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Yes, the rumours are all true … Five Senses’ engineer extraordinaire, Richard Muhl, is attempting to combine a Synesso Cyncra group head and boiler with an Isomac to produce the most impressive hybrid domestic espresso machine in the world.

Richard has always wanted to build his own espresso machine. The fact that Synesso make the Rolls Royce of espresso machines made Synesso an obvious choice — Richard knows there’s no point reinventing the wheel. So he set off with a Synesso boiler and group head tucked under one arm, looking for a body to put it in. He couldn’t go past the Isomac La Mondiale. La Mondiale is a fantastically popular heat exchange machine, and when combined with the best bits of the Synesso, could create the most amazing and, we dare say, most impressively temperature stable and user friendly one group in the world — besides the Synesso Cyncra one group, of course.

Now, this isn’t one of those situations where we say how good Richard is for pulling off this feat, because he hasn’t — yet. He’s come up with what seems like the perfect idea (inside his brain, at least), but building the machine is a different story. He’s sure to encounter some serious challenges and road blocks along the way. Richard will be blogging his progress, so that people around the world can follow, comment and provide suggestions when he stares down some of those future challenges. And for those of you who aren’t into the technical minutiae, Richard will be taking multitudes of photos so you can visualize his progress.

So strap yourself in, there’s no doubt this ride is going to get bumpy, but the destination will be a coffee utopia.

Follow Richard’s progress:
Richard’s blog with all the technical details and discussions
Richard’s photos on Flickr where he’ll regularly be posting photos that show his progress