Well, I was sitting here surfing the forums and had an epiphany: this is the best forum I have been on. Then I said to myself, "What makes it that way?":
(in no particular order)

Minimal side banter: We talk about espresso or espresso accessories 99% of the time. The other 1% are minor sidebars, but are usually one or two posts long and never detract from our love of coffee.

Great Layout: I used to make my living doing really high level internet design for big companies (Home Depot, Delta, et. al.) and the layout of this site is better than every one of those companies web portals (what we worked on). By a long shot. Just like in an espresso machine, I appreciate good design.

Your Got A Question, Someones Got an Answer: And that someone may be the distributor of your machine (Chris) or some of the largest online retailers (OlywaDave, 1st-Line, Paradiseroasters, etc). It is great when you have a fellow owner chime in, but it adds alot of reassurance having a 'pro' say it.

Dan's Amazing Indexing System: If your question has been asked before (or anything that may possibly relate to your question) Dan finds the post and gives you a link so that you end up with more information than you thought you needed.

Sponsors: Not only do all the sponsors care about coffee, they support this site. Maybe it is because I just won some coffee from Counter Culture or because of the great deals at the anniversary, but the sponsors care and give the people here some extras.

Those are reasons off the top of my head, feel free to chime in with why you love HB.

Matt

Hello fellows CoffeeGeeks and Home-Baristas!
I want to Thanks all contributors (forums, How-tos etc.) for opening my eyes the quality of what I can get in my cup.
I've been using my Saeco Classico and Cuisinart Burr Mill for 3 years now and never realize how much I was missing or how average my taste was on espresso drinks.
So after 5 (intensives) weeks on CoffeeGeek, Home-Barista and alt.coffee I bought a UNpressurize PF, "tweak" my grinder and been trainning, now I'm getting "there" !
See my results so far below.

So thanks a lot guys!
Nicolas Fortin

Nice! How does it taste?

Very impressive progress in only 5 weeks!

PS: Nicolas, I took the liberty of merging your post with this "feel the love" thread.

Abe Carmeli wrote:Nice! How does it taste?

Great just great, it seems like better then before , maybe it's just my mind but the texture of the milk give it a different taste for sure! I LOVE it!

nic

HB wrote:Very impressive progress in only 5 weeks!

Yep but did I mention 5 "very intensive" weeks on HB and CG!
Plus I own my machine since more than 3 years now that must help.

HB wrote:PS: Nicolas, I took the liberty of merging your post with this "feel the love" thread.

No problemo!

nic

i love HB !!

mostly because it is faster than the "other" guys site .

the layout. the info.

dan rules.

umm cant think of any other reasons why HB RULES....

oh yeah THE MAZZER!!!
this thing is great.. not only was the contest great and dan and 1st-line were excellent. but then i needed to research this new machine. (BTW, ANYTHING that has DANGER in huge letters on the front of it is cool, especially if it is a coffee grinder) there are heaps and heaps of worthwhile info here. there are heaps and heaps of worthwhile people here.

thanks for the great community keep up the good work Dan and HB!!

i love you.

jon

...my wife told me today that I've spoiled her and she can't drink anyone elses coffee but mine. That comment made my day. Granted, when we get to a good cafe she enjoys their coffee, but since there is not a good cafe within 20 miles that's not too often.

For Christmas I got her (yeah, right) a Rocky and Silvia. While she hasn't used them she has enjoyed the results. I'm the lone espresso nut in the house, but my wife does enjoy cappas, Americanos and Cubans. Due to Home-Barista and CoffeeGeek my ability to make a good espresso has improved dramatically over the last six weeks and I haven't made a sink shot in over two weeks. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone on these forums that shares their passion and knowledge.

Kurt

I just want say thank you to everyone for contributing to this site, and to Dan and others for all the reviews and for creating this site in the first place. It's all quality here. When I first started getting interested in coffee on a serious geek level, I found CG. And I found alt.coffee. And occasionally I'll still browse through those forums/newsgroups as well as others. But all too often threads seem to degrade into petty arguments, and the lack of body language or familiarity with the other person's writing style or personality can lead to words or ideas being misconstrued. Luckily, that doesn't seem to happen much here. So cheers to HB and to HB'ers - lets try to keep it that way.

