Beware: your coffee brewing ritual at home can very quickly slide into obsession, and likely cost more than finding a consistently good cup at a local cafe.
Beware: your coffee brewing ritual at home can very quickly slide into obsession, and likely cost more than finding a consistently good cup at a local cafe.
I really don't understand people who get that obsessed over coffee. I think it's because people are used to coffee machines and they decide to buy more expensive coffee machines to give them the...
I really don't understand people who get that obsessed over coffee. I think it's because people are used to coffee machines and they decide to buy more expensive coffee machines to give them the kind of coffee made at cafes. But it's so much easier if you just make it by hand. There's even a cheap plastic gadget you can use if you prefer your coffee prepared as an espresso.
An aeropress is nice—I have one—but it's a far cry from an actual espresso. You need about 15psi for about 25s to get an espresso. Nothing else will get you the same mouthfeel or concentration of...
An aeropress is nice—I have one—but it's a far cry from an actual espresso. You need about 15psi for about 25s to get an espresso. Nothing else will get you the same mouthfeel or concentration of dissolved and suspended solids. An aeropress cup vs an espresso are going to be vastly different textural and flavor experiences.
A stovetop moka pot is probably the closest to an espresso you can get at home at reasonable cost. I got my no-name brand one for I think $20. But even that is going to be noticably different from an espresso.
There's nothing wrong with either one of course, and people should make coffee however they enjoy it, but you just can't get an espresso at home without some investment. I think the least you can spend on a machine that will make an actual espresso at home would be around $200 for something like a Gaggia Classic, or around $160 for a manual machine. There are cheaper ones, but they either don't meet the 15psi requirement or have terrible build quality. I got my Gaggia for $100 because it had a cracked boiler, and I upgraded some of the stock parts. I put a lot of work into tuning that thing and it'll make a damn good espresso, or a damn fine cappuccino.
That said I think it's not worth buying an espresso machine unless you really enjoy straight espresso, or a cafe-style cappuccino (not what Starbucks calls a cappuccino). You should be getting a nice burr grinder to go with one for an adjustable, even grain size or you're just wasting your time trying to get a decent shot. It's an investment in time and money, and it's not for everyone.
If any Turkish/Greek/Armenian/etc. coffee lovers here, I have this recipe which you might fancy. That's sort of a shameless plug I guess, but that's my personal blog and I don't monetise it, so...
If any Turkish/Greek/Armenian/etc. coffee lovers here, I have this recipe which you might fancy. That's sort of a shameless plug I guess, but that's my personal blog and I don't monetise it, so hopefully that's fine.
I used to brew my own coffee, french press or more frequently V60, and grind it just-in-time too, but I can't do it anymore because it's hard to get myself to do it when making a cup of instant coffee is so easy and quick. Maybe if I can get my hands on a syphon brewer I can return to it because it makes very decent coffee. Looking at this article and similar, though, I think this sort of specificity is a bit of an overkill. I think it takes away from the joy of making coffee at home, I'd just leave it to a professional barista to deal with this sort of complexity.
Beware: your coffee brewing ritual at home can very quickly slide into obsession, and likely cost more than finding a consistently good cup at a local cafe.
I really don't understand people who get that obsessed over coffee. I think it's because people are used to coffee machines and they decide to buy more expensive coffee machines to give them the kind of coffee made at cafes. But it's so much easier if you just make it by hand. There's even a cheap plastic gadget you can use if you prefer your coffee prepared as an espresso.
An aeropress is nice—I have one—but it's a far cry from an actual espresso. You need about 15psi for about 25s to get an espresso. Nothing else will get you the same mouthfeel or concentration of dissolved and suspended solids. An aeropress cup vs an espresso are going to be vastly different textural and flavor experiences.
A stovetop moka pot is probably the closest to an espresso you can get at home at reasonable cost. I got my no-name brand one for I think $20. But even that is going to be noticably different from an espresso.
There's nothing wrong with either one of course, and people should make coffee however they enjoy it, but you just can't get an espresso at home without some investment. I think the least you can spend on a machine that will make an actual espresso at home would be around $200 for something like a Gaggia Classic, or around $160 for a manual machine. There are cheaper ones, but they either don't meet the 15psi requirement or have terrible build quality. I got my Gaggia for $100 because it had a cracked boiler, and I upgraded some of the stock parts. I put a lot of work into tuning that thing and it'll make a damn good espresso, or a damn fine cappuccino.
That said I think it's not worth buying an espresso machine unless you really enjoy straight espresso, or a cafe-style cappuccino (not what Starbucks calls a cappuccino). You should be getting a nice burr grinder to go with one for an adjustable, even grain size or you're just wasting your time trying to get a decent shot. It's an investment in time and money, and it's not for everyone.
If any Turkish/Greek/Armenian/etc. coffee lovers here, I have this recipe which you might fancy. That's sort of a shameless plug I guess, but that's my personal blog and I don't monetise it, so hopefully that's fine.
I used to brew my own coffee, french press or more frequently V60, and grind it just-in-time too, but I can't do it anymore because it's hard to get myself to do it when making a cup of instant coffee is so easy and quick. Maybe if I can get my hands on a syphon brewer I can return to it because it makes very decent coffee. Looking at this article and similar, though, I think this sort of specificity is a bit of an overkill. I think it takes away from the joy of making coffee at home, I'd just leave it to a professional barista to deal with this sort of complexity.