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At this year’s Caffe Culture show, one of the great Italian espresso machine brands made its move to reclaim top-line status by unveiling new technology to compete with the new wave of hi-tech espresso brands. Brasilia is now distributed here by Caffe Society, of Leeds, a known equipment specialist which sells about 900 espresso machines a year, it is also a big coffee supplier to the catering trade – last year it got through 60 tonnes, in 34 styles and roasts, prepared by Masteroast.

“Our Brasilia stock is cherry-picked for the UK market,” observes the company’s Steve Mooring. “We go from single-group machines that need no plumbing to four-group retro-look ones.

“Brasilia is known for being one of the world’s top four brands, with the difference that all our machines don’t look the same! It’s fair to say that five or ten years ago, this was the biggest brand of all, for a spell. I guess it dropped to third place for a few years, and yes, it has dropped back. But now look at the numbers – we’re going back up the league, and not many are selling more numbers than Brasilia.

“We have a big argument at the £2-3,000 end, with the Roma. This is stainless steel, which appeals for most café backgrounds, and is a true tall-cup machine – it’ll take a 20oz cup.

“The general café in the high street can’t face buying a £7,000 machine. We remember that a very big part of the marketplace is Mr & Mrs Smith opening up their new coffee shop, and

that we must advise them on the right kit and the true cost of reliability. So a very big market is around the £3,000 mark, and we compete very strongly in that sector – we have machines which can compete with the Spanish ones on price and beat them on quality.”

How does the new café owner judge reliability? That’s a great question!

The very best thing to do is to be referred to existing users. The Cafe2U chain has Romas, which aren’t supposed to be used in drive-around vans, in three years, I can count the breakdowns on my fingers. You can also see them used in BBs.

“The grinders are Rossi, which is the same Italian family. There is a good, reliable, grind-on-demand grinder, and we’re launching a new one any time now. This is a clever double model – if you’re busy, put it on automatic, and if you’re not busy, switch to grind-on-demand.”

Brasilia has recently introduced its hi-tech upscale system.

“We have top of the scale machines, which I think make up the best range in the world. The Sublima advanced espresso scheme has its official launch in September, and you really can see the difference. More pressure, more steam.”

This was a surprise at this year’s Caffe Culture show. For some time now, many Italian machine-makers have been making a big thing of new high-precision brewing technology, and this year Brasilia moved right in among them with Sublima.

Brasilia sent its key international man Gianni Bianchi to the show. He told us:

“The goal is to reach the maximum extraction possible. Everybody says that the best extraction comes from a lever machine and a good operator, so we studied the operation of the lever machine, to do better than that.

“We found that the lever machine reached a 14-bar pressure and that optimum extraction was achieved by the action of the operator, which is really two actions, with the barista judging his infusion by his vision… so could we reproduce this by electronic solenoid valves? Could we open one, and then, after three, four or ten seconds, open the second?

“Other mechanical pre-infusions work by stopping the pump and re-starting it. We did not want to do this – instead of introducing a little water, stopping, and then re-starting, we decided we wanted to reduce the flow and then increase the flow.

“Our electronics now show the operator the temperature and the length of the infusion. You do not find anything like this from anyone else – we have done a lot of things that our competitors have not done.”

The result, says Brasilia, is that it has achieved a concentration of 10.4 Brix – that’s a measure of concentration and extraction used in the juice and wine industries, and those who have used the system with coffee The achievement, says Brasilia, is that it has boosted the extraction without over-extracting.

(The subject of Brix is a difficult one. One of the American coffee writers reports that he has measured Brix readings from coffees of all kinds, from vending machine to espresso, and produced readings that range from 0.9, in a vending machine, to 31 at a coffee from Caffe Vivace at an American exhibition. In general, he measured most espressos between 4.8 Brix and 7.5, with one reaching 13).

Elsewhere in the Sublima system are independent adjustment of group head temperatures, something other brands have been promoting. However, there is also a new three-position steam control. This, says Gianni Bianchi, removes the problem of controlling the pressure for a large or small size of drink. From the ‘off’ position, the lever moves forward once to half-steam (0.7 bar), and then fully forward to full pressure (1.5 bar).

Is Brasilia still a ‘great’ brand?

“It’s fair to say that five or ten years ago, this was the biggest brand of all, for a spell,” says Steve Mooring. “Yes, it has dropped back, but now we’re going back up the league, and not many are selling more numbers than Brasilia. For sure, this is Brasilia re-asserting itself!”

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