Is The Best Espresso In The World Being Made At Home?

Here’s my little thesis on a big change we’ve seen in the world of coffee, particularly coffee equipment. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this - particularly if you work in the coffee industry. This isn’t really about trying to have two sides, but rather talking about a fascinating trend I’m seeing right now.

0:00 Introduction
0:53 When Home Baristas First Changed Coffee
06:48 The Industry Takes The Lead
08:45 The Power Shifts Again

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[PatrickJoannisse]

I don't think you and your team are taking enough credit for this change. You managed to gather over 2.2 million subscribers and make people interested in this, educating and keeping it all fun. The pandemic also had a lot of people thinking about how they get their coffee and suddenly make them interested at getting it at home and making it "as good" as coffee shops.

[diviyidnani]

You have to give yourself some credit for this, I live in india and in the pursuit of better coffee I decided to check into the Indian subreddit for more indian roasted specialty coffee brands/roasters and everyone there calls you daddy hoffmann. You are definitely part and a big reason for this change.

[bluemystic]

I've said this for a while now, 'cafe quality' espresso is no longer the gold standard. No cafe can compete with a nerdy home barista who takes 10 minutes to make a single milk drink.

[LanceHedrick]

Oh my. So much agreement. I actually made an unfiltered rant about this some months ago. Absolutely fantastic video. Thank you for addressing it in ways I never could eloquently ha!

[brian]

The best coffee drinks I have are made at home. Thanks to people like James here my coffee game is so much better than my local cafe.

[PltOffPPrune]

I love that James is observing the cutting edge coffee innovation is happening in the domestic space whilst a bripe looms over his left shoulder. The true innovation is happening in the woods!

[squirrelzar]

All I know is you’re the reason I exclusively make pour over coffee and buy from local roasters. And it’s one of the best gifts YouTube has given me. I don’t go full coffee nerd, but enough to get a really good consistent cup

[diycave]

I for years had a coffee machine at home and was always disappointed I couldn't get it to taste like a cafe espresso. I thought you just had to be a gifted baristar and understand a bunch of mythical brewing skills and have proper commercial then I stumbled across your channel. Armed with your coffeescience wisdoms, I have transformed my once mediocre espresso into a very tasty drink! Unfortunately it's turned into a bit of an obsession now, but therapy is dealing with that😁

[amruthanand]

The last time I was this early, it was underextracted

[markhatley-ks]

I could not agree more with you! I came to the very same conclusion a few years ago. I have invested in very good grinders and espresso machines at home over the last 8 to 10 years and just don’t go to cafes any more. What I make at home is so much better and of much higher quality than any of the cafes around me. My neighbors even text me on the weekends asking for a shot or a latte and I always oblige. I also give an incredible amount of credit to David Schomer (His book is a must read) and others like You who have helped us all be more precise and make better coffee. Thank you to this passionate community!

[brycehemi]

I own a coffee shop. We have an awesome setup that has coffee-specific filtration with remineralizers, a La Marzocco Strada ABR on the bar and a Mahlkonig e80s, and everything is fresh. That said, I've always said that the flavor ceiling at home is higher than at the shop. At home you can tailor absolutely everything to achieve the exact extraction you want. More than that, you might like a slightly different style of espresso than what your local shop produces (since they usually have to tailor their shots to be good in milk drinks primarily). But, that also means that you're putting a great deal of effort and have a lot of variables to control at home that can get overwhelming and is not super forgiving. For the shop, I was able to design a system that's forgiving and bulletproof in producing the same thing at like 90% of the flavor ceiling every time. Don't get me wrong, the shop's shots are super good, but my shots at home are usually a tad better. The shop just doesn't have the time to get into the weeds on the finer details.

At home, you can adjust mineral content, beans, RPM's, pressure and temperature profile, etc. It is absolutely doable to knock the socks off of your local specialty shop. But also it took me years to get to the point where my home shots were consistently in that +90% range.

I think my love for coffee is because of its difficulty. There's always improvements to be made, and you've never "arrived" at the God Shot.

[gar]

I personally saw this. My family grows coffee in PR. So I have been neck deep in coffee since childhood. So about 10 years ago I bought a use Breville for $150. For the price it was killer deal. Dad visited, like the coffee so much he bought one. My sister visited him, love it got a top of the line breville, then my brother too. About a year ago, we got mom one for mothers day. The lesson here is people want it. The key here is simplicity and accesability. They always wanted a better coffee, but it was un accessible. Breville owes me a check too😂😂😂

[WhatIfBrigade]

As a former coffee shop manager, one aspect that isn't necessary at home is mechanical reliability. If a home machine needs to be taken apart and cleaned every 100 shots, nobody cares. If a cafe's espresso machine needs frequent maintenance or repairs then you lose customers. It isn't just a consistent, decent quality brew, but the ability to pull thousands of shots a week without breaking anything. Home machines can go half as fast and pull 1/100th as many shots so they can be built in a much more complicated way or require more maintenance and labor. For example a home machine could have a longer warm up period and use some quality control measurements that would be impractical at scale.

[christopher.h.hendon]

I really enjoyed this, James. To offer a complementary item, I think another reason for the shift to home excellence is that the upper limit of coffee quality (that is, the coffee beans themselves) dramatically improved across the same 20 years. People can buy 100 g of Esmeralda for the same price (or less!) as the same coffee prepared as espresso in some of the “best” cafes. Maybe a hot take, but I think the market for exceptional coffee in the cafe is small. I look at my ~70 y/o father who owns a gen 1 ode with gorilla gear burrs, and wonder why? His explanation is simple, he enjoys the process, he can buy higher quality coffee more consistently, and he believes he cares more than the typical barista. Together this leads to generally better outcomes, in his mind.

[ariadnavigo]

This is probably one of your best videos, dear James. I would add that home baristas have also been crucial in the development of new recipes and experiments in the world of filter coffee, up to the point where some of us home baristas have been competing side by side against professional baristas in the AeroPress Championship (and other competitions as well!). It's an amazing time to be in the coffee world!

[henrybutchy]

I love my black coffee daily, but for 40 years I would drink whatever was in the cupboard. I can only discern 4 grades of coffee. Excellent, good, poor, and awful. Im aware i have a pedestrian palate.

I've been making pour overs for 5 years +-. Better beans were better, but not a different world. the world changed last month when I obtained a better grinder (fellows opus). I already had a kitchen scale. OMG, a night and day difference.

I still have a pedestrian palate, but omg the coffee is excellent. Every day.

Thank you to all who guided me by sharing their knowledge and lessons.

Tight lines.

[MrFowl]

I have felt like coffee shops have gotten worse and worse, but maybe my home lattes are just getting better and better 🤔

[solveconsultants]

Having recently attended DE-Con 1, the inaugural Decent Coffee convention in Hong Kong, I can agree 100% with what James is saying. The passion and commitment of the Decent team to producing a tool that allows us home Baristas to reach ever increasing heights in the quality of coffee we produce is laudable. The Decent DE 1 (and the forthcoming Bengle) have been and will continue to be game changers. Thank you Decent.

[cdavidtabor]

Babe wake up, Fourth wave coffee just dropped

[weeliano]

Been drinking coffee since I was a child, I'm 52 this year and I roast my own coffee and have my own barista setup at home. I moved my Lelit Anna to my office pantry after I bought a Rancilio Silva Pro X. I don't know about making the best Espresso at home, but I know that my own roasted coffee is as good or better than coffee brewed in cafes or specialty stores. You and many of your internet coffee gurus are extremely influential in my coffee equipment buying decisions!