Infrequently you encounter a product which upends the fundamental tenets which, until now, you've held VERY firmly...
Enter the Fellow Espresso Series 1 ("ES1") coffee machine. I've had one Fellow equipment experience... years ago I purchased the Fellow Stagg EKG electric pour over kettle. A beautiful kettle with a perfect goose neck and a digital PID heat control which allows for perfect temperature for my pour over. I've not once felt the need to change my pour over kettle.
Whilst being an exhibitor at the Café and Coffee Show, we met with the national distributors for Fellow and found out that the brand new ES1 was landing in Australia soon... I was excited to say the least.
A few weeks afterward, we had a demo ES1 on our counter for a fortnight... and this is where the fun begins. As you can see in the photo, the ES1 is beautiful. It's also significantly smaller and lighter than the La Marzocco Linea Mini which has graced our kitchen for over a decade. It takes less than two minutes from turning the ES1 on to reach brewing temperature thanks to boiler wizardry which took three years for Fellow to perfect.
Espresso extraction is fascinating. There are inbuilt recipes which allow for one click extraction and from here you can literally go down limitless wormholes exploring pressure profiling (the machine allows you to program multi step pressure profiles) as well as temperature control (declining temperature is a profiling option). I'm a complete extraction nerd, but do tend to settle on one profile and process and then stick with it. The ES1's capabilities fit my needs perfectly. The profile which I settled on whilst the demo was with us was a profile which mimicked a traditional spring lever, with a steadily declining extraction pressure, combined with declining temperature. This produced a beautiful, integrated, and elegant shot. A traditional 9-bar shot was much bolder in comparison. Each according to their own taste!
I put the ES1's temperature control to the test with my Scace Thermofilter and it passed with flying colours. It consistently held temperature to within 0.3*C of the set temperature which was extremely impressive.
When it comes to milk steaming, I held a few strong fixed beliefs. My belief was that only a commercial style machine with 2.5 bar of steam pressure and a multi-hole steam tip (the LM has a four hole steam tip) could possibly texture milk to the highest possible quality. The ES1 had me swallowing this idea without chewing. This machine doesn't have 2.5 bar of steam pressure, it takes longer to steam than the LM, and has a single steam tip hole... and yet the quality of the microfoam it produces is right up there with the LM and on a level which far surpasses the milk texture which I could produce with the many Breville Dual Boilers I have tried. Even better, there is a temperature sensor on the end of the steam tip which has the ES1 stopping the steam when the desired temperature is reached. It's a lovely feature which I appreciated each time I textured milk and I wonder why every machine manufacturer hasn't already incorporated this!
This machine is so good that it will move onto our counter top. I'll be using it to rediscover espresso extraction and all of the process around it and I'll be taking you on this journey over the next little while in this newsletter.
The aspect of the ES1 which is the most difficult to capture in words is the sheer joy of using it... we're now selling them and if you're interested in experiencing one in person, and you live in Sydney, then let me know and come and take a look at ours!
Purchase your Fellow Espresso Series 1 coffee machine here.
To learn about coffee and health click here
To learn about a potential new Yemeni bean supplier click here