Justin

A huge thanks to HB, its supporters and contributors for supplying such an extensive yet well arranged site.
Half a year ago, when I took off on my journey to making espresso at home, I didn't have a clue of the unthinkable amount of information on the topic. In contrast to this readily available information and the actual role coffee plays, I would vote it for one of the most unknowingly consumed goods. HB was by far the most effective cure for me.

greets

marco

I have been hanging around this site for only two days now, but you have made a huge difference in the espresso that I am consuming.

I wandered around several other sites on espresso production, machine maintenance and repair with little real help. Here I have gotten quick targeted help in all of my questions.

So....my espresso has gone from looking like a cup of strong black coffee, to a shot that my sugar floats on top of. I was enjoying the crap I had made for the last couple of years, now I look forward to getting up in the morning to a better cup of espresso than the one I had the day before.

Thanks for the "quality of life" shot.

Hi all,

I have been reading your forum for a long time now, have read many of your reviews, had nothing really to contribute but I wanted to thank a lot of you who have posted such awsome reviews of different machines, grinders etc...Dan and Abe I want to especially thank for their reviews of the machines I'm considering buying.

Finally my wife agreed that I purchase a good quality espresso machine. I have "suffered" through the years with moka pots, Krups "so called" espresso machines, etc....
Based on the reviews I had my heart set on the Brewtus 2. But I was beginning to question myself if it is really the best choice for me. (My wife doesn't drink much coffee, I only drink espresso and cappuccinos, but friends and family would want lattes when they come over.
The Elektra MCAL, Vivaldi 2, and the Andreja Premium were also high on my list.
So I decided score each aspect of the machine, came up with 25 different categories. When I added up all the points, the Brewtus was ahead of the Vivaldi by 1 point (out of 250). Well, not much difference, really, but my heart was already set on the Brewtus anyways, so that will be the machine I'll get. I'll be pairing it with a Macap M4 Stepless grinder.

Can't wait for Christmas! (or the bonus cheque)

Thanks again for all of your help even if you guys didn't know you were helping me!

Zed

Thanks Zed, and welcome out of the shadows!

BTW, you say "I had nothing really to contribute", but frequently the best discussions come from those who ask questions, not those who answer them. Whether you'll be asking or answering, I look forward to hearing from you.

Well, I'm sure I'll have some questions when I finally get the Brewtus

I don't know where to post this, so I'll put it right here.

I am no espresso novice. I don't skimp on equipment, I buy the best beans, I do my own roasting, and I work hard on technique. My espresso is quite good, but I am always looking for improvement.

I want to take a minute to express my appreciation for all of the good information available on Home-Barista. I have gotten a lot of good ideas here. For example, I have been helped a lot by two topics that have appeared here in recent months, and I want to take a minute to provide a testimonial.

First, there was a major review of conical grinders. At the time, I had a Mazzer Mini and, according to my wife, no room for a monster conical grinder. But, after corresponding with Jim Schulman who brought my attention to the good price/performance of the "smaller" Super Jolly, I decided to replace my Mini with the SJ. Good move. There has been a noticeable improvement in flavor of my shots. Equally important, I have experienced a noticeable improvement in shot consistency - the worst shots with the SJ are noticeably better than the worst shots with the Mini, and there is less inconsistency when I change from coarse grind to espresso grind to coarse and then back to espresso.

Second, the Ken Fox testing of freezing roast coffees is just a great piece of work. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that even with identical green beans I cannot roast to the same quality levels as the best of the professional artisan roasters. However, there are a couple of serious problems associated with buying from the pros - shipping costs and delivery time. Ken's work has given me the confidence to start buying relatively large quantities of roasted beans and freezing them.

