Blog

For the mechanically inclined who aren’t afraid to do some investigative work, there are quite a few at-home fixes that can be done on your semiautomatic espresso machine. We’ll cover a few common issues here, but do keep in mind that based on the usage and age of your machine, there are various gaskets and valves that naturally wear out and need replacement. If you’ve been a good espresso parent and keep up a regular cleaning routine, you should expect to have your baby tune …

Talk about a pandemic pivot; iconic coffee filter maker, Melitta, tweaked the production line at their Minden, Germany factory in April last year and produced 10 million face masks within a month. Although the masks were in the shape of their coffee filter, they were manufactured from the fibre material used in vacuum cleaner bags. Good on ya, Melitta! That bit of coffee industry news got us thinking about coffee filters, and we started discussing paper versus metal and …

If you’ve been making espresso at home for years and you’re looking to improve your barista skills, one of the tools we get asked about the most is the bottomless or ‘naked’ portafilter. Picture your regular portafilter – there’s the solid chrome-plated brass bottom of the basket with two spouts. The bottomless portafilter looks like a metal ring with a handle – no spouts. Why switch? Well, there are a few reasons; first of all, it allows you to experiment with your grinding, …

A good chance that we've all been there. What does "Medium Fine" or "Coarse" mean? These meanings can change depending on who speaks them and what their definition is. How can we use such an imprecise form of grind measurement when working with tenths of a gram in ratios? Well, it's a bit of a story of accessibility to technology. The Fine through Coarse grind reference is one of the last holdovers of imprecise coffee terms. It harkens back to a time when blade grinders were …

Yes, you can upgrade your at-home coffee station on a budget How has working from home worked for you? We're hitting the one-year mark now, and there are a few camps that have emerged. There's the "I absolutely love it" crowd, the "I'm fed up, I want to go back to work" team, and the somewhat half and half "I'd prefer a bit of both" group. We've met all of you over the past year because of coffee! Some folks have upgraded to espresso machines, while others explored vario …