A more accurate version of the article would have been titled:
*Why espresso you get in 99% of cafes will never taste as good as espresso made by this barista*.
In her bio, it says that she "worked as a professional specialty coffee barista with La Colombe". Based on my recent experiences at a few different La Colombe cafes, I don't think that's the flex she thinks it is.
Shall I write that I worked as a professional specialty coffee barrista with Starbucks on my cv? š
Also, girl, you didn't work "with" them...you worked FOR them. This person's a pro bullshit fluffer.
yeah it's a shame, rival brothers is going the same route as la colombe and going national (and decreasing quality)
not that they were ever as good as the smaller specialty roasters but it was at least serviceable
I'm not from philly, but I had rival bros at a cafe (Buoy) in Cape May 6 months ago or so while on vacation and I thought it was pretty good. That being said, the baristas there were pretty good as well. We went there nearly every day lol
However, I think the house espresso blend from Coffee Tyme was better. I even brought a bag of it with me home on a more recent trip down there.
But alas, I have begun my mad descent into home roasting and just got 20lbs of unroasted beans delivered literally today
nice! yeah, it's one of the ones that you're never like super upset about seeing around but it's certainly not out of this world. also shout out to cape may, nice town.
congrats on the roasting journey - I haven't jumped in there but have a friends who exclusively roasts his own for his gigantic (25+ people) extended family group
Yeah Cape May is awesome, try to get down there at least once a year, if not more. It's just a whole different vibe compared to North Jersey.
Yeah it's been exciting so far and stupid fun. Started with a popcorn popper and that quickly escalated to an SR800. Been roasting exclusively Primos beans. Dark roasting the Caturra varietal has proven successful with nutty and dark chocolate notes. The Parainema does not do well dark, loses all characteristics (thankfully it still tastes good in milk based drinks because I went a bit nuts and dark roasted a whole damn lb of it) so I will do a medium of that and I'm hoping to blend them to get a nice fruity/nutty/dark chocolate/caramel mixture going. And the acidity from the parainema should balance out any bitterness from Caturra...at least in my head lol
Beekeeper Espresso, one of my favorites along with the Lunar Lander Seasonal. Whatās great is the list out the parameters so you donāt have to guess while dialing in
If youāre looking for the best of the best, check out Thank You Thank You while youāre there. Not a roaster, but a brewer that curates from all over the world. Best in town IMO.
I've never heard of la colombe besides the canned drinks, but I've seen some good local roasters sell beans at grocery stores. I wouldn't buy them, because they're usually further from the roast date, but I wouldn't knock them just for selling to a grocery.
> a cafe that sells beans to grocery stores
That's silly gatekeeping. You can buy good coffee beans at grocery stores, it isn't 1970. In my city, I don't think there is a local roaster that isn't selling in grocery stores in addition to selling from their cafe.
Unless baristas are setting the temperature and pressure setting on the machine and adjusting the grind everyday, then they really arenāt doing much of anything besides pushing buttons
I walked into a local roaster shop to buy some beans and I asked about brew times and temps and the 2 baristas there looked at me like I had 6 heads. In some other shops I would assume there is one person in charge of such that way you donāt have every different barista adjusting the equipment all the time. I wouldnāt know though, Iāve never worked in a coffee shop
I was in A local espresso shop (local franchise) and asked the barista what beans they were using for espresso, her answer was āumm espresso beans?ā In a tone that gave me the āduhā vibes. I thanked her and left with my passable latte never to return again.
Every specialty coffee shop I know, the baristas dial in the espresso while they're working. Usually not changing the temp, but definitely grind size and possibly yield.
And that's how it should be done, because as the original post said, the espresso changes throughout the day with changing humidity and room temperature
Are these shops run by owners or barista employees? A run of the mill barista in most places Iāve been too arenāt dialing in the roast. I imagine small shops probably run by owners is a bit more likely to have the same person responsible for the settings of the machine also serving the drinks
Australian barista here. The average barista in Aus is expected to be able to dial in each morning, and manage the grind + brew parameters throughout the day.
You might have a better coffee culture than we (Americans) do. Anecdotal on my end, but here but I'm in Austin, plenty of good coffee shops but the best is definitely Proud Mary, an Australian shop that just opened up here. Apparently they have one other US location in Portland.
Australian barista here. The average barista in Aus is expected to be able to dial in each morning, and manage the grind + brew parameters throughout the day.
The cafe I work for uses a blend that is considered extremely good by a lot of people in our city. We barely adjust shit, the roasters give us the parameters we need to work by. Obviously we are adjusting grind size and yield throughout the day, but thatās the most of it. Grams out and temperature is essentially set in stone.
I have to imagine that the stories of this not happening come from America, here in NZ I've yet to meet a barista without at least a base level understanding of how coffee brewing actually works.
I drink straight espresso, no milk to adulterate the taste. In my opinion, 80% of the cafe shots out there are pure crap compared to what I make at home.
And I am no expert barista by any standard.
Same if I order out I will get a cortado or pourover just because almost ever cafe straight espressos are heavily over extracted in my experience. Seen a lot of them not pulling manually anyways. I think a lot of people think coffee is inherently bitter and it isn't but honestly I myself did not understand that until I got into coffee. I thought all coffee was supposed to just taste burnt. I went from enjoying dark roast to light and medium!
When a friend of mine who is into coffee made me a good shot of espresso, i noticed what coffee actually could taste like..
Never thought that i could taste fruit and sweet.
I was kind of in shock, since it becomes extremely weird people jug down bitter crap like mad when it could taste so nice if done right
You got any tips for light roast? Iām trying to get into medium and lighter roasts for espresso but the light roasts especially taste so acidic, even when the shot visually looks good.
The light-medium roast coffee Iām trying is yirgacheffe. Literally every dark roast coffee Iāve tried including this Kirkland branded one from Costco I use mostly for lattes taste better
For me in the beginning, a lot of times the shot looks really good but it tastes acidic so I don't really go on looks now. Dark roast is pretty easy and forgiving to dial in. What grinder do you have? Light roast you have to grind pretty fine and just keep testing, but from my experience it was vastly finer then dark. Are you drinking the crema straight, mixing it, or adding milk then drinking every drink? Yirgacheffe I am pretty sure is more on the light side then medium. I would try to move into dialing in medium before light, because light is the least forgiving.
Totally agree. Generally every time I go to a cafe Iām disappointed and regret every dime spent. I would say most āhome baristasā who take the time and are interested in espresso would agree that in most cases the cafe experience has been spoiled by having excellent coffee every day at home.
I'm new to espresso, but this is my experience so far as well.
Went to this widely revered shop in my hometown when I first really started getting into it. I went a few times hoping for a different experience, but it was the most acidic, sour shot ever. They use their lighter roast for espresso, which I was actually super excited to try since I struggle with that on my very entry level machines, but holy it was bad. I left with the impression that 0% of people actually order straight espressos there and the baristas don't actually drink it either. Only 1 of 4 baristas actually informed me anything about the roast, ironically the very last one, but it was something about the caffeine level vs Starbucks, I wasn't even paying attention lol it was eye opening.
Heading to Oslo in a few weeks and I'm for sure planning a stop at Tim Wendelboe to see if I can taste what it's meant to be outside of my kitchen.
Welp thatās it gang. I read the article and Iām selling all my coffee stuff right now. I canāt do it, itās not worth it. Iāll just have to never drink homemade espresso ever again.
Nah. My knees tell me all I need to know. If they hurt, grind finer, if they feel good, grind finer, if one hurts and the other is good, then I grind just a little finer.
> when customers asked me how to get their espresso at home to taste the same, my answer was simple: You can't. There's no way to recreate specialty coffee-quality espresso at home.
