What's going on, everybody?
Welcome to the Wolff Coffee Roasters channel, and welcome to this sea of chaos.
So today what we're talking about is maybe you're the coffee person in your life,
or maybe, you know,
a coffee person in your life and often what we get asked here on our channel and
certainly when we're running college courses for both our partners and for you,
the public is I'm thinking about making coffee at home.
We have baristas who are working in cafes who want to stop making flat whites
at home without having to go out to buy them.
Or potentially they just want to make better coffee at home.
Now they might have already dabbled in this sea of items.
These are all different brewing styles.
We've got Samantha Brewers
we've got V60 and Chemex and kettles and Nespresso, if that's what you're into.
But look across the board, there's a lot of different options.
And often when it comes to buying something new, either for yourself
in a world of coffee that you may not have entered into yet
or for that special person that you know, what do you get?
And today, what we're going to talk about is espresso brewing
and what you generally need for a home setup.
If someone you know has just bought themselves a home espresso machine,
maybe the things you can add value to by buying them that
or something that maybe you're missing in your own home
set up that you may want , because often it is very easy to buy one of everything
or look at the list of options available when it comes to Home Espresso Brewing
and find that it is a very, very long list.
So let's clear this clutter.
Let's get an espresso machine full home in here, and we'll go through
all the necessary bits that you may need to make an amazing.
Well, that's better, isn't it?
Now what I have here is a typical home machine.
This is a Breville.
We've been using these recently and I've found that they are great
little machines now.
The one thing I will say when it comes to home machine setup,
as someone who has a relatively quaint and small kitchen
is the biggest thing to always consider when it comes to home, choice
for espresso machine is what's going to work within your space.
Now there is a range of pricing for home machines.
There's also a range of different sizes and options available.
I know people that have whole to group machines, the commercial variety
set up in their home. It's a bit of overkill.
You do need the additional power for those as well, but for the standard
consumer at home, consider two things one.
What do you want it to look like?
Yes, you can spend up to $11,000 for a home machine
that looks absolutely stunning in any environment.
But what comes with that is the second part of the decision,
which is then how much space do you want it to take up?
Now, previously we used to look very discerning.
We at home machines that had things like incorporated hoppers and grinders
because of the fact that it seemed to be at least in the past,
that that choice by any manufacturer tended to lead
to the focus being on either the machine or the grinder.
And the thing that then got built in with
it was always an afterthought or a secondary thought,
leading it to be that
you'd normally find on a machine like this that the steam capacity
was a little bit reduced or kind of the it produced steam was a bit iffy.
Certainly then the hopper or the grinder was a bit up and down.
But what I will say about these is that through our use here
in the college and around the warehouse recently, they have come a long way.
We now don't look at these the way we used to.
They operate using much better quality,
and the actual build quality behind them is much, much better.
Now, if you were to have one of these at home, you've spent your money on this,
you've got yourself a budget to buy a home machine of, say, $1,000.
Now, my personal preference will always be spend the same amount,
if not more on your grinder than you do on your machine.
Now it's a weird thing to say, but the biggest thing
I will always say about any coffee machine being a commercial, full free group
or a small little one group for home like this is that all coffee
machines are at the end of the day, a glorified kettle.
They make water hot using electricity, and the thing that brings out the best
flavor is generally the quality of the grinder shows
how well it grinds, how consistently it grinds and what
that produces for you as an end experience in the cup.
Now, if you do happen to have a combined set up like this,
then the question comes What do you now buy?
What else might you need for your home setup?
Or you might know someone who's just gotten one of these or a similar system?
What is it that they need now without going into overkill?
Again, considering the fact that you have a limited amount of space in your kitchen
or your study or wherever it is, you set this up.
Is that generally you want to keep it to a limited minimum?
Now I say the same thing
when it comes to a consumer setting up a cafe for the first time.
If you're a new partner of ours
and you've never set up a cafe before and you say to me, What do I need?
Well, generally I'll put my shelves.
