Raj Beadle talks to James Adams about Gaggia Classic Machines
Gaggia enthusiast James Adams, whose background is in agricultural engineering, renewable energy, and biomass heating talks to Raj Beadle about his specially refurbished Gaggia machines.
James’ casual interest in coffee quickly turned into an obsession to make great tasting espresso based drinks at home.
James says he first became familiar with the Gaggia brand while looking for quality, value for money espresso making machinery. The Gaggia Classic fitted the bill.
“I quickly progressed to roasting so that I could have the freshest beans from around the world available to me. Green beans are easily stored and can be roasted as needed.
A period of inactivity due to ill health led to me designing a cost effective home roasting machine. I also started customising espresso machines. Once again Gaggia machines seemed perfect for the job, reliable, well designed and great value for money.
I started by adding PID and timer controllers as bolt on boxes, and then moved on to
re-manufacturing the original cases.
Until now builds have included using completely new cases incorporating wood and unique artwork, twin group machines, external water tanks for larger volume users and Jo Wolfe Ltd.’s “ESPRESSO WIZARD” control box. I have also made matching knock-boxes and portafilter handles.
I was once asked to modify a commercial coffee roaster to be controlled using computer software, and have since developed a similar system on a home roaster I designed.”
