USBC is about to roll, so I walk around the area near the comp. Checking out the Intelly booth which is hopping crazy, and I ran into my friend Instaurator. He had not heard about Andy Schecter's "Scheckomatic" alternative pressure system, so I walked him over to the Gimme! Coffee booth where he got a chance to talk to Kevin C. (I was also able to introduce him to Chris Deferio). I saw Inny and Kevin get deep into the convo, so I decided to leave them at it as I went next door...

To Paul Pratt's booth where I was able to (finally) pull shots on his complete rebuild of a GS (original) model. Paul's a freaking genius, and that machine is seriously lustworthy. I was doubly blessed, because Paul had, in the grinder, some of Barry Jarrett's Espresso Taliaferro - some of the last we'll see until Riley's Coffee moves to its new location. The shot pulls were exquisite, and I showed my complete neophyte-with-the-paddle-group skillz by forgetting to use the preinfuse on the GS.

Speaking of which, here's another factoid about the new GS3 and new paddle group. The original GS had a preinfuse mode where, move the paddle to a certain point, and the path between brew boiler and grouphead is open. Open or close. But on the new paddle group, it's a progressive opening... move it to a certain point, and the brew path may be open 1/16th of its total size. Move it more and it's 1/8th. Move it more and it's 1/4. And so on. The Barista has total control not only over the preinfusion time, but how much flow (based on brew boiler pressure and / or line in pressure) the boiler will provide to the grouphead. Sweet.

Pratt then showed me some of the new tampers he has out of Asia that look really cool. There's a whole variety of design tweaks and such, but one thing I noticed in particular was this massive "euro preferred" bevel on one of the tampers. Very extreme!

Raffle Tix! ESI selling tix for the LM GS/3 raffle. Power discussions TonX, Kyle Glanville, Andrew Barnett and unidentified person discussing coffee, espresso, whatever ;) HEY! I have to ask you not to take our confidential photos! LOL! Tony rox. Intelly The crowd is thick, as Doug (far right) observes.

Talking Espresso Inny talking to Kevin C. at Gimme! As Deferio listens in. Paul Pratt Paul and his amazing GS machine. Dat's a Bevel! Check out the mad bevel on this tamper. Barista Guild Jay Carragay with (sorry, I forgot your name. sigh), at BGA Booth.