Coffee, what do the experts say? Quite frankly who cares, I like what I like and that is good enough for me. In the google age you can find out how to do anything so who needs a coffee expert, not me. Well, I have had 25 years making and selling coffee, and I have owned just about every style of home coffee maker, I’m done making coffee, until now, but more of that later.

I am a big believer in your personal choice when it comes to coffee. I remember when we first opened our shop, 1996. No one knew what a café latte was and most people went for a single espresso as it was the cheapest on the menu. Only to look horrified as a tiny cup of very strong coffee arrived with not a chance of milk and sugar getting into the cup. We’ve come a long way since then coffee shops in the thousands and really good home coffee makers and an excellent choice of beans and ground coffee. We are spoilt for choice who needs an expert, not me or you for that matter.

Ask someone who uses coffee pods and it would be hard to convince them to change. Ask a someone who uses a stove top moka to change, no chance they’d rather drink dishwater than give up that moka pot. No, we don’t need an expert to tell us that drinking a cup of coffee in your own home is the best. Whether your entertaining guests or just kicking back while everyone else is out. It’s your way or no way thank you very much.

So, if your new to home coffee and you are considering getting onboard, bravo good for you. Where do you start how much will it cost which beans should I use? Ah, now you need an expert someone to give you the lowdown, the best way to make good coffee at home is… Look I’ll admit it it’s a minefield of information, not just the machines but the coffee, now there is just too much information to take in. Well, what would you do? What do you use and what coffee do you drink? To be honest I only recently invested in a proper home coffee machine, prior to that I trusted the good old cafetiere and occasionally a moka pot for special occasions. What about pods? No not for me, pods are ok but think vinyl or streamed music, I put up with streamed music but I prefer the real thing. So, with the lockdown I missed proper coffee shop coffee so I bought a bean to cup coffee machine. I used my own coffee from my coffee shop and I was amazed.  But I’d still say try a moka pot, dust off the cafetiere and don’t rush to pods, give proper coffee a chance, what’s the rush. Another huge consideration is cost, both machines and beans have a massive impact on your home finances so more of that later and you will surprised at just how much you spend, I was.