One of my favorite espresso blends is Paradise Classico. The best Classico experience is to be had at best St Paul coffee shops, Black Sheep and Kopplins, where the baristas know what they are doing, they do it with expensive conical grinders and Synessos, and they use fresh Classico. They tell me that Classico is best on day 5. I think they are right.

The second best Classico experience I know of is at my place in Arizona. I have found that if I order Classico for shipment via Priority Mail I get it two days after roast - MN to AZ in two days flat! I don't have a lot of experience yet with freezing Classico, but in the few weeks so far that I have been freezing beans it is playing out exactly as Ken described. So, it seems as though I will be able to order it and freeze it and have that day 5 experience, over and over, from the same bag of beans. I cannot duplicate with an S1 and Super Jolly what the St Paul coffee shops are putting out with conical grinders and Synessos, but boy I am getting pretty close!

End of testimonial. Thanks for the help, everybody!

Laying back on your couch, surfing HB while sipping your Cafe like having your best best friend going out with you to favorite coffee house.

You , you , you ,you ... all along your coffee-hour daily life.

Cafesp

RegulatorJohnson wrote:i love HB !!

mostly because it is faster than the "other" guys site .

I concur! Not only that, Dan & co. seem to not just be satisfied with 'out of the box' phpBB software, and try to excel and make changes for the better. i haven't noticed that from the "other" guys (they got painfully slow).

the content of information is important, but if you can't find it, it is useless, that is where HB really excels, finding information, organizing it, and fast at that.

kudos to HB

And all of you folks who have taken the time to take pictures and document how to strip down a clean a grinder. The Mazzer Major Auto that I bought on eBay arrived yesterday; I don't think that thing had been cleaned in ten years! It was disgusting. I was going to take lots of pictures and document my experience in case I had anything new to add, but by the time I had the lower burr carrier off I was filthy and didn't want to touch my camera. It took me about four hours to strip it down, clean it and reassemble it. I did remove the Auto micro switch from the doser, I could not clean it properly and I didn't want it touching my coffee. Now all I have to do is get a new set of burrs. No more excuses; if I can't make a decent espresso now, I know who's fault it is

Thanks again for all the great information.

Rybolt wrote:I concur! Not only that, Dan & co. seem to not just be satisfied with 'out of the box' phpBB software, and try to excel and make changes for the better. i haven't noticed that from the "other" guys (they got painfully slow).

the content of information is important, but if you can't find it, it is useless, that is where HB really excels, finding information, organizing it, and fast at that.

kudos to HB

I'm not too worried, the 'other site' should see improvements soon too.

I do enjoy the speed of HB and excellent searching, but the guidance of the moderators is REALLY great. Merging threads, pointing out relevant threads, locking threads and behind the scene emails, spelling corrections, etc. take a great deal of moderator involvement and time. Add in the membership keeping a relatively level head and a great site emerges.
**I've been with the Internet for a long, long time, and the demise of Usenet due to spam, trolls, etc. has been a huge loss, sites like HB make up for it.

Thank you all very much.

Mark

Just a quick note to say thanks to the sponsors, posters and moderators of this site. Why? (you may ask). One month ago, I had no idea how to get a good espresso (except to walk down the block to Intelligentsia for a cup) and was growing increasingly frustrated with my Jura Cappresso E8 which was erratic (to say the least).

Knowing nothing about the pro-sumer coffee market, I Googled, found HB, and a few other sites. I began reading through HB posts, how-tos, FAQs and so forth on this site; got religion; plunked down the money for a Mazzer Mini and Quickmill Anita from Hitechespresso, plumb-in kit and numerous other accessories from Chris' Coffee (I'm a gear junkie, and acted on faith) set this up and pulled my first espresso two days ago.

Even the initial pulls were a substantial improvement over what I'd been able to make before ... I did have the benefit of Eric S.' brewgroup thermometer for temp control, not to mention great how-to articles

Thanks to this HB for all the info that has made it possible for me to pull together all these arcanities so quickly, and to make (what I am convinced) are great equipment choices -- and great and improving coffee.