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Permalink Reply by Luis Zaman on August 27, 2009 at 12:20am

I'm glad this article is here, but I feel like their statements were a bit too strong at times. Definitely doesn't take a 7.5k dollar machine to make BETTER espresso at home than the majority of coffee shops out there. I think that given their target audience, the strong tone was necessary, sort of the slap in the face pull them out from their comfortable ignorance, but its missing that nice gradual step back down into reality. I also don't like the conclusion of "just have to go to your coffee shop" about getting good espresso. In my little town, instant espresso beats half of the coffee shops around here.

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Permalink Reply by Billy Kangas on August 27, 2009 at 8:59am

I appreciated the honesty. "Instant espresso" Might beat your local shops, but is it really doing justice to the bean? My personal philosophy is that coffee should be presented in a way that really lets it shine, and for most folks espresso simply isn't a medium they can afford to do well at home. Just my 2 cents.

Luis Zaman said:

I'm glad this article is here, but I feel like their statements were a bit too strong at times. Definitely doesn't take a 7.5k dollar machine to make BETTER espresso at home than the majority of coffee shops out there. I think that given their target audience, the strong tone was necessary, sort of the slap in the face pull them out from their comfortable ignorance, but its missing that nice gradual step back down into reality. I also don't like the conclusion of "just have to go to your coffee shop" about getting good espresso. In my little town, instant espresso beats half of the coffee shops around here.

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Permalink Reply by Luis Zaman on August 27, 2009 at 9:58am

True enough. I think there is an equal amount of justice being done to the bean at shops that pull 6 ounce black "espresso" shots (that look like a black oily mess in the hopper) and instant espresso. But I digress... I agree that espresso done correctly is difficult and expensive, not something that is left for the average coffee drinker. But being primarily a home barista, I had to scoff at some of their statements.

I think its a good article, I think people are starting to realize what specialty coffee is all about. I think there are still many people that read stuff like this and mock it but then refuse to eat at fast food restaurants or refuse to drink boxed wine, but far fewer than there used to be.

I just think that if the goal of this article was to turn people on to specialty coffee, there could have been a better wrap up. And $200 dollars for a conical burr grinder? I have a Zassenhaus that was only $60 that works amazingly well for my presses, siphons, and drips. I also have a $100 dollar burr grinder that works amazingly well for my Chemex at my lab. For espresso, thats a bit different... but their conclusion was don't try that at home anyway.

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