How To Make Good Coffee

If you are unfortunate enough to have acquired a taste for the very best coffee then you no doubt find yourself always on the lookout for ways to make great coffee at home to reduce the expense involved in your caffeine habit.

Years ago we were all happy drinking bland instant coffee at home because, quite frankly, we didn't know any better. Then the Italians had to ruin everything by exporting their taste for fine espresso coffee to the rest of the world and we end up with the unfortunate predicament of needing to drink fine coffee.

This would fine if we all had unlimited funds to visit the local cafe bar numerous times a day but this habit becomes expensive and many of us are starting to realise that either we get rid of our coffee addiction or we find a less expensive way of consuming espresso. Thankfully the answer is not as unobtainable as it may first seem. Although it does require a reasonable initial financial outlay and some time and effort to learn the skills of the Barista, learning to make good coffee at home is not an impossible task.

What you need to do to make the transition from being able to keep your local coffee shop in business single handedly to being a home espresso producer extraordinarie as easy as possible is to find a friend who has the necessary knowledge to smooth the path for you. If you can't find anyone suitable in your local area then don't worry too much as there is plenty of home Barista information available online. With coffee forums and numerous great websites bulging with quality information you will quickly get up to speed on what is required to brew the very best coffee at home.

To get you started I'll point out all the basis things you need to get you on the road to coffee stardom amongst your friends. Lets make no bones about it, if you can master the elusive art of making prefect espresso you'll have friends you didn't even realize you had beating down your door in search of your famous cup. If you're not ready to become a local celebrity then you should probably leave the home espresso brewing business to someone else or, at the very least, keep the secret of your new found skills to yourself.

1. The will and determination to tough it out through the long hard nights when the thought of creating the perfect espresso seems like an impossible task that you are destined never to achieve. Only the bravest will survive and you'll have to the perseverance of a saint if your going to be one of them.

2. A truly awesome espresso machine - Taking espresso making seriously requires lots of cash. If you can't put your money on the line then don't even bother trying to make great coffee, you have already failed before you have even begun.

3. A good coffee bean grinder - A grinder that can produce consistently fine grains of coffee that haven't been heated during the process is worth is weight in gold and if I'm honest will probably cost about its weight in gold. Good coffee grinders are not cheap but don't think you can get away with buying the 40$ blade grinder available from Amazon. Cheap blade grinders aways give an inconsistent grind which is unsuitable for use in an espresso machine and to make matters worse they usually heat the coffee to such a degree that many of the essential coffee oils are destroyed.

4. Mind blowing roasted coffee beans - OK I'm exaggerating a little here. You will need to find good coffee beans from a variety of suppliers online, locally and through mail order. Find someone that can supply coffee beans which are consistently good and which suits you palate. Trial and error is the best method available but you should be able to get some pointers as to the best coffee beans available from your area from fellow coffee geeks.

So making great coffee in your home is not the simplest thing in the world. I mean its not as easy as making a great bit of toast, although toast aficionados would probably argue that much effort must be put into creating the perfect slice of toast much in the same way as I do with coffee.

Keep in mind that doing anything in this world that is great requires a little effort but at the end of the day you get out of it what you put in and when you finally have all your coffee making equipment at you disposal and have mastered the required skills you can be sure that the effort will have been worth it.