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Mugshot: There is such a thing as a slow espresso

Matt Holden

Solid stuff: The Little Guy.
Solid stuff: The Little Guy.Supplied

Slow coffee? For sure, made by hand, carefully, with a pour-over filter. But slow espresso – isn't that an oxymoron (and a bilingual one at that)?

Not according to Craig Hiron, the Sydney-based creator of The Little Guy, a home espresso maker that extracts a shot in 90 seconds rather than 30, and does a pretty good job of texturing milk.

The Little Guy is based on the Atomic stovetop designed by Giordano Robbiati in the late 1940s – a sinuous, shiny thing that looks like a Brancusi sculpture.

Hiron used an Atomic at home every day for 10 years, and eventually wondered whether an Atomic-style machine could make espresso rather than stovetop, and develop enough pressure to texture milk as well as a commercial espresso machine.

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In 2005 he rounded up some industrial designers, a professor of thermodynamics and a manufacturing agent and spent the next four years researching and developing The Little Guy.

It is a beautiful, solid and well made piece of gear. The only bits that would ever need replacing, says Hiron, are the silicone hoses that bring steam and hot water from the boiler to the group head, and they should last at least 10 years.

If Hiron was aiming for espresso, he overshot – with its deep basket packed with 25 grams of espresso grind, The Little Guy makes a 45-gram shot that's more like a ristretto in texture and flavour – viscous, rich and powerful.

With the coffee extracted you move on to texturing the milk. With a bit of practice, and that ristretto base, you can make a flat white that tastes like a bought one.

Making coffee with The Little Guy takes nine minutes, including the 90 seconds when the brew is dripping, like crude oil, through the portafilter: it's not designed for churning out dinner-party lattes.

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"It is like slow cooking," Hiron agrees.

You'll get the best results by teaming it with the custom induction hotplate for an extra $199.

"Most of the customer service is from people trying to use it on gas," says Hiron. "Our position is quickly becoming that it doesn't work on gas."

What about the value of a $700-plus-$200 coffee maker that's not an espresso machine?

"Value is pegged against expectation," says Hiron. "My expectation is that if people spend $700 they'll have it for 10 or 20 years."

See thelittleguy.info

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