We are in the golden age of the subscription... and you can get nearly any item you want on one. There's pet toys, beard oil, yoga pants, pickles and of course coffee. In theory the idea of a coffee subscription is great. You can stay stocked without thinking about it and try quality roasters from all...
As you can see, its here! After about four months of waiting only somewhat patiently my new espresso machine has arrived, and it's taken it's rightful place on my home coffee bar! With this brand new addition and future heart of my espresso focused content I thought it would be a good time to not only...
Over my time as a home barista... there are a handful of machines that get brought up in nearly every espresso conversation, and one of them is the ECM Synchronika. This makes sense because on paper it's a needle in a haystack. It comes with dual boilers, PID for consistent temperature control, the legendary (but divisive)...
Those ride or die followers may remember... that way back when when I hit the milestone of 100 YouTube videos I did a coffee time question and answer (Q&A) video. Well, recently I hit 100,000 subscribers and I'm quite a bit over video number 200 so I think I'm a little overdue for another one. To...
Getting a new coffee grinder... is often a joyous and exciting experience for every coffee lover, but one thing tends to always hang over our heads as we prepare to grind our first batch; burr seasoning. If you haven't heard of seasoning your grinder burrs you wouldn't be alone, as its not something that everyone has...
Getting into home espresso... can be an intimidating experience. There are thousands of options that range in everything from price to performance. Going online in search of answers can can only make the choice harder. Scrolling through forums and blog posts can give you an even mix of horror stories and happy endings, but there is...
When it comes to espresso... there is one variable that I think is undeniable in its importance, and that is an even distribution. Having a puck of coffee grinds that is not only uniform in depth but also in density ensures that when the water pressure is applied the flow rate is equal as it travels...
If this title looks familiar... its not just your imagination, its not deja vu, I did a video of the exact same title almost exactly three years ago. In that time not only has my espresso game evolved, but so has the whole industry along with most of baristas (home and cafe) use on a daily...
In the world of espresso... there are very few things that the majority of baristas agree is a necessity, but one of those things I thought we could was tamping, or at the very least adding pressure to your grinds in one way or another. But after a short video of mine exploring one of the...
This may surprise you... but I'm actually very risk adverse. So of course crowd funding isn't really my thing, it feels a bit like a gamble, and when I saw the Weber Workshops Indigogo campaign for the new Key grinder I was a little apprehensive. But I found myself powerless, I had no idea how much...
It may not come as a surprise... That capsule based coffee machines have never really been on my radar. That is until I heard of the Morning machine. It boasts some features that seem better suited to top of the line espresso machines. Things like pre-infusion, blooming, automatic volumetric, and three phase pressure control. So if...
The home grinder market... has more or less exploded with options over the last couple years, many of them single dose, aimed at taking on the current king; the Niche Zero. Some of them even touted as the "Niche killer", and now Eureka, a grinder company with over one hundred years experience, has entered the battle...
I'm sure you have heard... how important water quality can be to your coffee, and unless you're new here you've most likely you've heard it at least a few times from me. Now its something that I understood on a very surface level. For example, too many minerals can create a bitter cup, and too few...
On a cold January day in 2017... much like this one, I brought home my brand new La Marzocco Linea Mini. This was almost exactly five years ago, and at the time I was just a new coffee enthusiast looking to learn the craft, but little did I know that it would take me where I...
I've said it before... and I'm going to say it again; espresso is a finicky beast. Anyone who's made it, even just once, has experienced how many variables are in play. Even though getting a tasty shot is based almost entirely on personal preferences, there are still some golden rules to process, and one of them...
Air is the enemy... of your coffee's freshness. There is no way to put a complete stop to oxidation that will eventually make your coffee go stale, but thankfully there are some containers out there aimed at helping slow the process down. Today's tester is for the Planetary Design Airscape. It's been on the market for...
Espresso drinks aren't all that complicated... and even though there is so many you could fill a small book with them, they are made up of two ingredients, espresso and milk or water. In this case I'm talking about the latter, more specifically the Americano, and by association the long black. Now, these two have very...
Instagram and I have a love/hate relationship... Of course I see it as a great place to share my work, connect with viewers, and even find inspiration. Yet, on the flip side it has a lot of blatant attention grabs for likes and shares, and many things that are purely for the visual aesthetics and not...