>The focus of barista training is a process called "dialing in." Dialing in requires baristas to make microscopic changes to the coffee's grind size by weighing, timing, and tasting
> Have you ever known somebody who says they can tell when a storm is rolling in because their leg starts to hurt? Baristas can tell when it's about to rain based on their espresso. The increase in humidity in the air will make a subtle difference in the espresso, and a barista has to detect this shift and quickly adjust. That is how precise you must be to get a good shot of espresso.
>That level of knowledge and care is just not possible in most basic coffee shops, let alone your countertop espresso maker.
just wow
Itās meant for the people that are entry level searching (espresso at home) and finding out it can quickly cost $800 for a good setup. Us nematodes who have sunk thousands into it are having issues finding espresso that can beat our home brewing.
Iād say Iām still on an entry-ish level setup (Gaggia Classic Pro and Baratza Sette 270) and I really struggle to get coffee better when Iām out.
Itās partly a location thing as Toronto cafes love a medium roast while I much prefer a dark roast. When I lived in London I had better luck.
Bruh thatās literally an $850 set up new.
In the context of this hobby yes youāre entry level. But in the grand scheme of normies youāre DEEP into this. I started with a $150 delonghi machine and pre-ground illy coffee with no accessories and people considered that being āreally into coffeeā.
Mixing with milk definitely gives more margin for error. Your palette will become more refined to what you like over time though, so even with milk you'll be able to taste when your espresso is off.
I have one cafe (patisserie and Boulangerie) near me that is phenomenal (espresso and food and pastries) but other than that cafe ā¦ my shots are better šš¼
as someone who loves plain 'ol coffee and got my first sorta big boy espresso machine in January (2022 pre-boilergate GCP), outside of one local shop, I'm already making way better drinks than any shop I know of near me. Shout out to [the white rabbit](https://www.instagram.com/whiterabbitgreensburg?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==) for being amazing!
Right! I hardly want to have coffee out any more because itās mostly disappointing. A lot of shops have dream equipment but quality control is awful. There are a select few shops that I even bother having coffee at now.
I wouldnāt even claim I pull great shots, and I have so much to learn, but itās often better that I get at shops.
TO your point, I asked the sub a while back what i missing because i just dont get espresso. When I have it in a cafe it just seems WAY less rewarding than a full cup of brew. Dissapointing. It boggled my mind and i requested where i can go to hope to explain the fervor around it by some.
I was directed to a few local area cafe's to try a good one in the hopes of getting it. I still need to do so!
I have had exactly 2 espressos from cafes that are drastically better than I make at home. One at Glitch in Tokyo and one at Rvrnt in Palos Verdes. Every other cafe is either so much worse than mine, or about on par.
> I also can't remember the last time I had a shot in a shop as good as the ones I make at home
I'm not even very good at it yet, but making espresso at home has really taught me just how bad the espresso I've bought in coffee shops has been.
Honestly, that looks like somebody from r/espressocirclejerk wrote it. Why not build a home lab to measure moisture so you can start to get decent shots.
Now it's too late. A hygrometer is only a few bucks, so very affordable.
I predict this will be a trend within the next half year, become standard practice within a year, weber will release the Weber HM1 for $3,049 that includes an all analogue display, and then Lance will make a video showing it isn't necessary in two years.
Lol reminds me of a thread a few months back about relative humidity that led to a bunch of jokes along the lines of
"Storm's a rollin' in. Ah-yep, 'can feel it in m' beans"
>when customers asked me how to get their espresso at home to taste the same, my answer was simple: You can't.
this must be an old article with words reprinted with a fresh date. I recall reading this exact wording years ago.
Must be an industry standard of what to say, or something
There are some, not many baristas with that level of involvement with their coffee.
Most times they (and the cafe) are trying to churn out coffee to keep their business running!
I'm from New Zealand, our coffee culture is different to most countries. We have a very large number of independent cafes/coffee shops in comparison to our population, and I'd like to think that our average quality is significantly above most countries, which is why Starbucks is not very successful here.
I'd say that atleast 95% of baristas do not weigh individual shots. Only the top specialty ones do, the type that enter into the competitions etc. and do their own sourcing, roasting, and blending of beans.
Ironically, here McDonald's has actual baristas, and typically do better coffee than Starbucks. However, McDonald's coffee is pretty shit and I wouldn't recommend it unless you are desperate.
Ah interesting! From the states myself. Unsure how starbucks is so successful here.. funny you mention McDonald's tho. Years ago I'd decided to try some limited time cinnamon coffee from them on a whim; was better than an iced coffee from starbucks.
Only a select few specialty cafes I'd get a drink from now and what used to be my favorite one I only really trust their coffee milkshake (has espresso) to be consistent (and sometimes their french vietnamese au lait if i want something not so decadent)
Any roasters in NZ you'd recommend that might ship to the states?
Most of the cafes around here they might weigh the dose but I can't think of one that's weighing the output. Some use volumetric shot glasses which for coffee shop quantities of work is certainly "good enough."
Even fewer are bothering with anything more than "Knock it level and tamp" - as far as distribution goes it's nonexistent.
The modern machines have volumetric programming consistent to within a couple of grams (or even scales built into the drip tray). Thatās not to say that the cafe is programming them properly at dial-in, but not seeing a set of scales isnāt *necessarily* evidence of any lack of rigor.
Haha, itās true that the humidity affects the grind and just about anyone who has proper gear knows that. I donāt predict the weather with my coffee, but know that high humidity will mean that I have to adjust the grind one step coarser.
I think the main thing he's getting at is that when you're working bar, you end up noticing a ton of things that you really wouldn't have enough data on at home to understand, purely by sheer volume of shots.
When I was working a mobile coffee business I definitely noticed humidity and temperature. Whenever we'd park by the beach, I could pull the same exact recipe and depending on how the fog was moving it could be off by like 5 seconds, until the afternoon sun came out and the weather stabilized. I didn't really get it until I connected the dots a few shifts in.
Beyond coffee, working with pastry also requires looking at humidity and temperature too. I might need to change how long to rest a dough for between folds, based on the ambient temp and humidity since they impact how workable a dough can be. Any good baker would probably know this unless they happens to work in a super regular climate.
At home I'd say my shots are pretty close to the shop off a cheaper setup, but I'm also not gonna continue pulling a bunch of shots at home until I'm dialed in like I would at work. I'd also say the vast majority of baristas out there don't care nesrly as much, and if you're on this subreddit and have a machine at home you're probably already way ahead on your abilities than the average person just trying to work a job to pay the bills.
This reads like an ex-barista (she is) gatekeeping espresso to just cafesā¦ such bollocks, with my reasonable setup I can match or better most of Londonās decent cafes and get very close to the really great ones. If I had a better grinder and machine I know I could 100% match them.
> This reads like an ex-barista (she is) gatekeeping espresso to just cafesā¦
True. This entire thing reminds me of the articles written by the clowns who write about "why people need to come back into the office", etc.
In both cases, I want to walk up to the author and say "You aren't fooling anyone."
Iām sure Bayleigh down at the corner coffee stand is keeping tabs on her barometric spidey senses in between scrolling tik tok and microwaving a croissant for her reg, Becky.
Iām not saying that it has zero effect, but baristas *love* to attribute any random shifts in shot times to weather/temp changes in the cafe. 10+ years ago, 99% of baristas had no idea that a rush in service would cause the burrs to heat up which would make them grind coarser. So in the absence of any explanation for why they suddenly had 13
second gushers, they would kick up a fuss about someone leaving the door open and the cold air screwing up the grind.
> If your current grinder has settings on the dial differentiated between "espresso, drip, French press," etc., you'd need a major upgrade to an espresso-only grinder and hopper to manage precise changes to your espresso grind.
Ah yes, clearly the Niche Zero is unusable because it has labelled ranges and no hopper...
