The Reading Room

And sometimes you just have to throw precision out the window… I am usually a huge fan of control when making espresso.  If you change any variable by a little bit it changes the flavor of the coffee.  Increase your...

Yesterday morning I had a little accident while making my first cup of the day. Everything started out normally as I got out my coffee and various bits of gear I intended to use to grind and brew it (scale,...

Some tea drinkers read tea leaves to see into the future. For Turks, it’s in the coffee grounds. Symbols appear in the grounds after the cup is flipped on the saucer. Then the fun begins, as interpreters find meaning in...

The Gaggia Classic is a very nice machine.  I own a similar machine call the Gaggia Coffee which looks a lot like the Classic and shares a majority of parts with it's more expensive sibling. One feature found on the Classic...

"Scientific" studies are getting more irresponsible every day. A recent study will be picked up by many media though, because the headlines are so sensational. “Coffee and Energy Drink Lovers More Likely To Become Drug Addicts” one article says. Others...

Tilt the cup keeping it on the counter so it stays nice and still.  (You do not have to do this in the long run, but it helps at the start).    Raise the pitcher up about 6 inches above the...

The work of the espresso machine is complete now and pouring latte art will be the focus of the next few steaming milk posts.  This is harder to explain in a blog than how to create microfoam even though I...

Lever espresso machines, they are cool looking and they make good espresso; but one of the easily overlooked aspect of lever machine is its quiteness. And I experienced this first hand Saturday's night. I was staying up late at night...

A ten hour drive across some of the most repetitive countryside to attend a wedding only to return a day later doesn't sound like the best way to spend a weekend.But sometimes you have to make sacrifices for a friend....

When summer rolls around, some of the best coffees in the world come into the States. I'm talking about Kenyans. Ask the average joe on the street where the best beans come from and you are more likely to hear...

Closing the machine down.  You want to stop texturing the milk when it arrives at roughly 155 degrees F.  At this time you as quickly as possible turn the steam off and remove the pitcher.  It is essential to turn...

Less can be more, quality over quantity...When I first started making coffee at home, I'd use a lot of coffee. I saw a video of Blue Bottle's owner giving a talk. He likened a cafe's coffee dosing practices to a...

I have been playing around with the Nuova Simonelli Musica for about two weeks now and I'm ready to give an update. First of all, the machine was aquired from a defunct restaurant for a very good deal (less than...

For many people, two words can elicit all kinds of warm fuzzy feelings. If they’re like Rachel Kossman, those two words are chocolate and coffee. Like Rachel they would be excited to attend an upcoming event (tomorrow) in her neighborhood,...

This blog entry is in some sense popping up out of order, but I wanted to add it in now because I am going to use it soon to suggest a cheat for those having trouble creating the perfect consistency...

Big Brother or Helping Hand? this topic was debated in the comments of my last blog written in response to a couple comments in a recent news article. This concept of electronically marrying the product to the dispensing machine struck...

While describing how to steam milk it seems like a worthy topic to insert how to do it without going broke if you don’t own your own cow… When it comes to microfoam and latte art, I think the most...

While going over coffee tasting notes after writing my last blog post, I came across a gem by Klatch on the Poizon Blend, which seems to be geared toward Halloween. I can’t resist quoting from [and commenting on] a few...

In a recent news story about a breakthrough in inventory control was announced by Mahlkönig.  This is an absolutely brilliant idea.  Without the reader sensing where the grounds are from the grinder will not run.  What's more, if the bag shows...

The world’s largest trade fair for coffee will be held in Milan during the fourth week in October. Already the starring products are being announced. Not surprisingly, new coffee grinders are becoming more and more electronic, now using smart card...

Texturing the milk. This is a continuation of my series on steaming milk.  So far you have gotten the milk ready, started steaming, and introduced air into the milk stretching it, which in the process increases the volume.  Now you...