To the great amusement of just about everyone I meet, I’m a coffee drinker rather than a tea drinker, which I think is OK, but just doesn’t do it for me. I used to use one of those stove top coffee makers which can produce decent coffee if you’re careful, but often don’t. Most people don’t care enough about their coffee to really produce it well anyway, so I’m always a bit wary.

Anyway, since trying an espresso made on my brother’s Gaggia a few years ago, I also decided that I wanted one. And it is great. You can read a review of the Baby Gaggia , which is now available to take coffee pods, although I must admit I’m a purist, despite the amount of cleaning it takes. Favourite coffee is simply Illy, and I read an interesting interview a few weeks ago with the CEO of Illy – really focused on producing one single, excellent product and to me they’re doing well. Also see the line of Gaggia coffee machines stocked by Cafe Italia.

One of the great Italian habits I was introduced to was the coffee break, where a few times a day people make their way to the nearest coffee bar and drink a minute quantity of blackest of black coffee followed by a glass of water. I so loved the espressos that when I got back home I began my search to produce good espresso at home.

But it was one falso start after another, with stove top makers that produced unfailingly bad coffee, a Krups espresso maker that was perhaps even worse and so eventually  just gave up the chase.

Then one day my brother mentioned that he’d just bought a Gaggia coffee maker after sampling an espresso made by a Baby Gaggia at his friend’s house – his friend is married to an Italian so good espresso is both essential and guaranteed.

When I visited my brother one day I had free access to his new toy. He showed me how to work it and then produced the best cup of espresso I’d ever had outside Italy. At that moment I knew I had to have one – the only problem was that I’d just resigned from a highly paid job and was about to move to Barcelona. So I waited again…

…until for my birthday last year, what should I receive but a Baby Gaggia!

It’s a pump driven machine, which means it is slightly noisy, but don’t let that put you off as the coffee it produces is amazing.  Although the machines you see in cafes are steam driven, a pump-driven espresso machine is ideal for home as you can switch it on and produce coffee 6 minutes later – the pump ensures that the water is delivered uniformly at the optimum pressure.

I usually use Illy coffee, although I can’t always get it in Barcelona. I’ve also tried Lavazza, which isn’t quite so good but much cheaper, as well as Alto Grande from Puerto Rico and Jamaican Blue Mountain, although the latter is a bit strong for my tastes.

The Baby has recenty been updated slightly by Gaggia, although the differences appear to be cosmetic. They’ve also added the ability to use coffee pods, but I don’t see this as an advantage at all – yes, they produce less mess, but you’re tied into the type of coffee you use and that is a huge disadvantage for me. I’ll also add that I tried coffee from a pod machine – I don’t remember the brand, but it wasn’t Gaggia – and the coffee was terrible. I don’t know whether it was because of the type of coffee thay had or the machine itself, but I was glad I had my Gaggia tucked up at home.

So what don’t I like about my Baby? Not a lot really, it requires a bit of maintenance and a good clean, but other than that it produces excellent espresso when I want it.

More about the Baby Gaggia

Now, one of the ingredients in the Vesper is Kina Lillet and author Kinsley Amis took Ian Fleming to task about this. Amis’s take on it (in The Book of Bond) was that the quinine content of Kina Lillet was too high and the drink would be too bitter and what Fleming really meant was Lillet vermouth. It is interesting to note that the film makers cock a snoot at Amis because Vesper mentions at one point that the drink has a bitter aftertaste.

However, Kina Lillet is no longer available – the name was changed long ago to plain a simple Lillet and later Lillet Blanc (when they introduced a red version). Finally in the 1980s the recipe was altered to make it much less bitter, so the film makers decided to go with Fleming on this rather than fact. Anyway, I recently saw an article that mentioned adding quinine powder or bitters to the drink to give it that genuine Fleming touch, so decided to give it a go. Lillet isn’t easy to find, but you can order it online to do this test and no, vermouth won’t do.

So which version of the drink wins, with or without the bitterness? No contest actually, the version with a couple of drops of bitters included does make a better drink, the bitter-less version is powerful but missing something, so my take on this is that Fleming did get it right after all.

Here’s the recipe:

3 measures of Gordon’s gin
1 measure of vodka
½ measure of Kina Lillet (buy it in the UK or US)
2 drops bitters (optional)

Shake until ice cold and serve in a deep champagne goblet with a large thin slice of lemon peel

What do you think?

Links:

The James Bond Cocktail Bar ebook

Kina Lillet – UK supplier

Kina Lillet – US supplier