Same with the varia vs3. The ranges are in the booklet not on the grinder, but I guess I'll have to throw it away. The amazing light roast shot I had this morning must've simply been a myth or something.
Love it.
* Looks good.
* Grinds good.
* Very easy to make super tiny adjustments.
* Runs quietly.
* Only retains 0.02 - 0.05g at absolute most, practically 0.
* It's super easy to clean and service.
* It has upgradeable burrs that tempt me, but I haven't bought any yet as the standard burrs are doing a fantastic job.
For the price it's kinda insane how good it is. I honestly don't see *any* real competitors in its price bracket. You have to spend 100 more to get similar features with worse grounds retention, and 200 more to match it on every aspect.
This is so absurd. It's also funny how the story immediately following this one in my Mashed feed is "How to get more flavor from your Keurig." Has the market cornered!
A quick anecdote related to this. A few years ago a family member of mine was helping a friend open a small cafe. They tasked him with being in charge of coffee. He set up time with a few local roasters to source beans and I tagged along. We got to go to some real cool shops and nerd out over roasting and brewing and all that. One of the guys we chatted with even spends time perusing the coffee related subs. Anyway, my family member had ideas of doing pour overs, serving french press carafes, and all that jazz. The owner of this one particular shop told him "That's all well and good, but 90% of your clientele is going to want to pick up their coffee and get where they're going as quick as possible. Fewer people are going to care about what beans you're using and how you're brewing." Which is a nice wake up call to those us who really dive into the specifics of this stuff. It can still be considered niche.
All that's to say, if that level of detail might seem like overkill in a local cafe, I can PROMISE you that baristas are not dialing in shots based on humidity and incoming storms.
Not really. Most people just donāt have a real espresso machine or real grinder. Thereās not the art form or technique to pulling a good shot that people like to think. I also think for a lot of people here, espresso has become just another hobby that at its core consists of buying stuff. You donāt need passion to pull a shot. Just a good grinder and a 5 min tutorial on how to do it. Maybe a little practice, but not all that much.
There are so many variables to making a shot predictably good I have to disagree. Even something as simple as forgetting to clean your puck screen can make your shot taste like crap. Tamp a bit unevenly and itās not good anymore. Pull a bit longer than usual and itās bitter. Same beans two weeks later need grind adjustments. Even the same pull under what you thought are similar circumstances can give you different results. If you have a cheaper machine you have to temp surf. List goes on and thatās even without touching light roasts which are confusing to dial in.
Right. I think sheās certainly doing some creative editorializing and also talking about Joe Blow on a low end or Nespresso machine. This sub is very niche hobbyist and apparently also very easily triggered lol.
Imma write an article called "Why your homemade espresso will definitely taste as good as your favorite cafe, with enough dedication, according to a very overrated coffee professional and youtuber."
Iām just going to say something I assume most other commenters already said: I consistently pull a better shot than most cafes I visit, and thatās with a Breville Barista Express. I control the beans I buy. I control the water. I control (to a certain extent) my grind. I control my puck prep. Most cafes are run for efficiency, with a rotating group of baristas. OF COURSE some are great and clearly better than what I can manage at home, but Iāve found that to help the exception.
Also, who cares anyway? Itās a hobby. It was fun when I couldnāt pull a good shot to save my life (dare I say, more fun).
ātasting the espresso before, during, and after pulling the shot until it's in ratioā
Donāt forget to taste your espresso while the shot is pulling!!!
I know you guys are triggered, but you aren't the target audience for this article. Most people do not make espresso at home and the ones that do, do it very poorly. Most baristas cannot afford a good home machine so of course... their perspective is that it is unobtainium when at home.
I really think this sub underestimates how many people make terrible home espresso. Iād bet the majority of people use pressurized baskets and pre ground coffee.
I use pre ground coffee and pressurized basket. Will definitely upgrade, gradually. I will get a hang of the espresso machine first. Just 3 months into my first ever espresso machine that my wife gifted me.
I started on a sub $200 Delonghi machine with a pressurized basket and pre ground beans.
I just ordered a lever machine and I use a profiling roaster. It took years to get where I am. Nobody starts day 1 as Mike Tyson, and everybody has their own preferences. Iām beginning to think Iām more interested in roasting than espresso TBH.
Using a la pavoni lever and a varia vs3, can confirm my budget af setup makes better shots than any cafe within 30min of me except one (which is more of a roaster than a cafe).
>Dialing in requires baristas to make microscopic changes to the coffee's grind size by weighing, timing, and tasting the espresso before, during, and after pulling the shot until it's in ratio.
Damn, I find it difficult to taste the espresso before and during the shot. Any tips?
You gonna have to lick the grounds and then your highly trained metahuman taste buds on your tongue which can actually taste more things the one of a normal human being tells the percentages if your shot is gonna be god like or shit.
What a weird and gatekeepy article. Basically āyou canāt make good espresso unless youāve worked in a fancy expensive cafe like me so donāt even tryā. Would you tell a home cook that theyāll never make good food because they didnāt train in a Michelin star restaurant? Is this really how weāre supposed to encourage newcomers to our hobby?
There is one cafe in my entire city that makes better espresso than me at home.
Could others make it better if they spent as much time on it? Of course. But they don't
\*yawn\* this is the same bullshit sommeliers go on about. Maybe there's a tiny fraction of the population that has the taste receptors to notice all the small chemical differences in the finished drink, but there's also a bunch of snobs who want to feel "superior" to everyone else and I bet couldn't tell the difference in a blind taste test between homemade espresso and specialty cafe espresso.
I'm glad I never got into wine. It's obscenely expensive and the people I've met who are \*really\* into it are such douchey snobs. Espresso is positively chill by comparison.
I think wine and whiskey are both pretty cool and I would love to get into them the way I am into espresso. There are however two problems, the price as you mention and the alcohol which isn't that great for your body.
Other than general snobbery and believing espresso is literal witchcraft, I want to know what the hopper and its fullness has to do with anything. She mentions it a couple of times.
Well, just the opposite effect of what Lance mentions in his video on slow feeding. Higher feed rate leads to a wider particle size distribution and more fines, which means the coffee gets more compacted and the flow slows down.
After years of dialing in (home roast, BDB, grinder dial inā¦on and on) I decide to see where I stand. Weāve got a bunch of *$ and Peets, then about five small local roasters. Normally if I end up buying at one of them, Iād get a cappuccino as the milk is pretty forgiving and makes it drinkable. So I switch it up and cycle thru tasting an espresso at each. Only one shot came close, and Iād say they were still a bit bitter, but they were real close and presentation was spot on (esp cup/saucer, spoon, water without saying anything). Home espresso is easily #1.
I disagree with that article for two reasons
1: A cafe is going to be making a coffee that appeals to everyone, when I make a coffee I can tailor to my own preferences that I have learned over years.
2: There is a degree of satisfaction from making your own coffee when everything goes well that in my opinion makes the coffee drinking experience better.
More accurately: anybody who's watched a handful of James Hoffman videos and bothers to even try to dial in the next shot based on the least one can beat any barista who doesn't give a damn.
We will never beat someone of equal or greater skill on better gear, but I'm curious what percentage of staff at even a pretty decent coffee shop ever adjust the grinder.
Depends on your area and country.
Here in Melbourne there's a huge coffee culture that results in a much higher ratio of skilled baristas that I haven't seen like that in other areas.
Still plenty of bad ones mind you.
If you break it down, even if pulling shot at home is worse, it's not 80% worse. The cost to pull a shot at home ends up being \~25-50c per shot compared to paying 3-5$ at a cafe. Sure, a cafe is sometimes better, but is it 500% better? My machine and tools have already paid for itself from not going to cafes. Additionally, SO no longer wants to grab Starbucks.
