Have you ever added pumpkin spice syrup to your coffee and ended up tasting mostly sugar? Autumn is here, and I’ve always loved this time of year. The weather is still warm, but no longer unbearably hot. The leaves begin to dry, the parks look different each week, and there are fewer people everywhere. I…
Does coffee somehow taste better when autumn arrives? There are only a few days left before autumn begins, and honestly, I’m ready for it. Summer gets too hot, everywhere is crowded, and after a while, I just want things to slow down. Autumn is still warm here, but not unbearably hot, so I can sit…
With summer around, now it is time to make some cold icy coffees. Here in Portugal, this week has been really hot. The kind of heat where you open the window and nothing happens. No fresh air. It feels like we are living inside a sauna, and the last thing I feel like doing is…
Most compact coffee grinders sound good on paper until you actually use them at home. Then the little annoyances show up. Grounds cling to everything, the cup tastes a little uneven, the motor screams across the kitchen, or the whole grinder feels like one bad morning away from cracking apart. That’s why I wanted this…
I lived in an apartment once where the kitchen was genuinely small. Not cozy-small. I mean, small-small. Arms stretched, fingertips touched both walls. Everything in that kitchen had to earn its place . The toaster, the kettle, and the cutting board were on top of the microwave because there was nowhere else for them. We…
A few years ago, getting into espresso felt… expensive. Machines like the Jura E8 were everywhere, polished, automatic, doing everything short of drinking the coffee for you. Some of them look like they might start talking back if you press the wrong button. Joking. Probably. Then you check what they cost and pause for a…
I remember a conversation with a friend who loved good coffee but had absolutely zero interest in becoming a home barista. No tamping rituals. No fiddling with grind size at 6:30 in the morning. Just press a button and get a decent cappuccino. Honestly… a lot of people feel the same way. That’s exactly why…
I still remember when I first got into coffee, I always leaned toward long cups. I like to sip, pause, and come back to it. Espresso disappeared too fast. Back then, I didn’t even own a proper machine. I used a moka pot, brewed it strong, added hot water, and confidently called it an Americano….
Moka pots were one of the first ways I ever started brewing coffee at home. Back then, I didn’t care about design or materials. I had something close to the classic Bialetti model. It made good coffee, was easy to use, and simple to clean. That was enough. Over time, especially while working on Coffee…
Are you stuck trying to figure out which espresso tamper makes sense for you? Once you start looking, it turns into a rabbit hole: flat base, convex, spring-loaded, automatic and things feel more complicated than they should. Questions pile up quickly. Will this fit my portafilter? Do I really need a spring-loaded tamper? And since…