A Nice Cuppa

I’ve been on a bit of a mission to duplicate the velvety, bittersweet creations of my local coffeehouse at home. At some point, I thought it made a lot of sense not to shell out $4.00 a day for my daily caffeine fix (I tip generously), and that I could save a lot of money just making my own. Now, if my local cafe was just a Starbuck’s or a Dunkin Donuts, I’d probably have been right. A well-maintained but inexpensive espresso machine and a weekly 1/4 bag of good-enough beans ground at home would produce about a ‘Bucks-quality latte, and my wallet would be just a little heavier. Unfortunately for my bank account, my local cafe isn’t Starbuck’s. It’s Fuel. And Zoka (home of the 2005 US Barista Champion). And Victrola. All are just a quick jaunt from my house, and all of which have spoiled me for drinking just your average latte. Whether it’s the heady crema or the picture perfect latte art, each cup I’ve had in these shops makes coffee addiction a given. Duplicating those results at home was not going to be easy, especially without spending well into the 4 digits and defeating the whole money-saving intention. Not that it was going to stop me from trying.

I started with the machine, spending untold hours reading through the coffeegeek forums and reviews. I haven’t quite graduated to drinking straight shots of espresso, so I was looking for a machine that could produce a decent crema and a steamer that made perfect micro-foam. It was clear that any of the machines you can find in a kitchen shop wasn’t going to cut it. They just can’t heat the water hot enough and consistently enough to help me get leafy goodness painted atop of my jo. I had to jump to the next level, and move to the espresso-specialty shops. Now, you would think that in Seattle, this would be pretty simple. You can’t turn around in Seattle without falling into a coffee-shop, there should be at least one or two shops in the entire Seattle area that sell high quality espresso machines for home use. Turns out, there really aren’t. Beans and Machines, the one store that carried the perfect home espresso machines closed shop years ago, and I haven’t been able to find a replacement. The few espresso machine stores I found focused industrial units for small to medium cafes or coffee carts. (If you know of a shop that I missed, feel free to let me know!) I would have to find my machine online. And after much hemming and hawing, I finally settled on Solis Crema SL 70. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? Really, it’s at the lower end of the high end machines, but the coffeegeek review convinced me that it was as good as I was going to get in my budget. It’s not exactly beautiful, but then again, it’s 1/3 the price.

Of course, having a great machine without having a greater grinder is just a waste of money. You won’t get crema without the proper grind. After you’ve just spent $300 to $500 on an espresso machine, however, it’s hard to spend another $200 for the grinder (and then more for the steaming pitcher, thermometer and tamper). Everything I read pointed me to the Gaggia MDF, but despite this, I just couldn’t do it. I ended up getting the Maximo that was almost 1/2 the price based on a couple of positive reviews on Amazon and coffeegeek.

Within two weeks, I had my whole setup. I picked up a 1/2 lb bag of Zoka’s Espresso Paladino blend, and went to make my first cup. After a quick wipe down of the grinder and setting it to the 3 setting (as they recommended at Zoka), I dumped in a handful of beans, and flipped the switch, eagerly awaiting the fresh grinds. And then I continued to wait, as the whirring went but nothing came out. Soon it became apparent that the beans were just gumming up the machine, and I had my first doubts of my bargain shopping. A quick call to Valleni’s however was met with a very friendly and prompt response and quickly I learned that this whole making espresso thing was going to take some practice. Depending on the beans, you have to experiment to find the right grind setting on your grinder. What they use on the machine at Zoka isn’t necessarily what you want to use at home. Moving the grind from 3 to 7 on my Maximo ended up giving me a much better grind that didn’t gunk up the works.

Finally, I was ready to actually brew. After letting the machine warm up for about 15 minutes, I loaded up the porta filter, tamped down, giving it a twist to polish off the top. Within seconds beautiful tawny liquid streamed from the spout and filled my cup and my house with its bittersweet aroma. Happy with these results, I moved on to the milk steaming. This proved to be even more of a challenge. (In truth, I had been practicing on my old low-end Gaggia machine for a few weeks, trying to master the micro-foaming techniques with little success despite reading many how-to blogs on the subject). My first attempt resulted in foam fitting for a very, very dry cappuccino, rather than my desired latte art consistency. I quickly tried again, and got something passable. Then came the pouring. Here, I just have no skill, and only managed to poured a very mangled looking leaf.

Looks aside, I moved onto the taste. Would it match up? Well, it was my first latte, so that has an easy answer: of course not. It was tasty, and definitely better than your average cup from Starbuck’s. But matching Fuel or Victrola? Not quite there yet. That’s going to take practice, and lots of it. I need to spend some time experimenting with different beans, different grinds, and different dosings to strive for the perfect cup.

It’s now been a couple of months since that first cup, and I’ve made some good progress. My grinds are getting better (when I switched to the Ethiopian single origin which was a bit drier, I needed to dial it down to about a 6) and my tamping skill has improved, and the flavors of my espresso have gone from a wee bit sour and thin to rich and deep. I still don’t have the proper pour and shake technique down for latte art, but my foam is getting appropriately nano-sized. Even more importantly, my brother sent me a new toy for my arsenal of espresso making tools: a home roaster and a whole mess of green beans from Sweet Maria’s. Now I have a whole new dimension to perfect or simply fail with. I’ll be trying out different beans and roasts, and letting you know how it goes over the coming weeks. If you have a green bean recommendation that I should try, send them my way!