Essential maintainance

So the big project for today was replacing the group head gasket on teh Gaggia. It turns out it was probably a wee bit overdue as the old one came to bits as I was removing it. IT was a fairly simple process as it turns out, plus it gave me a chance to clean the whole thing properly for the first time in ages. This shot was part way through teh stripping down and cleaning process.

I put a new basket into teh portafilter too replacing the dreadful one Gaggia supply with their machines these days (should really have done that years ago).

What a difference it made to the taste of the coffee. I'd been wondering for a while how coffee shops got such a drastically different flavour from beans than I managed. It turns out it's because the machine was in need of a good clean and the gasket was falling apart. I'll make sure to do this every year from now on.