Then in the feet of your consumers, I'll say to you, Will
someone walks in your door on day one and says, Hi, can I get a twelve ounce
flat white with three sugars and caramel sirup?
Do you have a grinder to grind the coffee?
Do you have a machine to then make that coffee, as well as steam the milk?
Do you have a milk jug to put that milk in?
Do you have a tamper in order to achieve the tamping?
And do you have caramel syrup and three sugars?
Now, once you kind of go through those motions for you at home,
consider the same.
What is it that
you will need to make that cup of coffee the way you want to make it?
If that machine happens to come with a tamp
such as this one, great, you may not need a tamp.
Now, as professional home users and people who want to make things
that little bit better every time, potentially this might not cut it.
So for those that have a tamper that either came with the grinder
or came with the machine, you may have the option to say,
buy them the tamp get them a professional tamp.
This has to be considered as well.
In the event that the machine does not accept a 58 millimeter
commercial tamp, always check that the thing
you're buying goes with the machine that it works with.
So in the event that this handle
is not 58 millimeters, then this tamp will not work.
So maybe they're not taking the tamp, but maybe you got them in the tamp.
Great. What else might they want?
Well, additionally, the machine comes with the milk jug.
Now, if they want to focus on latte art and this isn't quite cutting it
for them, you could potentially look into getting a better milk jug.
Now you may want to go so far as, say, just getting a small Rhinoware
professional milk jug.
Now, these things are great for being able to pour a little bit better.
They steam a little bit better.
But what if that person every day is making coffee for two?
They drink a latte and their partner drinks a flat white?
While in that instance you wouldn't just get this.
Instead, you'd get this, which is the next size up.
I would rarely find the need to purchase a 950 milk jug
for someone to make coffee at home.
Yes, there are rare occasions where that person might have multiple
people come around, but good things are worth the wait.
So I'd stick to a medium size,
especially with the output of steam that this might come with.
Now, the biggest thing for a lot of people making coffee at home for the first time
is they don't understand what mess that will be.
Now, certainly for me, the first time
I did coffee at home and produced an espresso.
There was mess everywhere.
For people who've never operated a cafe before.
They don't quite understand exactly how much gunk
and how much coffee residue ends up all over the kitchen.
So the biggest thing to have at home,
you can't really just knock out into a bin, at least not easily.
What might make that person's life that little bit easier
is buying a Knock Tube something that just fits on the bench.
It doesn't have to be a full standing knock tube.
But this will hold at least a few coffees worth
and is a great little investment for only about $30 now.
The last part to always consider
is, again, you've got this beautiful machine set up in a beautiful kitchen.
Maybe you've just renovated the kitchen, and the last thing you want is that porta
filter scratching and burning against your brand new bench top.
So the biggest thing to always consider with that is grabbing yourself a tamp mat.
Tamp mats are the saving grace of our industry.
It prevents slipping.
It prevents you burning yourself and prevents
you hurting yourself, and it will protect your bench till the end of its days.
These things do not wear out.
They just keep going and going and going.
And so I cannot suggest more having one of these for home now.
If you still find that there is a lot of mess occuring,
you can go so far as potentially grabbing yourself
something like a dosing cup if you have an external grinder.
These are great for keeping all of the coffee grinds
within a very short space
and making sure you capture every single inch of that coffee.
But look, it's a choice, as are things
like OCD spinners and distribution caps.
They are great and they look amazing on Instagram, but
probably not a necessary purchase for a home consumer.
The last thing to always get someone,
especially someone who's just bought a new coffee set up, is coffee.
I certainly know the biggest thing I always run out of on a Saturday morning
is then the coffee I make for myself,
so you can always get subscriptions for coffee.
I know we do them on our website, so if you'd like to check that out,
please do.
But it is always good to make sure that you have coffee in that grinder
and it's ready to go when you want it.
So hopefully that helps you out.
I know there's a lot of options, but hopefully this is a much smaller
and more limited selection of things that may appeal to a home consumer,
especially making coffee for the first time as an espresso.
Don't forget to buy the beans at the end of the day,
but thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.