Compact machines
Real espresso in twenty centimetres
Small machines used to mean bad espresso. The compact category grew up, and the compromises moved somewhere more sensible.
Articles
Reporting, explainers and opinion from the Buna Lab newsroom, on everything from burrs to brewing water.
Professional machines
Volumetric, paddle or button
How a bar machine decides when to stop a shot, why volumetric dosing drifts, and what a paddle gives back to the person holding it.
Professional machines
A commercial machine at home
Power, plumbing, drainage and heat: what a bar machine actually demands of a kitchen, and when the answer is to buy a smaller machine instead.
Manual machines
Bringing a 1970s lever back to life
A fifty-year-old lever machine is mostly brass, a spring and four seals. Here is the order to work in, and the two faults that mean walk away.
Whole bean coffee
Resting coffee: why a fresh roast is not ready yet
Roasted coffee is full of carbon dioxide for days. How long to rest beans for filter and for espresso, and what a bag that is too fresh does to the cup.
Coffee around the world
The Ethiopian coffee ceremony, from green bean to third cup
Green beans roasted in a pan, pounded by hand, boiled in a clay jebena and poured three times. How buna is made, and why it takes an hour.
Troubleshooting
Why your pour over drains slowly, and how to fix it
A V60 that stalls past four minutes is rarely the recipe. Grind, fines, agitation, paper and fresh coffee, checked in the order that finds the cause fastest.
Manual machines
Lever machines: spring against direct
A spring lever pulls a curve the machine decides. A direct lever pulls the curve your arm decides. That single difference sorts every lever machine sold.
Espresso machines
What a PID actually changes
A PID holds brew temperature to a fraction of a degree. That matters for a light roast and a repeatable shot, and much less for a dark roast in milk.
Espresso machines
Single boiler, heat exchanger or dual boiler
The three ways a machine makes brew water and steam at once, what each one costs you in waiting, and which one suits how you actually drink.
Espresso machines
Buying a used espresso machine
Second hand is the cheapest route to a serious machine, and the fastest route to a boiler you cannot replace. What to check, what to walk away from.
Electric grinders
Conical or flat burrs
The burr shape argument, with the marketing removed: what each geometry does to the grind distribution, and when it matters in the cup.
Specialty coffee
Cupping at home
The protocol professionals use to taste coffee, stripped to what works on a kitchen table, and what it is actually good for.
Grind
Dialling in a new bag
A repeatable routine for the first four shots from a new coffee: what to fix, what to change, and how to know when you are done.
Filter coffee
Filter papers, cloth and metal
Bleached, natural, cloth and metal filters change body, clarity and even the oils in a filter coffee. What each one lets through, and what it holds back.
Coffee
How much caffeine is in your cup
A double espresso holds less caffeine than a mug of filter, and roast level barely matters. The numbers, and where the intuitions go wrong.
Coffee
How to read a bag of coffee
Roast date, process, altitude, varietal and the tasting notes: what each line on a bag is actually claiming, and which ones are worth paying for.
Extraction
Pre-infusion and the bloom
Wetting the coffee before you brew it properly is the same idea on an espresso machine and on a pour over. What it fixes, and how long it should last.
Techniques
Puck prep: WDT and distribution
What happens between the grinder and the group head decides the shot. Clumps, distribution tools, the WDT needle, and which steps are worth the time.
Whole bean coffee
Storing coffee at home
Oxygen, heat, light and moisture are what stale a bag of coffee. Here is what each one does, and what actually protects against them.
Coffee culture
The café menu, decoded
Ristretto, lungo, cortado, batch brew, single or double: what a specialty café menu is actually offering, and how to order the cup you want.
Cold brew
Why your cold brew tastes flat
Flat cold brew is usually under extracted, over diluted or stale, and the three have different fixes. How to find which one you have.
Arabica
Arabica and robusta, honestly
Two species, one long-running argument. What actually differs between them, why robusta earned its reputation, and where a percentage of it improves a blend.
Automatic machines
Automatic or semi-automatic: which espresso machine to buy
What the two words actually mean, which variable each machine takes out of your hands, and how to choose by how you want to spend your mornings.
Parts & accessories
Baskets, gaskets and screens: the parts that change the shot
A few pounds of replaceable parts sit between your grinder and your cup.
Bean-to-cup machines
Bean to cup machines, explained
What a bean to cup machine actually automates, what that automation costs you in control and in cleaning, and the households and offices it genuinely suits.
Ratio
Brew ratio, explained
Dose against yield, why it is written 1:2, and what actually changes as you go shorter or longer. Plus the difference between strength and extraction.
Coffee culture
Cafe culture, and what the three waves actually mean
First wave, second wave, third wave: where the phrase came from, what each one changed about the drink and the room.
Cappuccino
A cappuccino without an espresso machine
A moka pot or an AeroPress gives you concentrated coffee, not espresso. Here is how to build the drink around it, and three ways to foam milk with no wand.
Capsule machines
Capsule machines: what you gain and what you give up
Capsules buy you consistency and zero skill. They cost you money per cup, choice of coffee, freshness you can verify, and a bin full of packaging.
Coffee around the world
How the world actually drinks coffee
Ethiopian buna, the cezve, the Italian counter, Nordic filter, the Vietnamese phin, the Cuban cafecito and the Australian flat white.
Capsules
Coffee capsules: the cost per cup and the waste question
A capsule holds about five grams of coffee. Work the price up to a kilogram and the number stops being small. Here is the arithmetic, and the recycling reality.
