diving into espresso

Turning thirty this year made me feel the pressure of the typical ritual middle aged men perform: Will I start baking sour-dough bread? Will I buy a gravel bike and a Strava subscription? Will I get into Warhammer 40k? While these options have potential, I decided to go the espresso route. Switching from working in an office to working from home was the biggest influence for this.

I got into coffee ten years ago. I got myself a french press and good beans, before going deeper, aquiring the James Hoffmann coffee coffee table book (see what I did there?), and finally an AeroPress. I tried coffee beans from the store and specialty beans from a cooperative¹ that charges 30€ per kilo, and doesn’t import more that 3600kg a week. Some years later I switched to instant coffee due to health complications. Now, in 2026, I’m trying espresso!

Apparently, there is duality: You imagine a lovely morning, having just had breakfast, reading your newspaper - and you fancy a good espresso. The reality is that you’ll be still dialing in your espresso, pouring shot after shot, adjusting grind size, coffee weight, your scale and your thingamajigs. Sounds great to me!

It’s been a long time since I bought anything with a plug, so researching what to buy became quite an effort. Coffee Kev and Espresso Aficionados both stood out. After going through hours of video reviews, I decided buy the DeLonghi Dedica and a used Baratza Sette 270Wi. Why these? The Dedica is more on the lower end compared to the grinder, but grind size and consistency seemed more important to me than buying a better machine to effectively boil water.

I always wondered: Do you need all the equipment? A tamper, a scale, a WDT, extra towels for cleaning, water sprays? I tried to use all the stock equipment, but effectively caved in to buy most of this one week later. Making espresso is finicky, and you’re aiming for consistency - which is hard to achieve given the amount of variables.

I bought some quality beans, but they’re mostly gone now: It took me quite a while to dial them in, and I can only drink that much espresso. A lot went to waste because the shots were either too sour or stalled the machine. Also, just swishing espresso, not drinking it, is enough to give me a serious level of caffeination. Beware.

Right now, I’m getting better at it every day; my bean to cup ratio is improving, and the espresso is starting to taste alright. Maybe I just need to tweak my grind size a bit…