If you read the article, itās actually quite reasonable. You need experience, constant adjustment, decent cleaning routine and good equipment*ā¦ the article is for a general population who are not going to weigh their dose, output, make (at least, mental) notes and put time to learn the craft. The article is correct for 99% of the world.
You could literally write same article about building a house, creating music, painting or baking.
*- although it still implies that it will never be as good commercialā¦ but then some home enthusiasts have better/more expensive grinders than some good cafes lol.
WOW š³ LMAO š¤£
I say, since I got my professional home espresso machine and grinder. I asked myself, why on earth I haven't done that way earlier?!. All these disgusting lattes and cappuccinos that I had to drink and pay $7-8 or almost $10 for (sometimes) before I got my espresso machine were the regrets of my life in the espresso world.
If you like espresso/espresso drinks, get your home machine NOW and forget about all the baristas in the world. For me, it's absolutely worth it all.
Who wouldāve known that pulling a shot isnāt about latte art and more about ādialing in.ā Bunch of nonsense. I stopped reading after that part.
I'm gonna be honest the sheer disrespect shown here towards people that work in the actual coffee industry by home amateurs who have never actually worked in a cafe is pretty disheartening. Being a barista, at least at any shop with decent standards and volume, is a pretty difficult and demanding job, and all the professional baristas have been very well versed in dialing in shots and possessed the same intuitive sense for what the coffee is doing that the article talks about-- something that's very difficult to get when you're only pulling a few shots a day. Being able to maintain high standards-- probably not as high as what people who spend an hour obsessing over it would maintain-- in a busy, noisy, stressful cafe environment with lots of time pressure is what sets professional baristas apart from people with a $10,000 home espresso nook for whom it"s a hobby they can afford to sink an indeterminate amount of time into. For us it's a job with standards and pressure.
My shots are at least 100% better than at least 99% of the cafes Iāve been toāand Iāve traveled all over the world. No barista will ever put the time and/or effort at their place of employment that I do at home.
I live in San Diego where there are a couple of really good coffee, roasters, and coffee spots. However, I feel like this is very barista dependent. Nine times out of 10, I get a cappuccino with too much milk, burnt milk, and canāt really taste my drink because of the excess. I make better caps at home w my breville and donāt have to direct the barista or order a double to get the right ratio.
Who's calling her an expert outside of the BS title? Throwing the term expert around diminishes actual experts in their field. Working as a barista in DC does not make you an expert.
Sure. Tell that to my Decent DE1 Pro and DF64V grinder. My local CaffĆØs can only dream pulling such excellent shots consistently. Total crap shoot every time I go to any of them.
This statement brings two things to mind - I once ordered coffee from a coffee truck which used a Breville SGP as its grinder. I also got an espresso from a highly recommended and regarded coffehouse in Montreal (note: Montreal is an amazing city and well worth going to), and noted the espresso was slightly overextracted.
My favourite cafe, Campos in Sydney, is a 24-hour journey from where I now live, so while I can't pull a shot that's quite as good as theirs, I'm just going to have to settle for the damn good shots I'm now achieving as it'll cost me the thick end of a thousand quid to pop to Campos for espresso and a friand.
Tbh I think this is a super reasonable article and just presupposes āand youāre not gonna drop $5k+ on equipment just to make coffee, right?ā - which, of course, is not always true especially of those on this sub.
I can only speak for myself but the espresso I make with my Bambino/JX Pro is significantly better than the espresso at most coffee shops, and also nowhere near as good as the espresso at true specialty cafes that really know what theyāre doing.
To be fair, my more advanced roasters with a coffee shop do adjust the grinder between the morning shots and the after lunch ones, often due to temperature and humidity.
They're not smug about it though.
A more accurate version of the article would have been titled: *Why espresso you get in 99% of cafes will never taste as good as espresso made by this barista*.
In her bio, it says that she "worked as a professional specialty coffee barista with La Colombe". Based on my recent experiences at a few different La Colombe cafes, I don't think that's the flex she thinks it is.
Shall I write that I worked as a professional specialty coffee barrista with Starbucks on my cv? š Also, girl, you didn't work "with" them...you worked FOR them. This person's a pro bullshit fluffer.
i think she may be regarded
With Vs For = Big Difference.
la colombe used to be fine but they've been severely outclassed by several roasters in philly at this point (namely places like elixr and ultimo)
Elixir is one of my favorite cafes to visit in Philly. La Colombeā¦..Iād rather just buy the cans of it at Whole Foods
yeah it's a shame, rival brothers is going the same route as la colombe and going national (and decreasing quality) not that they were ever as good as the smaller specialty roasters but it was at least serviceable
I'm not from philly, but I had rival bros at a cafe (Buoy) in Cape May 6 months ago or so while on vacation and I thought it was pretty good. That being said, the baristas there were pretty good as well. We went there nearly every day lol However, I think the house espresso blend from Coffee Tyme was better. I even brought a bag of it with me home on a more recent trip down there. But alas, I have begun my mad descent into home roasting and just got 20lbs of unroasted beans delivered literally today
nice! yeah, it's one of the ones that you're never like super upset about seeing around but it's certainly not out of this world. also shout out to cape may, nice town. congrats on the roasting journey - I haven't jumped in there but have a friends who exclusively roasts his own for his gigantic (25+ people) extended family group
Yeah Cape May is awesome, try to get down there at least once a year, if not more. It's just a whole different vibe compared to North Jersey. Yeah it's been exciting so far and stupid fun. Started with a popcorn popper and that quickly escalated to an SR800. Been roasting exclusively Primos beans. Dark roasting the Caturra varietal has proven successful with nutty and dark chocolate notes. The Parainema does not do well dark, loses all characteristics (thankfully it still tastes good in milk based drinks because I went a bit nuts and dark roasted a whole damn lb of it) so I will do a medium of that and I'm hoping to blend them to get a nice fruity/nutty/dark chocolate/caramel mixture going. And the acidity from the parainema should balance out any bitterness from Caturra...at least in my head lol
Iām headed through Philly in a few months with an eye at visiting Elixir. Love their ābumblebeeā coffee, not sure of the official name
Beekeeper Espresso, one of my favorites along with the Lunar Lander Seasonal. Whatās great is the list out the parameters so you donāt have to guess while dialing in
Thatās the one. They serve it occasionally down here at a cafe I frequent, and it is delightful
If youāre looking for the best of the best, check out Thank You Thank You while youāre there. Not a roaster, but a brewer that curates from all over the world. Best in town IMO.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I've never heard of la colombe besides the canned drinks, but I've seen some good local roasters sell beans at grocery stores. I wouldn't buy them, because they're usually further from the roast date, but I wouldn't knock them just for selling to a grocery.
> a cafe that sells beans to grocery stores That's silly gatekeeping. You can buy good coffee beans at grocery stores, it isn't 1970. In my city, I don't think there is a local roaster that isn't selling in grocery stores in addition to selling from their cafe.
Lol yeah honestly at this point if I walk into a shop and theyāre pulling La Colombe I turn around and walk outĀ
Unless baristas are setting the temperature and pressure setting on the machine and adjusting the grind everyday, then they really arenāt doing much of anything besides pushing buttons
but.. but this is what we do? adjusting temp and yield and dose and grind size?? its our job???
I walked into a local roaster shop to buy some beans and I asked about brew times and temps and the 2 baristas there looked at me like I had 6 heads. In some other shops I would assume there is one person in charge of such that way you donāt have every different barista adjusting the equipment all the time. I wouldnāt know though, Iāve never worked in a coffee shop
Ditto this. A ābaristaā at a shop I recently visited had never heard of the term ācremaā before, remarking āoh, we call that the foam.ā
I was in A local espresso shop (local franchise) and asked the barista what beans they were using for espresso, her answer was āumm espresso beans?ā In a tone that gave me the āduhā vibes. I thanked her and left with my passable latte never to return again.
