• coffeegeek.com has about 7730 references to home-barista.com
• espressobar.dk has 739 references
• kaffee-netz.de has 720 references
• riktigtkaffe.se has 221 references
• coffeesnobs.com.au has 176 references
• toomuchcoffee.com has 125 references

Some people make their coffee at home. Others buy theirs on the go. My dad builds his -- from the grounds up. He has several grinders and at least five mechanisms for five different brewing methods. He's part of a subculture fixated on creating the perfect cup of coffee. To find a simpler way there, I spoke with the executive director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, Ric Rhinehart.

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Find a local coffee house that roasts its own beans. Ask what is seasonally fresh, as well as what is fresh from the roaster. Coffee is a perishable product that is less than spectacular when it has staled. To order coffee on-line, there are great reviews of coffee (and cafes) on coffeegeek.com and home-barista.com. If you don't want to research, look for coffee that has some kind of freshness dating and is 100% arabica (the preferred coffee bean species).

Andrew Hetzel wrote:Average independent shops and some chains are doomed to failure before they begin by attempting to establish a business model that is essentially a poor man's facsimile of a fast food giant. You cannot beat the big QSR's at their own mechanized game; you must change the game to do things that they cannot, namely, make a flavorful coffee beverage that is not based on volume, dairy, artificial sweeteners or chemical flavorings. It can and is done in great shops around the world.

John Edgar Park wrote:The variable I chose to attack was the problem of tamping. I'd heard about automated tamping systems, which remove the guesswork of manually pressing grounds into the portafilter with a hand-held tamper, and instead consistently provide 30 pounds of uniform pressure. This is great, but automatic tamping machines cost hundreds of dollars. One clever member of the home-barista.com forums scoffed at the price tag and built his own, using a manual lever juicer as the platform. I decided to give it a try.

Oliver Strand wrote:The very low-tech Twist from Mypressi makes such impressive shots of espresso that it's being taken seriously by some of the most esteemed - and geekiest - figures in coffee.

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I spoke to Abe Carmeli, a judge for the United States Barista Championship and a moderator for Home-Barista.com (where he posted an exhaustive analysis of the Twist — there are videos, some in super-slo-mo). "What I love about this machine is that it takes the complexity and intimidation out of making real espresso," he said. "It does it in a fun way. You're holding it in your hand and pull a trigger and coffee comes out the other side. It's like a game. One of the problems of prosumers [professional-grade machines for the home consumer] is that they take a lot of training: there's descaling and cleaning, and it heats up the house. But this machine produces great espresso, it does it easily, and it does it with a very low learning curve."

(cont'd)

HB wrote:Thanks Ryan, those are good reminders, but I'm looking for new references. Obviously I'm familiar with the HB sponsors.

That said, you do raise another possibility -- aggregate references from noteworthy sources. For example:

• coffeegeek.com has about 7730 references to home-barista.com
• espressobar.dk has 739 references
• kaffee-netz.de has 720 references
• riktigtkaffe.se has 221 references
• coffeesnobs.com.au has 176 references
• toomuchcoffee.com has 125 references

I'll check the site statistics for others and update this post accordingly.

Q. and A.: Espresso at Home wrote:Q. What equipment and training would I need to produce a first-rate shot of espresso at home? If best-practice espresso and coffee bars are using hand-pull systems, is there a good one for home baristas?

A. Making great espresso at home is a bit of a commitment. It requires an investment in good equipment, as well as your dedication to learn how to use it. Home espresso has a tendency to become more of a hobby for those that peruse it as opposed to simply being a way of making coffee. Be prepared to give up a fair amount of real estate in your kitchen and many hours of your time. There is lots of valuable info and links on websites like home-barista.com, coffeegeek.com and Chris' Coffee Service. These are great places to get started. Have fun!

(cont'd)