Having grown tired of paying dealers for my daily fix I invested this year's birthday money (thank you again!) into my own espresso machine and entered into the brave new Marxist world of the workers owning the means of production.
And what a murky world it is! The first difficult decision is the machine - a piece of equipment that ranges from $35 to around $21,000. Thankfully my budget was the constraining factor here (until Hannah becomes CEO of Chevron), and I opted for a very nice and good value Lello Ariete:
Ooooooh, shiny!
Next comes the grinder. None of your blade rubbish which, as you know, causes too much coffee dust. If you're serious about producing high-quality (and readers will know how serious I am about producing high-quality...) you need a burr grinder. Cuisinart came to my rescue here. Then it was the small matter of the milk jug, the tamper, and the cups (hand-couriered down from coffee capital Seattle by Dana, arriving next week!) There's no choice when it comes to the coffee beans.
If I thought buying the stuff was complicated enough it's child's play compared to actually making the drink. Wow. What coarseness of grind do you need? How much coffee do you put in the little holder thing? How much water do you put through? Don't even start me on steaming milk...
The aim there is not to produce big bubbles but microfoam. What? Fortunately YouTube is full of helpful videos showing you how to do it. Unfortunately it's not as easy as it looks. Who would have thought skill would be involved?
But one of the joys of living in Berkeley is that you're surrounded by experts in almost everything, and they're all very happy to share their knowledge with you. Especially if they're Israeli. So through a combination of ex-coffee shop employees Moran and Anat, ex-bartender Shauli, and connoisseur Dana shouting instructions via Skype ("hold the milk jug down! DOWN!!") I've managed to produce something not exactly like but not too dissimilar from a cappuccino.
Anyway, for some reason I haven't been able to sleep for the last six days so I'll go and try again. Once this shaking stops.
Only the best!
All ready to sacrifice themselves in the pursuit of perfection.
Two dry skinny venti machiattos (no cream) to go.
Anat gets steamy.
Some good microfoam here, and she didn't even need to look at YouTube.
Moran used to work as a waitress, and still expects a tip.
Now when it comes to pouring you can't just plonk that milk into the cup. Oh no. The worrying trend is towards latte art - little creations in the foam. Hearts, leaves, tulips...
Here's what the experts do:
And here are some of ours...
From me: a rabbit-snake hybrid...with wings!
Who knew that Moran could write in Chinese?
Anat produces a pineapple. Impressive!
Here's my latest go. A little insipid, but I like to think I'm getting there.
Phew! It's time for a cup of tea.
