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Hi I'm Tracy. And I'm Todd. And we're here with the Gaggia Classic, now Money Magazine
just recently named this machine the top home espresso machine to get that makes the perfect
espresso. And the reason why it does that is three key components, it's going to be,
temperature stability, water distribution, and brew pressure. Very good, housing, stainless
steel, very heavy duty. On the front of the machine you have three switches, very simple
to operate. You have a main power switch, you have a steam switch and a brew switch.
The brew switch operates the pump, turns it on and off to start and stop the brewing process.
On the right side here you have the steam ***, this controls the hot water or the steam
that comes through the steam wand, which is down here. And you notice that's got good
height off the counter so you can fit a good sized pitcher underneath.
And the drip tray is accessible from the front of the machine, can be removed, taken over
to the sink, and drained out and then replaced back. And then we have our water reservoir.
Water reservoir can be filled from the top of the machine, has space for 72 ounces of
liquid, and also can be removed from the front of the machine if you need to. Todd, you want
to show us some of the internals of what this machine can do?
Sure, I'll show you what it's about. We have here the brew group and the portafilter. The
brew group, this is what fits up inside of the machine and the portafilter here locks
into it. Both are chrome plated brass. Commercial sized and commercial weight. So what you get
here is a large diameter so you have a large surface area of the coffee that's exposed
to the water so you get the best extraction. Same thing with the brew group here, very
wide diameter shower screen.
This little brass piece here, what this does, this controls the actual brew pressure. So
we have pumps in here that create somewhere between 15 to 17 bar of pressure, but these
actually regulate the brew pressure down to 9 bar. So they're brewing at the same pressure
as a commercial machine. The boiler, very high wattage heating elements in the boiler,
you have two heating elements, both imbedded into the aluminum on the boiler. You have
one on either side, and it heats up very quickly to brew temperature and to steam temperature.
Also in here we have they call a three way solenoid valve. What it does is releases the
water pressure off the coffee and puts it into the drip tray when you're done brewing
so that you have a nice dry coffee puck that you can knock out of the portafilter. Also,
it's a positive closing valve so that you don't get water leaking through the brew group,
like you will with some of the other machines.
Now, a couple of accessories your machine's going to come with. You're going to get three
filter baskets. One for a single shot, one for a double shot, and one that's able to
do pods so any ESE or easy serving espresso can be placed into the third basket. So you
want to brew a shot on this and show everybody what she can do? Sure. The grinder we're using
here is the Gaggia MDF. This is a dosing grinder, very similar to what you'll find in the commercial
espresso shots. You pull the handle and it dispenses the coffee.
Now one of the good things about the Gaggia Classic is it only takes about five minutes
for it to heat up and then to get to the steaming function is only about twenty seconds. Again
that is because of the two heating elements that Todd showed you on the boiler. Okay,
now I'm gonna pull off this chrome tube over here. This chrome tube comes through the three
way solenoid valve and so when we turn off the brew switch you'll see how the water gets
released into the drip tray so right over here you'll see a little water go spritzing
out. Nice shot of crema here. Shot's looking really good. Okay, I'm going to turn this
brew switch off so watch the water coming out of here.
And you want to make sure when your partner's doing that you get out of the way so you don't
get water all over you. Thank you for at least telling us you were going to do that. Well
next time I'll put the chrome tube back in. I appreciate that. Yeah and you notice the
coffee there? So what you can actually do is just knock it right out. And it's fantastic
because. It's fantastic because it's supposed to keep your kitchen clean. So you're supposed
to use your dump box to put it in Todd, not all over the table. Yeah, this is more fun.
So if you're looking for a great machine for your home you really got to take a closer
look at the Gaggia Classic. Excellent, thanks very much