Spong Coffee Mill Grinder and Principessa Lavazza Moka Coffee Maker (Updated With Definitive Pictures of the Elusive Spong 0 and Spong 5)

The first Spong grinder I saw was my grandfather's. At the time I thought nothing of it as I had no interest in coffee and being young the world was just what it was. Very little could be called special at that age. Things change and years later I found myself living in my grandfather's house after his passing, his Spong coffee grinder still mounted to same wall in the kitchen.





First off,I am not a connoisseur in or of anything, but well made tools, and both my Spong coffee mill and Principessa Lavassa coffee maker apply.


I had learned to enjoy coffee during college. It began as a way to pull all-nighters and after I taught myself not to drink to the point of dizziness and nausea during the exams the next day, I began to find a certain joy in the stuff. Eventually I honed in on Yuban as an excellent choice for the price, but never enjoyed the borrowed Mr. Coffee's I brewed it in. Years went by like this; one borrowed coffee maker after another punctuated with the occasional perfect cups like the ones I enjoyed during visits with my very German Aunt and Uncle.


Once I was settled in at my grandfather's house after his death his Victorian era Spong coffee grinder caught my interest. It was clearly a well made chunk of cast iron that suited my grandfather's tastes. On the back side it had an adjustment to control the coarseness of the grounds. I left that as it was, as my grandfather had often commented that it was set just right. During grinding the grounds were caught in small tin that could be used as a lid to keep dust out of the hopper when not otherwise in use. Unfortunately for most people these are often lost with time. Lastly it can be mounted either on a wall or the edge of a table. I left my grandfather's Spong number 2 behind when I moved into my own home and replaced it with a Spong number 1 of my own. (pictured to the left, chair in the background)

Here is a history of the Spong company and family. Spong and Co. began building their coffee grinders in the 1880's and stopped in the 1980's. 100 years, not too shabby. They made 6 sizes: 0,1,2,3,4 and 5. Most of them are number 2's. Sizes 1 and 4 are shown next to one another in the pic to the left. Size 0 seems to be the rarest and the only picture I have found of one is to the right. The 5's too are rather elusive.  They can be recognized not only by their size but by their double mounting brackets as well as the embossed 5 on the back. (Spong 5 info - updated 8/26/13 photos below in update 3)

After experimenting with a variety of coffees through the Spong I settled on 8 o'clock coffee from Food Lion. It could be bought inexpensively as an unflavored bean. I had already found flavored coffee's unappealing. Brewing, though, was still not up to the quality I wanted, as I was still in the world of drip coffee makers.

Enter ebay. One coffee maker that caught my eye was a percolator type by Pyrex. I recalled my mother percolating coffee while camping, so it had an immediate appeal to me. It was all glass with the exception of the aluminum basket that held the grounds, and was very cool to watch in action. Early in the brewing process brewed coffee would visibly drip like brown food coloring into the fresh water below. Fun for the kids. Unfortunately, I never could get consistent coffee from the thing. There were simply too many variables.

Another problem was the exploding issue. Twice I entered the kitchen to find the glass lid on the floor amid coffee grounds and water everywhere. After a little google exploring I learned something I didn't know and would have never expected. Under certain circumstances water can super heat. Temperatures of the water can rise well above 212 degrees without boiling then flash to steam with a touch. This usually happens in microwaves. The person watches the cup in the microwave as the clock ticks down but no boiling occurs. They reach in to pull the cup out causing the water to flash to steam and getting burned.

The cause came down to two things in my case. The first was the super pure well water my grandfather routinely bragged about, and the second was that my faucet did not aerate the water as it poured, but instead gave a smooth clear stream. Apparently dissolved particles aid in the boiling of water. In the absence of that particulate matter the aeration of the water will suffice. I had neither. There is a downside to truly pure water. Heh!

Not long afterward I stumbled on a Moka pot that my stepfather, a Swiss chef, owned. Being introduced to this type of coffee maker I began searching ebay for other examples. Most of them were aluminum while the nicer ones where stainless. After purchasing an aluminum one I kept an eye out for an all stainless model.

One that I hadn't seen before eventually popped up. A Principessa made by Lavazza. Lavazza is a coffee company in Italy. I bid on it and won it at around $20. Once it arrived, and I had it in hand, the quality was evident. Even empty it had heft. The threads where the two halves screwed together were machined, not pressed sheet metal. The lid was solid and did not shimmy on the hinge. It was even pimped out with the gold package, not normally to my taste, but somehow attractive. Sweet.

Brewing, also, was sweet. Simply fill to the pressure relief valve on the side. Fill the filter basket "funnel" with fresh Spong ground coffee. Then put it over a low flame and wait for the tell tale gurgle as the lower basin was emptied of fresh water and the upper coffee pot was filled with freshly brewed coffee. The only variable was in the coffee used and how much it was packed into the filter.

Sweet consistency.


Update:

An excellent post positively swimming with Spong details and comparisons to European competitors (and others) can be found at Home-Barista.com.

a pull:

Disassembling the Spong
They only have two moving parts and counting the handle only four parts, plus the adjusting screw, altogether. (The funnel does come off, but no need to do that, ever, unless you're painting it.) The No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 Spongs have four machine screws around the periphery which are removed after first removing the handle. The No. 1 has two screws. Use a LARGE screw driver. The screws, while large, are soft. Also at this time, loosen the adjusting screw so when you reassemble, it will not be putting any pressure on the burrs.

Update 2:

First off, a hugh thanks to Patrick from Ireland for emailing me the pics below from which we can conclude that the spong zero does, indeed,  exist.  We can also conclude the pic above is actually of a spong zero as was claimed by the individual I "borrowed" it from.  Unfortunately there was no picture of the back of it to confirm the "0" designation.  That is obviously not the case for the series of pictures below.

It has taken me years to get these pics.  Thanks again, Patrick.

Update 3:

A big thanks to Andy in the comments below.  There is now another size to add to your collection, 5.  I had no idea it even existed, nor had I thought to look.  Andy, however, not only brought to my attention that there existed a Spong 5, but made public photos of his find over at Home-Barista.

Don't you just love the painted warning label and double table mounts...

Thanks Andy...




out