Recognizing that coffee is essential to productivity, especially given the breakneck pace of the contemporary news cycle, Tom Hanks gifted the White House Press Corps a $2,200 Pasquini Livia G4 automatic espresso machine last week. Featuring electronic controls that grind, tamp and brew with the press of a button, the top-of-the-line machine also features a built-in PID controller, measuring variables like water temperature in real time for a more consistent pull.
Per the Boston Globe, this isn’t the first time that Hanks has bestowed a coffee machine upon the press corps. His first gift came in 2004 after Hanks learned that the press room lacked a proper brewer, and was replaced in 2010.
