So you got a new coffee machine for Christmas?
Well Santa brought you exactly what you wanted for Christmas, a new espresso machine so that you can be your own barista. That’s great, and welcome to the world of home coffee bliss - although there are a few things you might want to think about before trying to pull that first shot of espresso. First, go check out the discussions at Coffee Snobs or Coffee Geek. The forum has a search function so that you can check to see if your question has already been covered, and the snobs are a friendly bunch with lots of advice.
Second, did you get a grinder with your machine? If not, make one your priority purchase for the new year. Pre-ground coffee is always stale, no matter how well it is packed. While you can get by with a small ‘peppercorn’ type coffee grinder (the type with the chopping blades inside) for a plunger, these will not grind coffee well enough for an espresso machine. Look for a conical burr grinder, and again, Coffee Snobs has lots of advice available there.
Third, you need fresh coffee. This means it didn’t come from the supermarket shelf. Finding fresh coffee used to be hard but there are so many smaller roasters around now that with only a little looking you can find someone to sell you freshly roasted coffee beans. If the sales assistant can’t tell you when they were roasted you are probably in the wrong place. You may also consider roasting your own. Look through my previous posts for some initial hints on that and then head over to Coffee Snobs for the expertise.
If you live outside Australia you might also look at some other sites about home roasting in your area. Sweet Maria’s is another good starting point for those based in the USA.
Fourth, and a very important point, while it is not hugely difficult to make a coffee on an espresso machine, there are elements of art and science to making coffee and doing a home barista course is an excellent way to start off - you’ll be able to impress your guests and banish nescafe from the house forwever.
Clean your machine - learn how to do it properly and do it often. Use filtered water. Buy a tamper - the thing you use to press the coffee down into the portafilter (filter handle) of your machine. Warm the machine properly before use, warm the cups and until you’ve had lots of practice buy yourself a milk jug thermometer so that you don’t scald the milk by heating it beyond 70 degrees.
Coffee is a gift, a machine to make it with must be treasured - start your own coffee hospitality tradition and share the bean!
Merry Christmas, enjoy your coffee.
P.S. If the machine you got was a ‘Nespresso’ or other ‘pod’ type machine I’ll expect you’ll be wanting to stand in line at the ‘returns’ desk at Home Depot. I would consider that a very wise move no matter how long you have to wait.
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Great advice, Grendel. I would add one more purchase to the list: a water filter. I’m a H2O snob, but I really think a $30 Brita or other water filter is a great investment.