An honest guide into specialty coffee at home
So you decided it was time. Time to ditch the convenience of capsule coffee in favor of a more fulfilling morning ritual of preparing fresh coffee at home. But where do you start? Have you already seen that 5 hours long comparison review on YouTube analyzing in detail every inch of home espresso machines? Didn’t really help right? That’s because you’re putting the cart before the horse. In this blog post we’ll try to guide you into specialty coffee at home, based on our own journey and the long conversations that we had with customers, critically looking at some of the most common traps one might be tempted to fall into, and being as honest and transparent as we can. You will see that at times it might sound harsh, and we’re sorry about that, but trust the process. There’s method to the madness.
Start simple
As odd as it might sound, getting right at it by buying equipment that you saw on that beautiful looking Instagram post or Pinterest, is actually a very bad idea. What is absolutely essential to figure out first, and we can’t stress this out enough is to ENJOY the routine of making coffee at home. Because if you don’t enjoy it or don’t find the time that it takes to prepare your delicious cup of morning coffee, then even the best equipment will just stand on your kitchen top, looking very cool but not bringing any real VALUE to your life.
At this stage we’re not yet looking at getting the absolute best result in the cup. We’re trying to figure out if the PROCESS brings joy and value to our daily routine. So the following tips are intended for the only purpose to get a beginner introduced into specialty coffee at home, without spending any extra money on stuff, yet. Before anything else, you should be doing 2 things:
Make inventory of the coffee equipment you have already at home. Chances are you (or a family member, a friend, a co-worker) have either a moka pot or a french press lying around at home.
Head over to your local specialty roastery and get a 250 grams bag of quality, freshly roasted specialty coffee. Out of our own line-up for example, we would suggest our Espresso Salvaje for moka or our Reynaldo Red Catuaí for french press, both shown below. Ask the roaster to freshly grind that coffee in the recommended grind size for the equipment you have at home. Yes, at this time we actually break a rule and advise you to get ground coffee, but please don’t go buying that pre-ground stuff that you find at the supermarket. We want specialty grade, high quality coffee! We usually recommend to always grind your coffee freshly, right before preparing your coffee to retain as many aromatics as possible. Nevertheless, we believe that at this stage, buying ground coffee is less worse than spending money on a cheap grinder (see what we will write below on grinders).
Once you have these two things, find a window of time that you can dedicate to preparing the coffee at home. Sunday morning might be a good start, just make sure you have enough time to figure things out without stress. You can find the recipe on our learning page. The first time might be a little chaotic, don’t worry about it! Time after time you will get more familiar with the process and the equipment and by the end of the first bag you might already realize one of two things: either you really enjoy coffee being a central part of your morning routine, or you’ll definitely miss the convenient and time saving coffee pod machine. If ladder is the case, you might stick to that and enjoy your specialty coffees at your favorite local coffee shop!
Coffee & You
Now that we’re pretty sure that we ENJOY the process of making coffee at home, realize the VALUE it adds to our personal daily routine and find the TIME for it, we should get clarity on the following things:
TASTE: How do you like your coffee? Are you an espresso purists? Do you enjoy the comfiness of flat whites? Or can’t you get enough of the deliciously complex filter coffees? You might want to visit different renowned specialty coffee shops to get more clarity on that. We tend to stick to what we know, but getting into it open minded you might be surprised that you actually start enjoying something else!
HABITS: Do you drink coffee at home every morning? Are you working remotely and actually enjoying more than one coffee a day at home? Are you the only person enjoying coffee at home? Is everybody out of the door in no time during the week and do you only find time during weekends?
EFFORT: Your new hobby will take you along on a journey that will require time, effort and patience to learn this craft and be able to prepare great tasting cups at home. Are you aware of this and willing to put these resources into it?
Answering to these questions will give you a pretty good overview on where to start your coffee journey.
Hand on your heart
Espresso machines. We see them, we fall in love with them, they look very cool in your home with that industrial design. Even more tempting, several brands now let you visualize their machines in your space! Pulling espresso shots is an incredibly good looking process and come on, those flat whites with latte art on top? So delicious and instagrammable! Our first thought when playing with the idea of getting a coffee setup at home is this! Espresso and cappuccino is what we knew all our life, our palate is used to these drinks and so it’s pretty natural wanting to start there. Yes, you’re already suspecting it, there’s a but, a very big but! What looks so easy in your local coffee shop actually isn’t. These are professional baristas, working with quality beans, on commercial grade equipment valued in the 5 digits.
Here is what you should be aware of:
Replicating this at home is NOT as straight forward as it seems and will require lot’s of practice, frustrations, and spent coffee. Agreed, on YouTube and Instagram influencers show you how you can get good results with virtually any home appliance on the market today. What’s missing are transparency disclaimers: they are all either professionals or advanced home baristas. And no, you will not learn it in no time. This isn’t coffee at the push of a button. It’s a craft that needs to be learned. Espresso, especially as we start out, can be extremely frustrating to get right as so many variables are in play that we’re not fully aware of and if we miss only one of them, the result won’t taste good.
Home appliances - those you can get in a bundle, with a low budget and made out of plastic - are (with very few exceptions) NOT designed for light and medium roasted high quality specialty coffee. They might work fine with darker roasts and commercial coffee but they will quickly reach their limitations and make your journey very frustrating when it’s time to move on to those higher grade specialty beans roasted by renowned European roasters.
