Hi!
I know its been a while but i have been busy.
The story so far
Boy have I gotten passionate about coffee lately. With no small help from the guys down at CoffeeSnobs I have gone from making an ok coffee at home, to making a pretty damn fine one (if i say so myself, and i do, often). Sure theres room for improvement, but isnt there always. I have gone wild for everything coffee.
As per earlier post, I was saving money by drinking coffee i make myself as opposed to buying it every morning. Ive gone one step further and roast it at home as well. Initially i started out with an air popper. Fairly easy and cheap. The main problem was volume. Actually two different types of volume. When roasting coffee, you listen out for what is known as the first crack and second crack. These audible clues will tell you that your coffee is nearing the stages you want it to be in for however you like your coffee. In a air popper, i was limited to roasting approximately 100 grams at a time, and because of the noise of the popper, i could nor properly hear second crack. Solution, make a corretto roaster. A corretto, named after the coffee snobs user who came up with the idea, is essentially made up of two parts. The first being a heat gun - obviously used to apply heat, and a bread maker - the basket of which can handle high temperatures and also agitate the beans while doing so. The advantages of this are again volume and volume. The bread machine is less noisy than the popper, and also allows me to roast between 300 and 400 grams of coffee at once. Another advantage is that the roasting times take a little bit longer. This allows for richer flavour as the caramelisation process is more drawn out.
I still need to add a thermometer to the mix so i can get better consistency out of my roasting but as it is, its pretty damn fine. I have had much success with many varieties of bean. I tell you, green coffee beans do not much look like the final product, and i would not recommend trying one raw 
So aside from roasting coffee, I have also obtained some ibriks (also known as cezve) to start experimenting making turkish coffee at home for that real zing. (no i will not also install a hookah though it is tempting).
Finally, in a bit of a risky call, i have taken the ebay plunge again and bought a commercial level grinder (should be here next week). Thought he EM0480 is pretty good, i need something a little better. As they say, the best upgrade you can do for your coffee machine, is upgrade your grinder. With a little luck, I shall see an improvement in what I am drinking.
I have also gotten significantly better at milk frothing. I am certainly no latte artist (yet) but my microfoam (its all about the microfoam) is getting pretty good.
Where too from here? is the next question, and the answer lies in the next level of machine. Its probably out of my budget range right now, but i will soon be arranging to meet up with Chris from Talk Coffee to have a look at the pointier end of coffee machines. The gaggia classic is a fantastic machine at its price point. But when making more than 2 coffees, especially if doing milk based drinks, it struggles. So I am considering a better machine, one that has heat exchange and a larger boiler so that volume of steam is never an issue. Also, the higher end machines have better thermal stability, which in theory will enable me to do an even better shot.
The conclusion
Am I obsessed? Sure. I would agree that yes, I am. But hey, coffee is the second most traded commodity on the planet after oil. So i doubt I am alone. Being more snobbish about my coffee has changed my drinking habits. Its not only to save money that I drink most of my coffee at home, I cannot stand the taste of some of the cafes produce. They burn their coffee, have the coffee ground too early before pulling the shot, scald the milk, use old beans and any other number of things. My taste buds have become ridiculously discerning on the subject. Also, though i used to be a strictly milk with coffee all the time kind of guy, my improved espresso shots see me drinking more and more short blacks or ristrettos. Its a beautiful thing. I love my coffee, and with a little effort, my coffee seems to be loving me.
(more coffee posts to come - i am sure)
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