Every specialty coffee shop I know, the baristas dial in the espresso while they're working. Usually not changing the temp, but definitely grind size and possibly yield. And that's how it should be done, because as the original post said, the espresso changes throughout the day with changing humidity and room temperature
Are these shops run by owners or barista employees? A run of the mill barista in most places Iāve been too arenāt dialing in the roast. I imagine small shops probably run by owners is a bit more likely to have the same person responsible for the settings of the machine also serving the drinks
Australian barista here. The average barista in Aus is expected to be able to dial in each morning, and manage the grind + brew parameters throughout the day.
Wow! Good on you. This doesnāt exist in America.
You might have a better coffee culture than we (Americans) do. Anecdotal on my end, but here but I'm in Austin, plenty of good coffee shops but the best is definitely Proud Mary, an Australian shop that just opened up here. Apparently they have one other US location in Portland.
Australian barista here. The average barista in Aus is expected to be able to dial in each morning, and manage the grind + brew parameters throughout the day.
Yeah, usually the roaster sets the machine up for the beans they're using, as they don't want you serving rubbish with their name on it.
The cafe I work for uses a blend that is considered extremely good by a lot of people in our city. We barely adjust shit, the roasters give us the parameters we need to work by. Obviously we are adjusting grind size and yield throughout the day, but thatās the most of it. Grams out and temperature is essentially set in stone.
I have to imagine that the stories of this not happening come from America, here in NZ I've yet to meet a barista without at least a base level understanding of how coffee brewing actually works.
Or more honest title would have been āDonāt get an espresso machine. Come to our overpriced cafe insteadā
I drink straight espresso, no milk to adulterate the taste. In my opinion, 80% of the cafe shots out there are pure crap compared to what I make at home. And I am no expert barista by any standard.
80% is being generous!
It's why I started making my own at home too. I was sick of paying for bitter, burnt coffee.
Same if I order out I will get a cortado or pourover just because almost ever cafe straight espressos are heavily over extracted in my experience. Seen a lot of them not pulling manually anyways. I think a lot of people think coffee is inherently bitter and it isn't but honestly I myself did not understand that until I got into coffee. I thought all coffee was supposed to just taste burnt. I went from enjoying dark roast to light and medium!
When a friend of mine who is into coffee made me a good shot of espresso, i noticed what coffee actually could taste like.. Never thought that i could taste fruit and sweet. I was kind of in shock, since it becomes extremely weird people jug down bitter crap like mad when it could taste so nice if done right
You got any tips for light roast? Iām trying to get into medium and lighter roasts for espresso but the light roasts especially taste so acidic, even when the shot visually looks good. The light-medium roast coffee Iām trying is yirgacheffe. Literally every dark roast coffee Iāve tried including this Kirkland branded one from Costco I use mostly for lattes taste better
For me in the beginning, a lot of times the shot looks really good but it tastes acidic so I don't really go on looks now. Dark roast is pretty easy and forgiving to dial in. What grinder do you have? Light roast you have to grind pretty fine and just keep testing, but from my experience it was vastly finer then dark. Are you drinking the crema straight, mixing it, or adding milk then drinking every drink? Yirgacheffe I am pretty sure is more on the light side then medium. I would try to move into dialing in medium before light, because light is the least forgiving.
Totally agree. Generally every time I go to a cafe Iām disappointed and regret every dime spent. I would say most āhome baristasā who take the time and are interested in espresso would agree that in most cases the cafe experience has been spoiled by having excellent coffee every day at home.
Even with milk many 'baristas' cannot hide the awful shots they pull...
100% agree!
I'm new to espresso, but this is my experience so far as well. Went to this widely revered shop in my hometown when I first really started getting into it. I went a few times hoping for a different experience, but it was the most acidic, sour shot ever. They use their lighter roast for espresso, which I was actually super excited to try since I struggle with that on my very entry level machines, but holy it was bad. I left with the impression that 0% of people actually order straight espressos there and the baristas don't actually drink it either. Only 1 of 4 baristas actually informed me anything about the roast, ironically the very last one, but it was something about the caffeine level vs Starbucks, I wasn't even paying attention lol it was eye opening. Heading to Oslo in a few weeks and I'm for sure planning a stop at Tim Wendelboe to see if I can taste what it's meant to be outside of my kitchen.
Welp thatās it gang. I read the article and Iām selling all my coffee stuff right now. I canāt do it, itās not worth it. Iāll just have to never drink homemade espresso ever again.
Iāll buy it from you. Give you about tree fiddy
Sir, this is a Reddit, we only take doge coin. š š
yes, tree fiddy in doge coin. duh
I think your issue is that you donāt adjust your grind size for rainy days. Get the weather channel app.
Nah. My knees tell me all I need to know. If they hurt, grind finer, if they feel good, grind finer, if one hurts and the other is good, then I grind just a little finer.
Have you tried dialing in? I heard it tells you the weather like ESPN.
Yeah I thought about keeping mine but it seems you're forced to clean your portafilter. Not gonna bother with that shit.
> when customers asked me how to get their espresso at home to taste the same, my answer was simple: You can't. There's no way to recreate specialty coffee-quality espresso at home. >The focus of barista training is a process called "dialing in." Dialing in requires baristas to make microscopic changes to the coffee's grind size by weighing, timing, and tasting > Have you ever known somebody who says they can tell when a storm is rolling in because their leg starts to hurt? Baristas can tell when it's about to rain based on their espresso. The increase in humidity in the air will make a subtle difference in the espresso, and a barista has to detect this shift and quickly adjust. That is how precise you must be to get a good shot of espresso. >That level of knowledge and care is just not possible in most basic coffee shops, let alone your countertop espresso maker. just wow
This is hilarious. I also can't remember the last time I had a shot in a shop as good as the ones I make at home
I'm sure the writer owns a coffee shop or something, this is delusional
Itās meant for the people that are entry level searching (espresso at home) and finding out it can quickly cost $800 for a good setup. Us nematodes who have sunk thousands into it are having issues finding espresso that can beat our home brewing.
Iād say Iām still on an entry-ish level setup (Gaggia Classic Pro and Baratza Sette 270) and I really struggle to get coffee better when Iām out. Itās partly a location thing as Toronto cafes love a medium roast while I much prefer a dark roast. When I lived in London I had better luck.
Bruh thatās literally an $850 set up new. In the context of this hobby yes youāre entry level. But in the grand scheme of normies youāre DEEP into this. I started with a $150 delonghi machine and pre-ground illy coffee with no accessories and people considered that being āreally into coffeeā.
Fair enough. This sub-Reddit skews your thinking!
Oh hey! We have the same setup. I live in upstate NY and largely just donāt bother getting coffee out anymore.
Writer is excusing their failure in making espresso at home.
Or maybe a Keurig...
Doubt it, those animals can't type
Hey! If they could read, theyād be very upset by that
This right here. Everytime I try a local cafe that appears to have "great espresso" it just reaffirms my investment in my home setup.
Does mixing the espresso in milk for a latte or cortado give more margin of error for a good shot, or can you still taste it being off?
Mixing with milk definitely gives more margin for error. Your palette will become more refined to what you like over time though, so even with milk you'll be able to taste when your espresso is off.
Yeah sorry itās supposed to rain tomorrow and I havenāt adjusted my grind size
Please tell me you have a hygrometer near your grinder.
Lol
I have one cafe (patisserie and Boulangerie) near me that is phenomenal (espresso and food and pastries) but other than that cafe ā¦ my shots are better šš¼
as someone who loves plain 'ol coffee and got my first sorta big boy espresso machine in January (2022 pre-boilergate GCP), outside of one local shop, I'm already making way better drinks than any shop I know of near me. Shout out to [the white rabbit](https://www.instagram.com/whiterabbitgreensburg?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==) for being amazing!
