Victoria Arduino Athena Leva Espresso Machine

The Athena by Victoria Arduino truly harnesses the ancient art of coffee creation. Born from a long line of machines, the first of these lever machines was crafted at the end of World War II, in 1946. They were the WAT series of espresso machines, ancestors of the exquisite Athena Leva, the first of which was made in late sixties in Casorate Sempione, Italy.

The materials used for the internal and external components make the espresso machine particularly remarkable. The bodywork was handcrafted by experts, perfectly preserving uniqueness and tradition that is also reflected in the final cup, a perfect espresso.

In typical manual espresso machines the water that enters the group is straight from the boiler, which is well known to have a pressure of 1 to 1.2 bar, corresponding to 250-270° Fahrenheit. It’s essentially the same water used to generate steam. Instead, in the Athena, it uses heat exchangers, the water temperature can be controlled to optimize the quality of extracted coffee. In this case, for an excellent pre-infusion, a special pressure reducer reduces the pressure of the water supply, which is normally 4 to 6 bar. With these specifications, coffee extractions with the Athena Leva are particularly creamy and not burnt (as may happen with water at high temperatures).