Contents showKees Van Der Westen has always had a clear idea about designing his machines from the very beginning; he wanted to bring together the ergonomicity, the usability and the technology in order to deliver consistency shot after shot. My review of the Kees Van Der Westen Spirit
Kees Van Der Westen – a bit of history
They did it firstly in 2001 with the Mirage and then in 2008 with the Speedster. He then realised the Spirit, an evolution of the Speedster adding separate group boilers (let’s think about the Dalla Corte system). Today I’m talking about this latter version.
Kees Van Der Westen Spirit – Main features
- the idromatic group: the idromatic feature starts from the pre-infusion in which the coffee puck gets saturated by the water. The pre-infusion plays a crucial role regarding the extraction: it helps prevent channelling by increasing the surface in contact with the water and so higher the yield. This results in a more flavor and tasty cup. With the Spirit, as soon as we activate the group, a small amount of water is saturating the coffee until it reaches 0 bar. From then a back pressure let the water going up and get absorbed by the piston. The pressure is now shown on the pressure gauge and it can be modified just from the knob on top of the spring, modifying the absorption process of the latter;
- independent group boilers with independent pressure gauge per group and an independent and large steam boiler: the temperature for brewing coffee is maintained stable thanks to its electronic system. Every stainless steel coffee boiler is controlled by a probe and a PID to keep delivering the most stable and precise temperature possible. On the other hand the steam boiler is made of copper. Copper is the best conductor of heat and it’s also more resistant to the hard water of London than any other materials;
- at least two external rotary pumps to avoid any drop of pressure;
- a lever to control progressively the pressure of the steamer: as soon as we get used with this function and the sooner we will forget how cool it is. Adjusting the pressure of the steamer with one single touch is as awesome as it works;
- cup elevator (optional): lowering the tray allow us to use different cup sizes (let’s think about the several different heights of a keep cup). A cup elevator brings the cup back up, closer to the spout. (a milk pitcher tray is also available for placing the pitcher just under the steamer).
The Kees Van Der Westen Spirit Coffee Machine comes in 2 or 3 groups.
The capacity of the steam boiler is 10.5 litres with Duette and 19.5 litres with Triplette. Every coffee boiler has a capacity of 2.1 litres.
Every single part of this machine is made of high quality and resistant material and with the up-to-date high technology. This machine is designed to deliver the highest standard in a busy environment.
Kees van der Westen Spirit for sale and Price UK
Price starts from £ 20,000
Conclusion
I have been using a Kees Van Der Westen Spirit for one year and a half (in a 5 kg of coffee a day) without having any kind of problem to fix. So, is it worth the price?
It is worth to invest at least 20 thousand pounds for a Spirit Duette? Definitely yes. You get what you pay for.
I am an Italian coffee lover that pushed for the love of this “amazing drug” decided to come to London to study about coffee and its different extraction procedures and tastes.