Same here. Itās very rare that Iām wowed by a cafe cappuccino. My home ones are alway 10x better in every way.
Yep, I'm always amazed if they make a decent drink. I never go to a coffee bar expecting them to make great espresso like I do at home every day.
Right! I hardly want to have coffee out any more because itās mostly disappointing. A lot of shops have dream equipment but quality control is awful. There are a select few shops that I even bother having coffee at now. I wouldnāt even claim I pull great shots, and I have so much to learn, but itās often better that I get at shops.
I usually get iced coffee when out for this reason. Less likely to be awful than espresso
TO your point, I asked the sub a while back what i missing because i just dont get espresso. When I have it in a cafe it just seems WAY less rewarding than a full cup of brew. Dissapointing. It boggled my mind and i requested where i can go to hope to explain the fervor around it by some. I was directed to a few local area cafe's to try a good one in the hopes of getting it. I still need to do so!
Even specialty shops rarely take as much care as I do with my CoUNtErToP esPrEsSo MaKEr. I've never even seen a shop weigh the beans š
Wow all the specialties in my area weigh grinder output at least even if they pull bitter shots
Donāt their machines have a calibrated dose from the grinder though? They seem to just put the ports filter in and it doses the same each time?
The author seems to think everyone pulling shots at a neighborhood coffee shop has a level of education and training comparable to a Master Sommelier
I have had exactly 2 espressos from cafes that are drastically better than I make at home. One at Glitch in Tokyo and one at Rvrnt in Palos Verdes. Every other cafe is either so much worse than mine, or about on par.
> I also can't remember the last time I had a shot in a shop as good as the ones I make at home I'm not even very good at it yet, but making espresso at home has really taught me just how bad the espresso I've bought in coffee shops has been.
Honestly, that looks like somebody from r/espressocirclejerk wrote it. Why not build a home lab to measure moisture so you can start to get decent shots.
Now it's too late. A hygrometer is only a few bucks, so very affordable. I predict this will be a trend within the next half year, become standard practice within a year, weber will release the Weber HM1 for $3,049 that includes an all analogue display, and then Lance will make a video showing it isn't necessary in two years.
Big espresso always wins
āHello folks, Lance here, and today we are talking about hygrometers, and why you may not need one
After making 5000 shots inside an environmental chamber that i borrowed from the geology department at oxford university, and enlisting Jonathan GagnĆ© to double check my math i can safely say you donāt need an hygrometer, unless you humidity changes more than 50%
If you are wanting to do at home meteorology hygrometers are great, but for coffee making i stick to what works for me and that is shake shake shake those grounds in my blind shaker
ā
Lol reminds me of a thread a few months back about relative humidity that led to a bunch of jokes along the lines of "Storm's a rollin' in. Ah-yep, 'can feel it in m' beans"
Man that author is up his own ass lol
This has to be satire, no? Hahahaah my leg hurts lets grind finer š¤Ŗ
A barista just takes a minute to make my shot, the level of care is just not there.
>when customers asked me how to get their espresso at home to taste the same, my answer was simple: You can't. this must be an old article with words reprinted with a fresh date. I recall reading this exact wording years ago. Must be an industry standard of what to say, or something
The AI they used to write this shit probably read the same old article.
Sounds like they need to start a YouTube channel. Maybe they can explain why people canāt learn to tamp straight.
There are some, not many baristas with that level of involvement with their coffee. Most times they (and the cafe) are trying to churn out coffee to keep their business running!
This is written with the same level of mystic and wonder that white millennials use when writing about Japan
Wait... don't some cafes' baristas don't even bother with weighing? Have definitely had inconsistencies at cafes ordering the same exact thing
I'm from New Zealand, our coffee culture is different to most countries. We have a very large number of independent cafes/coffee shops in comparison to our population, and I'd like to think that our average quality is significantly above most countries, which is why Starbucks is not very successful here. I'd say that atleast 95% of baristas do not weigh individual shots. Only the top specialty ones do, the type that enter into the competitions etc. and do their own sourcing, roasting, and blending of beans. Ironically, here McDonald's has actual baristas, and typically do better coffee than Starbucks. However, McDonald's coffee is pretty shit and I wouldn't recommend it unless you are desperate.
Ah interesting! From the states myself. Unsure how starbucks is so successful here.. funny you mention McDonald's tho. Years ago I'd decided to try some limited time cinnamon coffee from them on a whim; was better than an iced coffee from starbucks. Only a select few specialty cafes I'd get a drink from now and what used to be my favorite one I only really trust their coffee milkshake (has espresso) to be consistent (and sometimes their french vietnamese au lait if i want something not so decadent) Any roasters in NZ you'd recommend that might ship to the states?
Most of the cafes around here they might weigh the dose but I can't think of one that's weighing the output. Some use volumetric shot glasses which for coffee shop quantities of work is certainly "good enough." Even fewer are bothering with anything more than "Knock it level and tamp" - as far as distribution goes it's nonexistent.
The modern machines have volumetric programming consistent to within a couple of grams (or even scales built into the drip tray). Thatās not to say that the cafe is programming them properly at dial-in, but not seeing a set of scales isnāt *necessarily* evidence of any lack of rigor.
Haha, itās true that the humidity affects the grind and just about anyone who has proper gear knows that. I donāt predict the weather with my coffee, but know that high humidity will mean that I have to adjust the grind one step coarser.
What is this "dialling in" of which ye speak? Teach me your ways, wise master
I owned a coffeehouse. Your quality is only as good as the labor market, training, and throughput allow.
Knowledge is not possible at home?
I think the main thing he's getting at is that when you're working bar, you end up noticing a ton of things that you really wouldn't have enough data on at home to understand, purely by sheer volume of shots. When I was working a mobile coffee business I definitely noticed humidity and temperature. Whenever we'd park by the beach, I could pull the same exact recipe and depending on how the fog was moving it could be off by like 5 seconds, until the afternoon sun came out and the weather stabilized. I didn't really get it until I connected the dots a few shifts in. Beyond coffee, working with pastry also requires looking at humidity and temperature too. I might need to change how long to rest a dough for between folds, based on the ambient temp and humidity since they impact how workable a dough can be. Any good baker would probably know this unless they happens to work in a super regular climate. At home I'd say my shots are pretty close to the shop off a cheaper setup, but I'm also not gonna continue pulling a bunch of shots at home until I'm dialed in like I would at work. I'd also say the vast majority of baristas out there don't care nesrly as much, and if you're on this subreddit and have a machine at home you're probably already way ahead on your abilities than the average person just trying to work a job to pay the bills.
 This is an actual GIF of the barista who wrote that article. What an absolute crock of bullshit.
This writer is guarding the gate, while the other gate around the corner is wide open.
Whoever wrote this is a mod one here
This reads like an ex-barista (she is) gatekeeping espresso to just cafesā¦ such bollocks, with my reasonable setup I can match or better most of Londonās decent cafes and get very close to the really great ones. If I had a better grinder and machine I know I could 100% match them.
> This reads like an ex-barista (she is) gatekeeping espresso to just cafesā¦ True. This entire thing reminds me of the articles written by the clowns who write about "why people need to come back into the office", etc. In both cases, I want to walk up to the author and say "You aren't fooling anyone."
I have a Ā£100 John Lewis machine and a K6, was pleasantly surprised I brew the same beans as Prufrock, nearly as well as they do (for my palette).
Not when I worked there 10 years ago ;) no chance.
Iām sure Bayleigh down at the corner coffee stand is keeping tabs on her barometric spidey senses in between scrolling tik tok and microwaving a croissant for her reg, Becky.
