If you’re looking to perfect your home coffee setup, you’re in the right place, as we’re here with 5 essential items that will get you well on your way to creating great cups of coffee at home, as well as helping to keep the aesthetic of your kitchen as you want it for a practical kitchen that also maintains that fresh home interior feel. From the coffee beans right through to your milk frother, we’ve got you covered.
The Right Coffee Beans
First up, you need to get the right coffee beans. Now, this can be pretty overwhelming as there are so many coffee beans out there, that are all then roasted in different ways. However, finding the right beans can transform your home brewing. Before coffee beans are roasted, they have no flavour, and it’s the roasting process that really brings out the flavour. It’s a browning reaction of sugars and amino acids, the same as when we cook food.
Typically, the darker the roast, the more body they have, but this can also come with bitterness. With lighter roasts, you can find they are slightly more acidic, but you also tend to get more flavour out of the beans. Usually darker roasts are well suited to coffees if you’re adding milk, as the bitterness helps to cut through the milk, then you’d go for a medium roast for espresso. This really is trial and error to find out what you like, or if you have favourite coffee shops, you can ask what roast they use to help you start in the right direction. Storing your coffee beans in an air tight glass container next to the rest of your equipment is a great way to keep everything looking sleek.
Coffee Scales
Next, having coffee scales are essential to help you achieve consistent and flavourful results. Getting the right ratio of water to coffee is key for a great cup of coffee. Typically you would weigh the beans then grind as it’s just a bit cleaner, but if you struggle with retention in your grinder, then you can always weigh after. You should weigh your coffee no matter what brewing method you’re using to really get the most out of your drink. Typically the most balanced cup of coffee can be achieved with a 1:18 ratio, so one part coffee to 18 parts water.
Electric Coffee Grinder
Something that can really change the game is an electric coffee grinder. Not only is the speed of grinding a benefit, but electric grinders provide fantastic consistency and control across a wide range of grind sizes, with a wider range of grind settings, so you can fine-tune your grind to suit your brewing method exactly. There are so many different models out there for you to choose from, depending on your budget and how advanced you would like the grinder to be.
A fantastic option that is a lower price point but offers features seen in much more expensive models is the DF54 grinder, with low retention, which is a key feature you’d want to be looking for. There are much higher price point models, but if this is your first setup, this is a great place to start.
Espresso Machine (with tamper)
Last but not least, the star or the show, your espresso machine. Again, there are so many options out there, but luckily there are also great blogs to help guide you in the right direction. Some of the very advanced machines have built in grinders, but we’d recommend that you start with something slightly more simple in terms of the machine, as you often have more control over the grind of the beans when it’s separate anyway.
If you strictly drink black coffee, you won’t need a milk frother, but if you, friends or family do enjoy coffee with milk, this is a feature you’ll want to look at. The Coffee Blog guide on how to choose an espresso machine is a great place to start, or you could go to a coffee festival and try coffee from lots of different machines to see what you enjoy.