a pretty poor shot of espresso, that looks pretty weak and has very little crema in comparison to freshly ground beans, but in a pinch, like at 0630 in the morning, is a sufficient substitute.

There was an additional surprise when I opened the box - a free Andrea Bocelli CD, I guess to play while brewing, either to drown out the incredible noise, or to give you that true Italian feeling as you consume your espresso.

As for the whole "saving money on coffee" I am not sure how that is going. It doesn't help that I spend a good portion of my day right above a Starbucks and within 100m of various other (better) cafes. Plus beans are expensive. In 11 days I have already gone through one 14oz. bag of Starbucks Christmas blend, and am on my second. I will have to see how many shots I actually get out of one. Nevertheless I guess I have saved... a little.

2013

So I had occasion to read my new years resolutions from 2012 last night.

I guess I could rate myself as being successful, for the most part, in sticking to them. The first - to "Keep practicing phtography" continues apace, in no small part due to the best Christmas present ever from Dustin and September, an Olympus OMD EM5. Check out Dustin's blog - Rokkorphile.com, to see what he is upto with his one and his extensive collection of Legacy glass. He will be taking plenty of cameras on his upcoming monkey safari, so expect a whole bunch of Monkey business goodness over at Rokkorphile.

That will give me a chance to jump back to film. This year's photography resolution therefore, is to start developing my own film - probably in my bathroom. You have to love Korea's bathrooms, where natural light is seldom a consideration.

Resolution #2 was something of a fail, given I did not begin my Ed.D. I would like to say circumstances conspired against me, that I was far too busy etc etc, but really it's my own damn lazy-arsed fault that I didn't get the money or the paperwork together. I did write up an extensive proposal, but things have changed, and ideas have mutated, so it will need some revision. That being said I did discover that most higher degrees with research are wholly funded by the Australian government - so there is no excuse at all in 2013 for getting under way. 

Generally, resolution #3 seems to be a resounding success. I exercised a whole lot more in the 12 months following my writing of resolutions, enormous long walks dominating an exercise regime that wasn't so planned as it was just happening around me. Since the 4th of January I ave lost 54KG and I am pretty happy about that.

Carrying around the equivilant of your average 12 year old was not doing me any favours. Contrast that with the fact I just bounded up 6 flights of stairs to get to my computer, and you can begin to see the benefits.

I continue to smoke however, and you'll have to pry the cigarettes from my cold, dead, nicotine stained hands, if you want me to give up.

This year I would have said I would like to get to my goal weight, but I would like to go beyond it, at least for a little while, until I stabilize and the weight-loss tapers off a bit. We'll see how the smoking goes.

Finally my last resolution last year was to "celebrate being in Korea in my ninth year" and "Decide if there will be a tenth".

I'm still here, and will be so for the foreseeable future. A change of scenery has definitely allowed for a mental (as well as physical) stock take of what the hell I am doing. We'll give it another 12 months at least...

So This is Christmas

Traditionally Christmas is a quiet one for me here in Korea. It usually involves waking late in an attempt to recover from what ever festivities occurred the night before. Then there is the ceremonial phoning of the folks back home. The fact that my parents have made an enormous leap into the 20th century of late and actually have Skype, makes it all that much easier, and its nice to see everyone, at least via video, rather than just the audio.

Having moved to Daegu yesterday there was some recovery, more of the sore back / arms after all that lifting type rather than the hangover type. I woke at 11:30 and immediately watched my favourite Christmas movie "Dear Santa Claus Fuck You" and called the family.

Apparently it was close to 30C in Auckland today - a lot warmer than the eventual high of 1C here in Daegu, but not as cold as it was in Seoul, where apparently I missed the snow. (So I missed my first white Christmas by about 12 hours).

The afternoon / early evening was a delight with Peadar and Sara hosting Christmas dinner at their house, featuring a good amount of Yule tide booze. Mulled wine, Glenfiddich and Rum Balls that were more Rum than anything else! 

Post dinner I have spent the evening playing Playstation and watching various documentaries. So pretty much the standard Christmas. 

Eating Calzone

Enjoying the Christmas Season at Pizza Peel in Itaewon, Saturday night. Kudos to photographer Dustin.

Moving Day

So if you haven't heard ready, I am moving to Daegu. In fact, as I write, I am winding my way through the Korean countryside on the KTX headed south.

It was six years ago, almost to the day, that I arrived in Seoul, fresh from the Korean countryside, with a bag and two boxes. I leave having sent 11 boxes, 4 bags and various sundry goods ahead of me. I arrived in Seoul with no real idea as to what I was doing in Korea apart from a couple of part time teaching and tutoring gigs and pretty much ignoring everything that I should have been paying attention to. I leave with education, qualifications and what might be closer to a calling than a career.

The opportunities afforded to me while living in Seoul have been immense. I was asked to co-host a (moderately, if infrequent) successful podcast, began a (couple) of blogs with a bunch of people, got to be on TV a handful of times (and ate octopus on National TV at least twice), went to a number of interesting and fun launch events (Samsung TVs, iPhone 4S to name a few), while all the time meeting some of the most fantastic people in the world.

Some of those people left already, others, I will be leaving behind. Nevertheless they have all had a significant and continuing effect on my life. I have loved, and I have lost, but even as I will make new friends in Daegu (well... associates) I won't forget any of them.

The last 2.5 years have been unbelievably busy, the last 2.5 weeks doubly so, I expect that the next 2.5 weeks will also be hectic. But after that I will have a whole lot more free time. I am looking forward to exploring Daegu (once the weather gets warmer, leaving a -13 day in Seoul for a relatively balmy -6 in Daegu), and providing the same (and more frequent) cutting edge analysis (Bwaaahahahahaha!) on this humble organ.

All I can say is "Watch out Daegu!"