Making Coffee At Home Doesn’t Have To Suck Anymore — It’s Better Than Ever
Ask an American to name a coffee city, and they’ll probably say Seattle, Washington. We can credit Starbucks, founded in the city’s Pike Place Market in 1971, for that association — and for shaping America’s view and relationship with coffee. But obviously, there’s a lot of great coffee in Seattle, so much so that there are long lists of the “best” shops to check out. But as locals have found — and will tell you — it just might cost you a pretty penny.
Brew at home: In Seattle, the price of coffee has become, let’s call it, robust(a). Due to all-time highs in coffee futures, rising labor costs, and other operational factors, a latte here could cost you $6, $8, or even $10 — before you add a tip or get hit with a ‘service charge’ (lol). Even a regular cup of joe is pushing $3 or $4. It sounds wild, but it is increasingly the reality across the US. As a result, coffee enthusiasts are reshaping their morning (and sometimes evening and nightly) rituals, investing in quality beans from local roasters, and building serious homebrew setups.
- For years, the $50 8-cup Chemex Pour-Over Glass and Hario’s $50 V60 have been go-to’s for black coffee drinkers — just add filters, ground coffee, and hot water.
- For another $149, you can grind the coffee yourself with a Baratza Encore — or shell out for the sleek $345 Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2 for a designer brew bar.
Make Coffee At Home, They Said. It’ll Be Cheaper, They Said.
The “make your coffee at home” trope is as old as personal finance advice itself, but the religious emphasis on avocado toast and $8 lattes has always implied that coffee at home requires sacrifice; that it has to suck. But increasingly, a new wave of home machines is rapidly changing what it takes to make cafe-quality drinks at home.
- Fellow’s $603 Aiden Precision Coffee Maker and Ode Brew Grinder bundle gives homebrewers an easy way to make high-quality pour-overs in minutes without much experience.
- On the espresso front, the learning curve is still a bit steeper, but the $649 Breville Bambino Plus and Baratza Encore ESP bundle — or the Flair 58 Manual Espresso Machine — offers an affordable on-ramp.
The future looks bright: New machines from Ninja, Meticulous, and Fellow are also flirting with high-tech features at extremely attractive prices, promising to make home espresso setups more accessible by providing feedback, tips, and tools that make your home barista side gig more appealing, rather than outright expensive and time-consuming.