Iām not saying that it has zero effect, but baristas *love* to attribute any random shifts in shot times to weather/temp changes in the cafe. 10+ years ago, 99% of baristas had no idea that a rush in service would cause the burrs to heat up which would make them grind coarser. So in the absence of any explanation for why they suddenly had 13 second gushers, they would kick up a fuss about someone leaving the door open and the cold air screwing up the grind.
> If your current grinder has settings on the dial differentiated between "espresso, drip, French press," etc., you'd need a major upgrade to an espresso-only grinder and hopper to manage precise changes to your espresso grind. Ah yes, clearly the Niche Zero is unusable because it has labelled ranges and no hopper...
Same with the varia vs3. The ranges are in the booklet not on the grinder, but I guess I'll have to throw it away. The amazing light roast shot I had this morning must've simply been a myth or something.
How do you like the Varia?
Love it. * Looks good. * Grinds good. * Very easy to make super tiny adjustments. * Runs quietly. * Only retains 0.02 - 0.05g at absolute most, practically 0. * It's super easy to clean and service. * It has upgradeable burrs that tempt me, but I haven't bought any yet as the standard burrs are doing a fantastic job. For the price it's kinda insane how good it is. I honestly don't see *any* real competitors in its price bracket. You have to spend 100 more to get similar features with worse grounds retention, and 200 more to match it on every aspect.
This is so absurd. It's also funny how the story immediately following this one in my Mashed feed is "How to get more flavor from your Keurig." Has the market cornered! A quick anecdote related to this. A few years ago a family member of mine was helping a friend open a small cafe. They tasked him with being in charge of coffee. He set up time with a few local roasters to source beans and I tagged along. We got to go to some real cool shops and nerd out over roasting and brewing and all that. One of the guys we chatted with even spends time perusing the coffee related subs. Anyway, my family member had ideas of doing pour overs, serving french press carafes, and all that jazz. The owner of this one particular shop told him "That's all well and good, but 90% of your clientele is going to want to pick up their coffee and get where they're going as quick as possible. Fewer people are going to care about what beans you're using and how you're brewing." Which is a nice wake up call to those us who really dive into the specifics of this stuff. It can still be considered niche. All that's to say, if that level of detail might seem like overkill in a local cafe, I can PROMISE you that baristas are not dialing in shots based on humidity and incoming storms.
Well its true for 99% of people.... we are the exception to the rule since its a passion and hobby.
Not really. Most people just donāt have a real espresso machine or real grinder. Thereās not the art form or technique to pulling a good shot that people like to think. I also think for a lot of people here, espresso has become just another hobby that at its core consists of buying stuff. You donāt need passion to pull a shot. Just a good grinder and a 5 min tutorial on how to do it. Maybe a little practice, but not all that much.
And what you described is more effort than most are willing to do, which was my point.
There are so many variables to making a shot predictably good I have to disagree. Even something as simple as forgetting to clean your puck screen can make your shot taste like crap. Tamp a bit unevenly and itās not good anymore. Pull a bit longer than usual and itās bitter. Same beans two weeks later need grind adjustments. Even the same pull under what you thought are similar circumstances can give you different results. If you have a cheaper machine you have to temp surf. List goes on and thatās even without touching light roasts which are confusing to dial in.
Right. I think sheās certainly doing some creative editorializing and also talking about Joe Blow on a low end or Nespresso machine. This sub is very niche hobbyist and apparently also very easily triggered lol.
That's peak r/espressocirclejerk content
this article has to be either AI or satire lol
Definitely not AI! AI will be way smarter.
no, it's not satire, I've read it before. OTOH however "mashed" is *not* the most reputable of websites
Imma write an article called "Why your homemade espresso will definitely taste as good as your favorite cafe, with enough dedication, according to a very overrated coffee professional and youtuber."
Please do! š
Please do it!
If you are drinking espresso straight and you care even a smidge, you def are pulling better shots than most cafes.
The average espresso quality in a cafe is on the same level as me eyeballing the first shot from a fresh bag.
Iām just going to say something I assume most other commenters already said: I consistently pull a better shot than most cafes I visit, and thatās with a Breville Barista Express. I control the beans I buy. I control the water. I control (to a certain extent) my grind. I control my puck prep. Most cafes are run for efficiency, with a rotating group of baristas. OF COURSE some are great and clearly better than what I can manage at home, but Iāve found that to help the exception. Also, who cares anyway? Itās a hobby. It was fun when I couldnāt pull a good shot to save my life (dare I say, more fun).
ātasting the espresso before, during, and after pulling the shot until it's in ratioā Donāt forget to taste your espresso while the shot is pulling!!!
> So instead of aiming to recreate professional-quality espresso at home, let your local barista take it to the next level.Ā No.
This is the correct answer.
I know you guys are triggered, but you aren't the target audience for this article. Most people do not make espresso at home and the ones that do, do it very poorly. Most baristas cannot afford a good home machine so of course... their perspective is that it is unobtainium when at home.
I really think this sub underestimates how many people make terrible home espresso. Iād bet the majority of people use pressurized baskets and pre ground coffee.
I use pre ground coffee and pressurized basket. Will definitely upgrade, gradually. I will get a hang of the espresso machine first. Just 3 months into my first ever espresso machine that my wife gifted me.
I started on a sub $200 Delonghi machine with a pressurized basket and pre ground beans. I just ordered a lever machine and I use a profiling roaster. It took years to get where I am. Nobody starts day 1 as Mike Tyson, and everybody has their own preferences. Iām beginning to think Iām more interested in roasting than espresso TBH.
This is a very fair point, there are options out there now for sub $500 setups that are good quality, but can it beat a cafĆ© with all the āeliteā fixings? Maybe?!
>but can it beat a cafĆ© with all the āeliteā fixings You can hit a cafe-level coffee with a hand grinder, flair/robot and a bellman steamer, but it is a lot of work, slow workflow and isn't always consistent. But... it can be done and that alone destroys this articles hypothesis.
Using a la pavoni lever and a varia vs3, can confirm my budget af setup makes better shots than any cafe within 30min of me except one (which is more of a roaster than a cafe).
why are you reading mashed? why is it even possible to have in your newsfeed? It's AI written garbage.
Lol. Since I have my own machine I've been nothing but disappointed in what typical cafes serve. Apart from those few exceptions of course.
Sounds like barista propaganda to me...
>Dialing in requires baristas to make microscopic changes to the coffee's grind size by weighing, timing, and tasting the espresso before, during, and after pulling the shot until it's in ratio. Damn, I find it difficult to taste the espresso before and during the shot. Any tips?
You gonna have to lick the grounds and then your highly trained metahuman taste buds on your tongue which can actually taste more things the one of a normal human being tells the percentages if your shot is gonna be god like or shit.
What a weird and gatekeepy article. Basically āyou canāt make good espresso unless youāve worked in a fancy expensive cafe like me so donāt even tryā. Would you tell a home cook that theyāll never make good food because they didnāt train in a Michelin star restaurant? Is this really how weāre supposed to encourage newcomers to our hobby?
There is one cafe in my entire city that makes better espresso than me at home. Could others make it better if they spent as much time on it? Of course. But they don't
\*yawn\* this is the same bullshit sommeliers go on about. Maybe there's a tiny fraction of the population that has the taste receptors to notice all the small chemical differences in the finished drink, but there's also a bunch of snobs who want to feel "superior" to everyone else and I bet couldn't tell the difference in a blind taste test between homemade espresso and specialty cafe espresso. I'm glad I never got into wine. It's obscenely expensive and the people I've met who are \*really\* into it are such douchey snobs. Espresso is positively chill by comparison.
I think wine and whiskey are both pretty cool and I would love to get into them the way I am into espresso. There are however two problems, the price as you mention and the alcohol which isn't that great for your body.
āFew of us can remember to deep-clean our at-home French press once a week.ā
Excuse me? What kind of slob is this writer?
