Sunday, August 16, 2009
OTTO Now Available in New Zealand
The Otto Espresso, easily the cutest salute to the genius of the Atomic, debuted at the Auckland food show and is now available at Atomic Roasters in Kingsland (Auckland) and Caffe L'Affare (Wellington). Retail is NZ$875. My friend Graeme has tried the coffee and says it is pretty good. I understand supplies are still limited, so if you want one it would pay to get in early.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
More on Electrical Atomics
Frank Kletschkus sent in these photos of a recent Atomic acquisition. It looks too professionally made to be a backyard mod. The logo on the badge curls gracefully around the pressure gauge and the bar in the base of the coffee clamp is nicely engineered from a metal that expands and contracts at the same rate as the machine.
He notes: I have just bought an electric Atomic like the one in the [earlier] blog on German ebay. The Atomic is somehow bolted to the hot plate which makes a nuisance for cleaning, and renders the unit unusable for camping, which in my opinion is one of the great places to use an Atomic. Though a couple of years ago I saw also on German ebay the same type with the same hot plate as a seperate unit. The badge is very interesting. Though it reads Atomic, it is not in the familiar shape but in circular writing to wrap around the gauge which is centrally mounted. The gauge's needle just starts moving when coffee begins to pour, and reads just above 1 bar when it's time to froth the milk. I used the Krups stainless coffee basket and tamped lightly. Instead of the infamous brass steam wand this Atomic has a little stainless wand with small holes and a bakelite lever so the coffee flow can be shut off. One has to be careful though not to burn the fingers when doing this. The wand's material seems to have the same expansion rate as alloy, as it is doesn't get stuck after cooling. Also it gets hot and expands with the group holder, whereas the brass rod is inserted cold into the hot alloy. The wand and its holes look professionally done. So is it a prototype or some engineer's home conversion?
Anyone able to share any more information about it?
He notes: I have just bought an electric Atomic like the one in the [earlier] blog on German ebay. The Atomic is somehow bolted to the hot plate which makes a nuisance for cleaning, and renders the unit unusable for camping, which in my opinion is one of the great places to use an Atomic. Though a couple of years ago I saw also on German ebay the same type with the same hot plate as a seperate unit. The badge is very interesting. Though it reads Atomic, it is not in the familiar shape but in circular writing to wrap around the gauge which is centrally mounted. The gauge's needle just starts moving when coffee begins to pour, and reads just above 1 bar when it's time to froth the milk. I used the Krups stainless coffee basket and tamped lightly. Instead of the infamous brass steam wand this Atomic has a little stainless wand with small holes and a bakelite lever so the coffee flow can be shut off. One has to be careful though not to burn the fingers when doing this. The wand's material seems to have the same expansion rate as alloy, as it is doesn't get stuck after cooling. Also it gets hot and expands with the group holder, whereas the brass rod is inserted cold into the hot alloy. The wand and its holes look professionally done. So is it a prototype or some engineer's home conversion?
Anyone able to share any more information about it?
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