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.

New Bon Trading Atomics Available?

Just got a report that a new Atomic has just been purchased from Bon Trading in Sydney. How do we know it's new? Well, the underside of the base has a "Made in Italy" embossed stamp which distinguishes it from the "vintage" machines that don't have any stamp at all. Cost was A$495. I hope we'll get a pic of the stamp to post on the website sometime soon.

Nothing much else has changed, reportedly. The box is still plain and junky, the coffee sample is the same, the manual is no different. So in some respects tradition dies hard. We'll have to wait for history to tell us whether these new Bon Trading Atomics are regarded as an unbroken continuation of the vintage tradition or merely another modern version.

So the "Atomic wars" are hotting up... Now we have these "new" Bon Trading machines joining the ranks of pretenders to succeed Robbiati's vintage cutie, alongside the La Sorrentina reproductions, and shortly the Otto espresso.

Long live the Atomic!!