What was 18 months in the making is finally complete and stands proud on my kitchen bench — the SynessoMac Mark II.
It’s been about two years since Richard finished and installed the original SynessoMac at his home and after a few months or constant pestering, late night sms’s and post-it notes on his fridge, he finally agreed to go around the block again and create a Mark II of his original creation.
Once I got the nod, I raced my machine into the service department ready for its conversion. Richard assured me it would only take about eight weeks — ok, maybe it got dragged out just a little a bit, but I guess a few slightly more important projects like green bean lifting machines, roasted bean mixing trays and a 90kg Giesen roaster install were a little more important to bump my little machine further down the priority list.
Alrighty, enough about those other projects — a mere 18 months in the womb and the SynessoMac Mark II was born. It’s almost identical to the original with a few small differences: blue PID (at my request), a custom-made double walled cooltouch steam wand (thanks Synesso, you guys rock!) and the pump was mounted externally under the bench (making the internal area much easier to work around).
It came home just before Christmas, which was gold!!! Seens as it was holidays. I’ve been experimenting with different coffees, different temps and even dosing levels, which has been a lot of fun. I’ve been looking for something that’s chocolaty and super sweet. I really don’t know whether it’s possible to beat our Colombian Monserrate at 96°C, which is what I’ve been tasting for a few days now. I started at 92°C and one thing that I’ve definitely found is the shots get sweeter as I drive up the temp. Next up is to try some of our blends.
