OstroHoopy

Well, Magmic’s other active co-founder, John Criswick, decided to do his latte budget a favour and pick up an espresso machine for work.

Throwing my somewhat selfish suggestion of a Rancilio Silvia aside, he opted to go for a fully automatic, digital offering from Starbucks. The good news is that it looks pretty, worked right from the moment I plugged it in (though it needs fine tuning before I’ll be happy), and I won’t need to be hit up to make everyone’s shots every day.

The machine is called the Starbucks Barista Digital Italia, but it is actually a white labelled offering from Saeco, the Incanto Digital.
Starbucks Product Page
Saeco’s Product Page

Now, being a proper geek, it’s time to think about hacking it. It would be great to give it a web interface so I could order my coffee as I’m entering the office and have it ready for pickup. Maybe I’m taking it too far…

Reviews:
Coffee Geek Consumer Reviews

I’ve rounded up a few useful links for Espresso related info and goodies in Canada:
CoffeeGeek Canada East forums
Latte Art in Ottawa! (thread)
EspressoLab.ca Blog
EspressoTec for gear and intel!

It seems that my love FrancisFrancis! X1 espresso machine has become immortalized in Sarah’s blog! I can’t say enough about this amazing culmination of form and function.

Sadly I just don’t have the time to use it as much as I should.

On the other hand, I don’t have an ulcer to nurture.

More links:
Illy USA
CoffeeGeek reviews
Whole Latte Love