Why I love my Baby
March 29, 2007 7:36 pmI first came across espresso many years ago when I was fortunate enough to be sent to the Italian island of Sardinia for work when I was in my early twenties. I was there fior a week or ten days at the end of July and beginning of August and I was lucky enough to find that we’d be working mornings only due to the heat. – so what was supposed to be a business trip in fact turned out to be a good deal of all-expenses paid holiday too.
One of the great Italian habits I was introduced to was the coffee break, where a few times a day people make their way to the nearest coffee bar and drink a minute quantity of blackest of black coffee followed by a glass of water. I so loved the espressos that when I got back home I began my search to produce good espresso at home.
But it was one falso start after another, with stove top makers that produced unfailingly bad coffee, a Krups espresso maker that was perhaps even worse and so eventually just gave up the chase.
Then one day my brother mentioned that he’d just bought a Gaggia coffee maker after sampling an espresso made by a Baby Gaggia at his friend’s house – his friend is married to an Italian so good espresso is both essential and guaranteed.
When I visited my brother one day I had free access to his new toy. He showed me how to work it and then produced the best cup of espresso I’d ever had outside Italy. At that moment I knew I had to have one – the only problem was that I’d just resigned from a highly paid job and was about to move to Barcelona. So I waited again…
…until for my birthday last year, what should I receive but a Baby Gaggia!
It’s a pump driven machine, which means it is slightly noisy, but don’t let that put you off as the coffee it produces is amazing.  Although the machines you see in cafes are steam driven, a pump-driven espresso machine is ideal for home as you can switch it on and produce coffee 6 minutes later – the pump ensures that the water is delivered uniformly at the optimum pressure.
I usually use Illy coffee, although I can’t always get it in Barcelona. I’ve also tried Lavazza, which isn’t quite so good but much cheaper, as well as Alto Grande from Puerto Rico and Jamaican Blue Mountain, although the latter is a bit strong for my tastes.
The Baby has recenty been updated slightly by Gaggia, although the differences appear to be cosmetic. They’ve also added the ability to use coffee pods, but I don’t see this as an advantage at all – yes, they produce less mess, but you’re tied into the type of coffee you use and that is a huge disadvantage for me. I’ll also add that I tried coffee from a pod machine – I don’t remember the brand, but it wasn’t Gaggia – and the coffee was terrible. I don’t know whether it was because of the type of coffee thay had or the machine itself, but I was glad I had my Gaggia tucked up at home.
So what don’t I like about my Baby? Not a lot really, it requires a bit of maintenance and a good clean, but other than that it produces excellent espresso when I want it.
This post was written by David