I think it's pretty clear... that there is no shortage of accessories on the espresso aftermarket. Each one claiming better taste here and more extraction there, and I've tried my fair share of these accessories and shared my tests and thoughts. It should be no surprise that not all of them can be winners, but that...
The holiday season is fast approaching... and with all the delays in both manufacturing and shipping I figured I'd get this video out a little earlier than normal. So for those looking for some affordable coffee gifts, or just wanting to know what coffee toys I've been loving through 2021 than this video is for you....
Just when you thought espresso... can’t get any more intricate and labor intensive something else crawls out of the depths of coffee forums, so today let’s talk about the staccato shot. The word staccato translates from Italian to English as "detached". Which in this case means each grind size are detached, or in other words separated...
For quite some time... beverage enthusiasts have been making and designing their own glasses to elevate their drinking experience, and the company Kruve has continued to try to innovate in the coffee vessel space. It all started with their award winning filter glasses, then the pro-swirl espresso versions, and now with the new Kruve Imagine line...
If there's one thing I always pair with my coffee... It's some good music. It often flies under the radar, all but only one of the nearly 200 videos I've ever produced has had a musical track incorporated inside of it, and little does anyone know that I actually spend a good amount of time finding...
As you may already know... espresso comes in many different shapes and sizes. Its an ever-changing, ever-evolving beverage, and now things that were once considered mistakes have become something we aim for. In the not so distant past a fifteen second shot of espresso would go right down the drain, but today we call it the...
In the very recent past... handheld espresso was more or less a distant fantasy than it was a true reality. Even though there are multiple accessories and compact options on the market, most if not all fall kind of flat. The Joepresso, and the Fellow Prismo claimed real shots from your Aeropress, and that just isn't...
Are you ready to take the plunge... into the world of espresso at home? Well, incase you haven't noticed I've done that myself, and I get a lot of questions from folks looking to do that exact same thing. I personally made some mistakes myself, and since then I've talked many friends and viewers through the...
Thinking about espresso... is what I do with a good amount of my time, and if you're reading this its fair to say it may be something you spend time doing as well. There is a wide array of espresso options out there, and in my espresso anatomy series I've covered a lot of them. The...
When it comes to espresso... experimentation is half of the fun, at least to me it is, and since you're here reading about some seriously nerdy coffee stuff you likely feel the same way. So in the spirit of experimentation and my own personal curiosity I decided to test something I've been wondering about for awhile....
Dairy alternatives and I... have a bit of a contentious relationship, I've always wanted to like them, but I feel like they tend to fall short in one way or another. Whether it's how they taste, how they blend with coffee, their foamability or mouthfeel, they just don't check all the boxes. I'm clearly not the...
Home espresso machines... are a growing market, and one of the newest additions is the chic and modern looking Kickstarter funded Xbar. As of this writing its campaign has been funded nearly twenty times over, and still has about a week left to pick up some early bird deals. Like most, if not all, espresso machines...
The internet is full of... articles, blog posts and videos talking about all the espresso rules you should follow for the best possible shots, but I'm here to tell you; the rules were made to be broken. In the world of espresso, and all of specialty coffee for that matter, there are very few rules that...
As if there weren't... enough tools and accessories out there for pulling shots, it's time to look at yet another advertised as your fast pass to better extractions; the Bplus espresso puck screens. Of course, many of us espresso nerds have heard all of this before, many times over. So I'm sure you could understand my...
I'm a man of my word... and a couple month's ago while reviewing the Robot I said I would soon be releasing a head-to-head battle with the Cafelat Robot and the Flair, but what I didn't tell you was I was waiting for the new 58 to drop. In the world of hand pressed, fully manual...
It's far too easy... and also extremely common for folks in the specialty coffee scene to dunk on Starbucks, but today I want to give you some reasons why they actually deserve a little respect. Of course, this isn't a "we should all love them" kind of video, and they most definitely have their flaws. I...
Now well into the... fourth year of this humble coffee blog we're really starting to dig into the minutia of brewing, and in terms of espresso talking about shower screens is really getting into the weeds. Otherwise known as dispersion screens, these little discs of metal and mesh play a surprisingly vital role in the espresso...