Compact machines
Compact espresso machines for a small kitchen
A small machine is not a worse machine, it is a different set of compromises. What footprint, height and tank access really cost you, and what you keep.
Dark roast
Dark roast without the burn
A developed dark roast is sweet, heavy and smooth. A scorched one is ashy and thin.
Professional machines
Do you need a professional machine at home?
Almost certainly not, and the reasons are not about money. A commercial machine is engineered for a problem your kitchen does not have.
Troubleshooting
Espresso troubleshooting: what the shot is telling you
Read the symptom, find the likely cause, change one thing. A working order for fixing fast, choked, sour, bitter and channelling shots without guessing.
Flat white
Flat white or latte: what actually differs
Same two ingredients, two different drinks. The volume, the shot behind it and the milk texture all change, and each one follows from the first.
Production
From cherry to green bean
What happens between the tree and the sack: picking, washed, natural and honey processing, and what drying and grading do to the cup.
Grind settings
Grind settings by brew method
From espresso to cold brew, what size each method needs and why. How to find a setting on an unmarked grinder, and how to adjust by taste instead of by number.
Grinder care
Grinder care: burrs, retention and when to replace
Stale grounds in the chamber and worn burrs both ruin a shot quietly. How to clean burrs without dulling them, and how to read the signs they are finished.
Manual grinders
Hand grinders: when they beat an electric
A hand grinder buys you far better burrs for the money and almost no retention. Here is where that wins, and where an electric is worth every penny.
History of coffee
A history of coffee in five moments
How coffee travelled from the Ethiopian highlands to the world market, which parts of that story are documented and which are legend.
Decaf
How decaf is made, and why it used to taste bad
Four processes remove caffeine from green coffee, and each one leaves a different bean behind.
The roasting process
What happens inside the roaster
Drying, Maillard, first crack, development, second crack. What each phase puts into the cup, and why a roast profile is a curve rather than a setting.
Latte art
Latte art starts in the jug
Most failed patterns were lost during steaming, not pouring. Here is the texture to aim for, the kit that helps, and how to pour a heart.
Latte
Latte, cappuccino, flat white: the same two ingredients
Four drinks, one recipe. What actually separates a latte from a cappuccino, a flat white and a macchiato is cup size, milk volume and seconds of air.
Light roast
Light roast, explained
A light roast keeps the acidity, the origin character and most of the bean's density. All three are why it tastes the way it does, and why it is harder to brew.
Machine care
Machine care: the jobs you only do once a year
Descaling on the interval your water actually dictates, gaskets, shower screens, a pump pressure check, and the point where a service costs less than a repair.
Manual machines
Manual lever machines, and who they are for
Spring lever against direct lever, what shaping pressure by hand really gives you.
Medium roast
Medium roast, and why it is the safe default
First crack, then a few minutes of development. That window is where sweetness and acidity overlap, and it is why a medium roast forgives a bad grind setting.
Pod machines
Pods or capsules: the difference nobody explains
A pod is a paper disc made to an open standard. A capsule is a sealed container made to one company's. That single difference decides price, choice and waste.
Single origin
Single origin or blend: which to buy, and when
A blend is built to hit the same target all year. A single origin is a place and a season. Which one you want depends mostly on how you are brewing it.
Tamping
Tamping: level matters, pressure barely does
Where the 30 lb rule came from, why a level puck beats a hard one, and what to do before the tamper ever touches the coffee.
Equipment
The barista kit worth buying, and the kit that is not
Six pieces of kit change what comes out of your machine, and a long list of accessories does not. Here is the order to buy in and what each one actually fixes.
Flat white
The ristretto base, explained
A ristretto is not a small espresso. It is the first two thirds of one, and the grind has to move with it or the shot runs fast and sour.
Temperature
Water temperature, and what it actually changes
The 90-96 °C window, how roast level moves the right number, and why stability matters more than the setting. Plus how to test it by taste rather than by spec.
Cleaning
The weekly clean that keeps espresso tasting right
Backflushing, the group gasket and screen, baskets, the drip tray and the wand. Twenty minutes a week, and what each shot tastes like when you skip one.
Cappuccino
Which milk foams best
Protein builds the foam, fat softens it and sugar makes it taste sweet. What that means for whole, skimmed, oat and the rest at the steam wand.
Trade & economics
Who gets paid for your bag of coffee
How the C price works, what a differential is, what fair trade and direct trade do and do not guarantee.
Whole bean coffee
Whole bean or ground: what you actually lose
Grinding multiplies the surface exposed to air, and the first quarter hour costs the most. What goes, what stays, and when buying ground is the right call.
Latte
Why your latte tastes thin
A weak latte is usually arithmetic, not a weak machine. Check the ratio, then the shot, then the milk temperature, then the cup, in that order.
Cappuccino
Why your milk foam collapses
Foam that splits from the milk has one of four causes. Work through them in this order: air, whirlpool, temperature, and the wait before you pour.
Extraction
Why your espresso tastes sour
Sourness is almost always under-extraction, and under-extraction is almost always grind. Here is the order to change things in, and why that order matters.
Barista skills
Water is the ingredient nobody tests
Coffee is 98 per cent water. Hardness and alkalinity change extraction more than most equipment upgrades do.
Specialty coffee
What specialty coffee actually means
The eighty-point threshold, who assigns it, and what the label does and does not tell you about what is in the bag.
Grind
Grind size, explained properly
Particle distribution, fines, boulders, and why two grinders set to the same number produce different coffee.