Steaming milk for latte art. If you enjoy milky drinks, enough steam power is a must. Yes, you can steam milk on almost every machine with a steam wand, but learning to get that silky texture right for your latte hearts, tulips, rosetta’s and swans requires both practice and sufficient steam power, especially if you need to prepare more than 1 cup at a time.
Space on your kitchen’s countertop. An espresso machine setup with grinder, knock box, tamping station, coffee beans, and accessories usually doesn’t fit on your kitchen countertop. And even if you have the space, it still needs to be both practical and look good. That’s why many espresso aficionados have a dedicated espresso corner, which also takes up space in your kitchen or living room.
Heat-up times & energy consumption. Nothing is worse than picturing your perfect espresso before going out to work, only to realize that you’re late to turn on the machine. Most domestic espresso machines will need 30-45 minutes to heat up enough as to reach a stable temperature to extract nicely balanced espresso shots. This translates into espresso machines being the second largest emission of CO2 along the coffee supply chain, only after agricultural production itself, and yes, even before roasting and shipping! That’s not at all as sustainable as it should be and even with climate change and rising energy prices big coffee equipment brands are only slowly shifting to address this issue, if they care at all. So it’s ultimately affecting your time, your environmental conscience and your wallet.
A possible advice
In summary, based on our own experience and long talks with customers we would suggest the following very broad scenarios:
You don’t find the time and don’t find it rewarding to prepare coffee at home: that’s ok, nowadays nice specialty coffee shops are popping up everywhere so chances are high that a nice coffee shop is close wherever you need it!
You do find the time to make yourself a coffee but have budget restraints: go for a filter coffee set up and still enjoy those rich espressos and silky flat whites in your local coffee shop.
You don’t have the time during work days to prepare your coffee at home but would enjoy preparing it on your days off: go for a filter coffee set up too.
You definitively have the time, money and passion for coffee at home most of the times: then you might find fulfillment in a nice espresso set up!
You already love filter coffee: then it’s easy! Go ahead and read our upcoming filter coffee guide.
As you probably noticed, most of our scenarios will lead to a filter coffee set up. Remember, we’re still talking about STARTING to get into preparing specialty coffee at home. And for this there are valid reasons:
Our palate isn’t naturally ready for a flavor bursting shot of light roasted espresso, it’s acidity and fruitiness is an acquired taste, but even more chocolatey varieties can feel overwhelming, that’s why many of us feel that a milk based drink is more balanced and pleasant to enjoy. This more diluted version of consuming coffee is very similar to filter coffee, which has a bad rep because it is anchored in our minds as granny’s coffee or the brewed coffee out of an American diner, but modern filter coffee is something completely different. It’s definitely geared towards a sensorial experience close to fine wines or tasty artisanal beers.
One of the main objectives of brewing specialty coffee at home is to get the best possible cup out of the highly valued beans that are some of the best coffee farmers around the world produce. Having this in mind, the fastest, cheapest and easiest way to achieve this is with filter coffee, not espresso. Filter coffee is easier to learn based on a certain recipe, more forgiving, and although it often called slow coffee, it’s actually faster than espresso if you count in the heat up time. After some practice it will take you five minutes out of your morning routine to prepare filter coffee (including heating up water in a kettle)! And, the resulting cup will last you much longer than a fast espresso.
With that being said, filter coffee being the start doesn’t mean that you will not evolve and finding your way into espresso later on, but having a good understanding in manual brewing will make it so much easier and fun for you further down the road! And, trust us, even having both set ups at home, you will always find your way back to filter coffee, because it’s just so delicious!
Invest like a minimalist
We’re finally getting there! To get the most out of your investment we will mention two general tips that we believe will help you immensely in setting you up for a successful, meaningful and value achieving journey into specialty coffee at home:
Make a wishlist for your coffee set up. We personally use this easy but very effective tool for every bigger investment. Basically you fix an amount limit depending on your income and how “minimalist” your lifestyle is, and every item that lies above this threshold comes on that list and stays there for 30 days BEFORE taking any action on it. It also helps to write down to which PURPOSE you need it. This lets you digest it mentally and rethink it carefully and when time comes, you will be pretty sure not to have bought it on a whim and really get value out of it.
The grinder. Every serious professional in the industry will tell you this, against what you might find logical, the grinder needs to be the CENTERPIECE of your setup and should be the first thing you invest your money on. Don’t take away money from your grinder to add it to a better espresso machine. A good grinder is the single one item that makes the biggest difference in taste out of your entire setup, especially when using lighter to medium roasted specialty grade coffee. And chances are it will outlast your first machine once you decide to move onto something else. A good grinder paired with an OK espresso machine will get you way better results and way less frustrations than a great espresso machine paired with a budget grinder. Don’t leave your grinder as an afterthought! This is also true with a filter coffee set up, spend your money on your grinder.
Finally, instead of running out buying your equipment, have you ever heard about our very own PLAY HOURS? Just reach out to us and we can organize an informal and fun private session with you at our roastery, where you can try out all the coffee equipment we have there to help you make a well founded decision!
We hope you found some inspiring thoughts in this post, feel free to comment or ask questions below, or reach out to us directly should you need more personalized guidance on how to get the right coffee set up based on your preferences and budget.
Shortly, we will follow-up on this article with two separate blog post, diving deep into both filter coffee and espresso machines set ups. We might also periodically review this particular post to keep up with future developments.