www.greatinfusions.com: espresso cups and barista gear, showroom in Santa Cruz

Skip to content

Great local espresso ... is home brew better? - Page 2

Postby clynch on Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:04 pm

Thank You! Good stuff. I stand educated. Very glad to read what I did.
Charlie
clynch
 
Posts: 56
Joined: Jun 24, 2011
Location: Florida Pan Handle
Top

Postby malachi on Wed Aug 03, 2011 1:21 pm

clynch wrote:I went into a local great coffee shop (Lucy's). I paid attention to how they made my cappo. Loaded the portafilter about half way. Mashed it in haphazardly with a cheap plastic tamper. Pulled two shots with it, dumped it in a cardboard cup and added the steamed milk. It was delicious! Every youtube video I watch, great care goes into tamping. The edge of the portafilter gets a finger wipe before it gets locked in. I would think if I dropped 1,000+ on a hx or lever machine, tamp with care, used fresh roasted beans, my shots should blow away what you would buy from the local great espresso shop. Would I be correct in that assumption or can I hope to get the same quality as I receive from the great local coffee shop?


1 - sadly in many (most?) cases the "local great" coffee bar is, in fact, far from great. This sounds like one of those cases.

2 - there are combinations of machine, grinder and coffee that are so tolerant that producing drinkable espresso isn't that hard.

3 - there are few home espresso machines that fit into category #2 above.

4 - a primary reason for the spread of the Home Barista culture (imho) is that the "local great" coffee shops in almost all US locales are simply not very good. When in this situation, producing better coffee at home becomes not only achievable but, with the right budget and some patience and dedication, relatively easy.


Note: do not assume that the above is universal. There are many coffees (for example) that are hard on a barista regardless of gear. There are many machines (most affordable home machines in fact) that are limited in terms of coffees that can be used successfully with any ease (and which present challenges for the barista). And perhaps most of all - there are some (few) places in the US where you're unlikely to be able to produce better espresso at home than what you'd get from the best local shop.
"Taste is the only morality." -- John Ruskin
malachi
 
Posts: 2614
Joined: May 05, 2005
Location: sfca
Top
Previous

Return to Buying Advice

ContactContact Us

Legal disclaimer and copyright: This content and all its parts are copyrighted, all rights reserved. Content including all text and images in part or in whole may not be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission. Home-Barista, Home-Barista.com and related logos are trademarks of Home-Barista.com, LLC. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. By accessing this site, you agree to the terms of service.

Overall speed: , current page: s, avg: s, max: s