How has your coffee hobby progressed? - Page 2
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- Posts: 102
- Joined: 10 years ago
mdmvrockford wrote: Now since late 2018, I started home cooking. I would have laughed before late 2018 if you ask me to make a classic French omelette with baveuse interior. Appreciating great coffee and espresso is also appreciating great edible items. It is great tastes we are seeking.
Michael, you are making me regret missing that meetup a couple of years ago all over again
1. I remember when I was in my early 20's I made coffee like my parents did. A big cheap drip coffee maker, and a big can of folgers. I remember being frustrated that even though there was plenty of sugar, some days I really liked the coffee and other days, not so much.
2. A few years later I was in graduate school and drinking more coffee, I started to notice that some places had coffee I really enjoyed and others did not.
3. I stumbled upon the aeropress at some point, which was a pretty noticeable upgrade over the drip coffee maker, even while still not buying very good coffee.
4. I wanted to try espresso and found a good deal on a Starbucks Barista machine and a starbucks branded Baratza Encore. An acquaintance started a coffee roaster, and so I started buying better fresh coffee from a pretty decent local roaster.
5. Because things were sort of tight but I didn't want to give up coffee I started exploring roasting. After one ill advised attempt at roasting on a sheet pan in the oven there was a popcorn popper over a camp stove in the garage for a while. And then I found a good deal on a used behmor.
6. After a couple years with the Starbucks Barista it finally gave up. I found a good deal on a broken old l two group ECM Michaelangelo espresso machine and a super jolly. I had a pretty nice coffee shop setup going in my garage.
7. When we moved back to the midwest and the cold winters the commercial espresso machine in the garage setup also had to move. I found a first generation Expobar brewtus in need of a rebuild, so I got that running. And the super jolly got traded for a Compak K10 PB.
8. Lastly, I got frustrated with the limitations of the Behmor (both in roast capacity, and ability to make any sort of roast adjustments) so I built a 1kg gas drum roaster.
9. I've added and sold away a few other pieces of equipment along the way, and I wouldn't be opposed to tinkering with the setup if the right opportunity arrived, but all in all I'm pretty happy with where I am. Roasting at home gives me enough ability to play with different coffees and mostly keep the tinkerer in me happy.