For awhile now... I've been toying with aging coffee, both green and roasted, in my freezer at home. One particular package of coffee was roasted, vacuum sealed, and subsequently traveled from Japan to my freezer here in California. This coffee has sat patiently for almost exactly two years now. If you've been around for awhile this...
If there is one thing... I look forward to every day, its a quiet morning coffee and today I'm sharing that experience with you. There's clearly a group of folks out there who love these kinds of videos, and you may be asking what kind of video. Well, this is my first, and very possibly final,...
The time has finally come... after a year of speculation and vague information the brand new Flair 58 has finally arrived on the scene. I've been a big fan of the Flair machines since I picked up the Signature Pro about two years ago. It was my first foray into hand pressed espresso, and I was...
If you ask a barista... latte art isn't just an art, it's a lifestyle. It's also the quickest way to break a barista's heart, just stir it up right in front of them. As you become more and more versed in specialty coffee culture it becomes clear that the skill of steaming and pouring velvety milk...
When it comes to espresso... and my series of videos taking deep dives into the many forms of this beloved beverage, I feel like one very important option is missing. Whether you call it the double, the normale, or embrace your inner Italian and call it a doppio, it's time I dive into the most common...
The hand grinder market... has really blown up over the past few years, with new options hitting shelves and websites at a pretty solid rate. There are names that most coffee enthusiasts kick around on the regular like the Comandante and the Kinu M47, but there's a newcomer to this market, and its boasting some pretty...
If you've worked in a cafe... you've likely heard the term "dying" or "dead shot" in reference to a pull of espresso that sits on the bar for a certain period of time. It's rumored that this trend came from Starbucks training, who gives a shot only 10 seconds after its completion before it's considered dead. Other...
The unsung hero of the coffee bar... is the humble grinder. The espresso machines, coffee drippers, and latte art pours tend to often be the stars of the show, but today I'm revisiting my experience with a Niche Zero year one review. If you've been around for a minute you may recall the original review I...
Making better coffee... is a strange and complicated journey. Many of us put so much effort, time, and money into it that those on the outside looking in think we're insane. That I think is a good introduction into the wildly time consuming act of sifting coffee. By that I mean grinding coffee, placing it into...
If you're a coffee lover... you're also likely a lover of arguing the semantics and definitions of certain coffee drinks. One of those hotly debated espresso based beverages is the globally popular flat white. Some claim it is all about the addition of the legendary ristretto shot of espresso. Others say it is just a basic...
Four years ago this week... I became the proud owner of a brand new, crispy white, La Marzocco Linea Mini. In that time it has given me endless hours of entertainment, content for videos, increased my barista skills, and also helped motivate me to create not one, but two businesses. So I do generally look at the...
Many of us enjoy... a nice shot or two of espresso on a daily basis, and spend a lot of our time and hard earned money trying to get the good shots. Yet, how many us can name and break down each of the three layers of espresso? We all already know a shot is pulled...
In a world... and industry that is increasingly becoming more and more automated, the market for hand-pressed espresso machines is still only growing in popularity. In that market the Cafelat Robot is one of the premium players, and having paid nearly $500 for it also costs a premium. It's unique vintage 1950's sci-fi movie robot styling...
If you haven't noticed... specialty coffee culture has a dump-truck sized notebook full of colorful lingo, and one of the most popular terms you'll likely hear is the "god shot". This blanket term is used to describe a shot of espresso so perfect, and so delicious that is it is basically an enlightening experience. The term...
It seems every couple of months... a new distribution tool materializes out of the bottomless dark void that is third wave coffee gear economy. The WPM (Welhome Pro) ESPCUP is the newest contender to an already pretty full arena of tools. With big coffee industry names like ONA Coffee, Pullman, and Saint Anthony's Industries already having...
At this point my digital... footprint may as well be a coffee bean because when some kind of new coffee contraption finds its way onto any platform that I use regularly it will absolutely find its way in front of me. The Seven & Me is one such contraption. It presented itself as a sponsored advertisement...
Life is full of milestones... like getting your drivers license, moving out on your own, and of course your 100th YouTube video. The latter being what we'll be celebrating today. Putting together videos like this isn't something I'm used to doing as its pretty far outside of my normal program, but these more candid videos are...
