With coffee machine sales through the roof and a new artisan bean for each day of the week, a generation is turning into obsessive home baristas. Allow us to enable your habit…
ADDITIONAL WORDS: MEENA ALEXANDER ILLUSTRATIONS: RAWPIXEL
“I’LL OFTEN HOVER OVER A BARISTA”
Writer Jessica Salter charts her journey from milky cap-lover to full-blown espresso snob
Every morning I creep downstairs in the dark, very careful not to wake anyone. I boil the kettle to warm my favourite mug (a ceramic Monoware one with just the right curves for my hands), weigh out exactly 25g of beans to grind and turn on my coffee machine, ready to make that first sacred cup of the day. With only the half-light from the street lamps illuminating my kitchen, I clutch my coffee and breathe in that glorious smell before I take the sip I’ve been thinking about since the minute I opened my eyes. It’s a ritual that feels almost illicit.
Like so many of us, I really love coffee. It’s been a love affair that, like all the best romances, has deepened over time: where once I nursed frothy cappuccinos, now I take it short and black so I can really appreciate the taste. That’s the romantic view, anyway. My husband just thinks I’m a snob when I request a double espresso with hot water in a jug at restaurants, or take my Aeropress (a portable coffee maker, something I don’t need to explain to true aficionados) with me whenever I’m visiting his parents. Soon, I see myself going the extra mile like stylist Eleanor Cording-Booth, who forgoes extra clothes when she travels so she can pack her grinder, coffee scales and Kalita Wave dripper.
I’ve often hovered uncomfortably over baristas to check they’re making my coffee just the way I want it while my husband waits outside because he can’t bear the awkwardness. A few months ago, I took matters into my own hands and bought myself the true status symbol of 2023 (forget a car or an investment bag in this economy) – a proper coffee machine. I’m now the proud owner of a Sage Barista Pro (£649.95), which has a grinder built in, but connoisseurs (aka my friend Stephen Morrissey, COO at the Specialty Coffee Association) say that really you need a separate grinder. It allows you even more control over the taste of your coffee, with a finer grind dialling down bitterness in the beans. I’ve got a Mahlkönig X45 (£499) on my Christmas dream-on list.
Being a home barista has been life changing: just-as-I-like-it coffee on tap, without spending the best part of a fiver eac
