The Reading Room

I have been in a bit of coffee reading routine lately and am going back for between two of Kenneth Davids books, "Home Roasting; Romance and Revial" and "Coffee: A Guide to Buying Brewing and Enjoying." Both of these books...

Since my main lever espresso machine the Ponte Vecchio Lusso is waiting to be serviced (piston seal change, pressurestat change) and the my HX the Nuova Simonelli is waiting to be plumbed in. In the mean while, because I can...

True confessions here -- if you check my profile, you'll see that I make it clear right up front: I am not a coffee snob. I appreciate great coffee, I really do. I appreciate great coffee the way I appreciate...

What I am drinking now - Paradise Classico I had recently ordered a bunch of Paradise blends from Roaste and enjoyed them all, but one of the ones I did not order was Paradise Classico.  This has always been a...

Persistence pays off after some bad planning. I ordered some paradise coffee for thanksgiving and really enjoyed it, but somehow with the extra guests and the extra time at home for me I went through far more coffee than I...

One more incredibly cool tool that I would love to have, but do not have is a scace portafilter.  For measuring the temperature of espresso extraction.  It was invented by Greg Scace and is used for setting up espresso machines. ...

Are you still throwing your used coffee grounds into the garbage? Please say you’re not. After all, those humble grounds have a multitude of uses, so their value is not diminished after they give the best part of themselves for...

Cooling down a lever. One of the flaws with a lever machine is that most of them, such as the La Pavoni models and the Elektra models is that they tend to overheat after a few shots.  The design is...

Dark roast coffee is not stronger in caffeine, not more bitter by default, and not lower quality than light roast. These are the 5 most common dark roast misconceptions. This guide covers what actually happens to coffee beans during dark roasting, the real flavor profile, and which brew methods bring out the best in dark roast.

So I've been reading Kenneth Davids book about home roasting and so by extention it made inquire a bit more into his website, coffeereview.com where he had an interesting article about store bought preground coffee this month. He and his...

The tampless temptation I have always been interested in the theory that many support that one can prepare espresso without tamping at all and still produce results just as good as the results you get with any other form of...

My favorite baskets Yes believe it or not once you get obsessed enough over espresso you may go crazy enough to have favorite baskets to place in your portafilter.  Not only do I prefer some baskets to others, I prefer...

I got my first job when I was about 4 years old, helping my grandmother's friend Tony Pasteta in his garden. My job was a simple one -- I brought him the coffee his wife Luisa made for him and...

A coffee blend combines two or more single-origin coffees to achieve a flavor profile that no single origin delivers on its own. Blends are not inferior to single origins , they are a different craft with different goals. This guide covers why roasters blend, what each component does, and how to read a blend on a coffee bag.

Specialty coffee has a specific definition: it scores 80 or above on the SCA's 100-point scale, has no primary defects, and is traceable to a specific farm or region. It is not a marketing term. This guide covers how coffee is graded, what separates specialty from commodity, what the terms on a specialty bag mean, and how to buy it.

This is a mini review of one of the best books out there on making espresso.  It is Scott Rao’s book “The Professional Barista's Handbook: An Expert Guide to Preparing Espresso, Coffee, and Tea” The book is excellent for many...

Despite the fact that boomers are reaching retirement age, researchers are not fully investigating the possible links between caffeine and Alzheimer’s. At a time when we would expect this to be a major research focus, the funds for such studies...

Now after having just finished reading about the history of coffee by Mark Pendergrast, "Uncommon Grounds" my appettite for more knowledge about the coffee we enjoy on a daily basis. This lead me to reading "Home Coffee Roasting" written by...

A home espresso setup requires 4 components: machine, grinder, beans, and technique. Most setups fail not because the machine is bad but because the grinder is wrong or the beans are stale. Here is how to budget each component and what to expect at different price tiers.

I have blogged about my aquisition of the new Nuova Simonelli Musica here: http://www.roaste.com/CoffeeBlogs/sontondaman/Nuova-Simonelli-my-new-toy . It had been great so far up to about one month ago. I had been a great steamer, producing luscious milk and very smooth espresso shots, definitely...