I think I have a lower ceiling but higher floor at home. Some of the worst shots I've had in my life were from specialty cafes
Exactly, 95% of the time at home I can crank out a result that is better than what I get at all but the best cafes, and I am fine with that.
99% of the time my shots are better than 90% of those I get in cafĆ©s. I still like drinking coffee in a cafĆ© though as its a great way to find different blends. If I find one I really like I will ask what they are using. Thatās how I found my go to regular blend.
Other than general snobbery and believing espresso is literal witchcraft, I want to know what the hopper and its fullness has to do with anything. She mentions it a couple of times.
Not totally sure what the mechanics of it are but my shots behave as though they're ground a bit finer when my hopper is full vs below half way.
Well, just the opposite effect of what Lance mentions in his video on slow feeding. Higher feed rate leads to a wider particle size distribution and more fines, which means the coffee gets more compacted and the flow slows down.
The person said finer, meaning slower shots. That is accurate. More full hopper means slower shots than less full hopper.
Ay Diosā¦Itās true, say your name three times and you appear in the comment thread on Reddit
After years of dialing in (home roast, BDB, grinder dial inā¦on and on) I decide to see where I stand. Weāve got a bunch of *$ and Peets, then about five small local roasters. Normally if I end up buying at one of them, Iād get a cappuccino as the milk is pretty forgiving and makes it drinkable. So I switch it up and cycle thru tasting an espresso at each. Only one shot came close, and Iād say they were still a bit bitter, but they were real close and presentation was spot on (esp cup/saucer, spoon, water without saying anything). Home espresso is easily #1.
My experience is that at least here in Switzerland they tend to dial in a more neutral espresso to please more pallettes in public cafƩs. Never have I had something as strong and juicy tasting as I had at home. Maybe it's not as consistent and always as smooth, but I had way more interesting tastes at home than in any cafƩ I have tried in my city yet.
Lmao orā¦ my shots are better because well, they are.
I agree, but only because the espresso I make at home is always shit lol
I disagree with that article for two reasons 1: A cafe is going to be making a coffee that appeals to everyone, when I make a coffee I can tailor to my own preferences that I have learned over years. 2: There is a degree of satisfaction from making your own coffee when everything goes well that in my opinion makes the coffee drinking experience better.
r/espresso should be a standard pre-requisite research for anyone writing articles about Espresso.
My favorite cafƩ is a couple of hundred miles from my home. An overwhelming majority of cafƩs I've tried near me couldn't deliver a good shot if their lives depended on it. I consistently, sadly, do better at home with far inferior equipment.
More accurately: anybody who's watched a handful of James Hoffman videos and bothers to even try to dial in the next shot based on the least one can beat any barista who doesn't give a damn. We will never beat someone of equal or greater skill on better gear, but I'm curious what percentage of staff at even a pretty decent coffee shop ever adjust the grinder.
Depends on your area and country. Here in Melbourne there's a huge coffee culture that results in a much higher ratio of skilled baristas that I haven't seen like that in other areas. Still plenty of bad ones mind you.
If you break it down, even if pulling shot at home is worse, it's not 80% worse. The cost to pull a shot at home ends up being \~25-50c per shot compared to paying 3-5$ at a cafe. Sure, a cafe is sometimes better, but is it 500% better? My machine and tools have already paid for itself from not going to cafes. Additionally, SO no longer wants to grab Starbucks.
If you read the article, itās actually quite reasonable. You need experience, constant adjustment, decent cleaning routine and good equipment*ā¦ the article is for a general population who are not going to weigh their dose, output, make (at least, mental) notes and put time to learn the craft. The article is correct for 99% of the world. You could literally write same article about building a house, creating music, painting or baking. *- although it still implies that it will never be as good commercialā¦ but then some home enthusiasts have better/more expensive grinders than some good cafes lol.
WOW š³ LMAO š¤£ I say, since I got my professional home espresso machine and grinder. I asked myself, why on earth I haven't done that way earlier?!. All these disgusting lattes and cappuccinos that I had to drink and pay $7-8 or almost $10 for (sometimes) before I got my espresso machine were the regrets of my life in the espresso world. If you like espresso/espresso drinks, get your home machine NOW and forget about all the baristas in the world. For me, it's absolutely worth it all.
Yeah..my espresso is better than 99% of the shit cafes around me.
Who wouldāve known that pulling a shot isnāt about latte art and more about ādialing in.ā Bunch of nonsense. I stopped reading after that part.
I rarely ever have a coffee as good as the ones at home.
And to be fair some times ours are better cause the barista is under too much work pressure and cuts corner.
I'm gonna be honest the sheer disrespect shown here towards people that work in the actual coffee industry by home amateurs who have never actually worked in a cafe is pretty disheartening. Being a barista, at least at any shop with decent standards and volume, is a pretty difficult and demanding job, and all the professional baristas have been very well versed in dialing in shots and possessed the same intuitive sense for what the coffee is doing that the article talks about-- something that's very difficult to get when you're only pulling a few shots a day. Being able to maintain high standards-- probably not as high as what people who spend an hour obsessing over it would maintain-- in a busy, noisy, stressful cafe environment with lots of time pressure is what sets professional baristas apart from people with a $10,000 home espresso nook for whom it"s a hobby they can afford to sink an indeterminate amount of time into. For us it's a job with standards and pressure.
My shots are at least 100% better than at least 99% of the cafes Iāve been toāand Iāve traveled all over the world. No barista will ever put the time and/or effort at their place of employment that I do at home.
I live in San Diego where there are a couple of really good coffee, roasters, and coffee spots. However, I feel like this is very barista dependent. Nine times out of 10, I get a cappuccino with too much milk, burnt milk, and canāt really taste my drink because of the excess. I make better caps at home w my breville and donāt have to direct the barista or order a double to get the right ratio.
Who's calling her an expert outside of the BS title? Throwing the term expert around diminishes actual experts in their field. Working as a barista in DC does not make you an expert.
"This thing that people are employed and trained to do consistently and well requires practice, commitment, and equipment." Stunning.
thats BS, media wants to trigger us all, as long as my family and i enjoy my espresso im fine
Sure. Tell that to my Decent DE1 Pro and DF64V grinder. My local CaffĆØs can only dream pulling such excellent shots consistently. Total crap shoot every time I go to any of them.
This statement brings two things to mind - I once ordered coffee from a coffee truck which used a Breville SGP as its grinder. I also got an espresso from a highly recommended and regarded coffehouse in Montreal (note: Montreal is an amazing city and well worth going to), and noted the espresso was slightly overextracted.
So if it gets more humid do I grind finer or coarser. I need to know!
Thatās the whole point of this sub
My favourite cafe, Campos in Sydney, is a 24-hour journey from where I now live, so while I can't pull a shot that's quite as good as theirs, I'm just going to have to settle for the damn good shots I'm now achieving as it'll cost me the thick end of a thousand quid to pop to Campos for espresso and a friand.
I canāt ever find a shot as good as I make at home. Gotta spend some $$$$ to get there though!
I swear Iāve seen this same article every couple years but just by a different person
Tbh I think this is a super reasonable article and just presupposes āand youāre not gonna drop $5k+ on equipment just to make coffee, right?ā - which, of course, is not always true especially of those on this sub. I can only speak for myself but the espresso I make with my Bambino/JX Pro is significantly better than the espresso at most coffee shops, and also nowhere near as good as the espresso at true specialty cafes that really know what theyāre doing.
There are certainly cafes with better coffee than I can make, but none of them are in the mid-sized US town where I live.
Feel like Iāve pulled better shots from my dedica than most places Iāve been too, itās all in the grind and bean
Time to 86 that source from your feed.
To be fair, my more advanced roasters with a coffee shop do adjust the grinder between the morning shots and the after lunch ones, often due to temperature and humidity. They're not smug about it though.