Which are the most essential toos for a home barista;

You have invested in a good espresso machine, you have two or three separate homemade blends and you are ready to enjoy a unique espresso. Ready? Not exactly! No one is automatically home barista, because in addition to experience, they also need the right tools.

Making a good espresso at home is a process that requires experimentation, experience and control of many factors in order for the result to satisfy us. Experience, of course, is conquered by practice, but to control the factors that are critical to espresso, a minimum of equipment is necessary.

Of course, especially when we make our first steps in the espresso world, it is not necessary to accumulate specialized tools or to incur excessive costs. A good collection of barista tools is slowly being built, starting with the necessary espresso tools, which we can find at advantageous prices and many choices.

Which are the nesessary tools for a home barista;

Coffee grinder: If our espresso machine does not have a built-in mill, buying a coffee grinder is the first important step we need to do. There are options available in ground coffee, but grinding coffee at the time of preparing our espresso adds points to experience and of course leads to a better cup, as freshly ground coffee is richer in flavor. Buying a good coffee grinder is one of the most important things anyone has to do to find the perfect homemade espresso.

 

Tamper: Tamping, that is the compaction of ground coffee in the machine shutter, is a particularly important process when making an espresso. Proper tamping plays a particularly important role, as this partly depends on the proper extraction of coffee. Most machines include a cheap, plastic press, which however is not particularly ergonomic and does not meet the expectations of an informed home barista. A number of tampers with ergonomic design and different features are marketed and all you need to know is the diameter of your portafilter in mm, so that the press that we choose is fully compatible with your machine.

Precision scale: Only some grms can ruin or take off an espresso. Even experienced home barista trust their scales and not their "eye", as we are talking about differences that move in half a gram. If we get used to experimenting with different coffee blends (and therefore different bean size everytime), the only safe solution is to measure the dose of ground coffee with a small scale. Although the enrichment of our collection of barista tools with a scales may seem too exaggerated, it is one of the steps that can really solve our hands.

 

Thermometer: Temperature plays an important role both in extracting the espresso and creating the right milk froth. Although most espresso machines naturally offer temperature control, a thermometer is always useful for a home barista, since it will give us more control over the creation of milk foam, but it will also be absolutely necessary if we decide to experiment with other brewing methods, such as the pour - over method.

Timer: Extracting a correct espresso depends on the degree of grinding, the temperature and the extraction time. A simple stopwatch will confirm that the extraction of our espresso is done at the appropriate time, and will allow us to change the time variable as a function of changing the other two variables. Still, a timer is an indispensable addition to a barista tools collection, as it is essential for almost any extraction mode.

Are there other nessesary barista tools?

Without a doubt, there are many other barista tools that will take off the experience of making a homemade espresso and make us more efficient. If we have a taste of espresso and really love coffee, we can build our toolbox step by step, adding every other tool. A knock box is very useful and practical, as well as a tamper base, and can be bought in the second year by anyone who wants to enrich his equipment. Still, the specialized tools for latte art are usually extremely economical and fun - the most economical gift for every coffee lover!

Of course, the above list is far from being classified as complete, as the machine cleaning tools are absent, which are of course absolutely essential for machine maintenance and stable coffee quality.

Whether you are now starting to make your own espresso, looking for information in the forum and taking notes for extraction, you are an experienced home barista, the only sure thing is that the above barista tools are a very good investment. Everything, anyway, is done to drink the espresso we deserve!