Caffeine Tools, Caffeine Obsession

Obsession can be delicious, and it can keep you awake at night. That’s a pretty accurate way to describe my addiction to coffee and my fascination with all things brewing, though when Mark Prince asked me to write about my experience with coffee and my memories of CoffeeGeek, I was equal parts flattered and terrified. 

Caffeine may be my addiction-of-choice, but coffee generally fuels my writing, rather than being the subject of it. With 10+ years of writing about gadgets and cars for consumer tech site SlashGear, I know how demanding expert audiences can be. Could my amateur interest ever make the grade?

The Journey

My coffee journey started with Nescafe instant granules, and then my parents 2-in-1 drip and “espresso” machine with a pressurized basket and as many bars as you can achieve when you’re basically boiling a thermos of water. After that came a super-automatic, and then finally a La Spaziale Mini Vivaldi II paired with a Baratza Vario.

The Vivaldi stayed behind when I moved from the UK to the US, its 240 voltage unwelcome, finding a spot on my brother’s kitchen counter instead. He, clearly, has caught the espresso bug too: in a few months time he and his partner will be opening a coffee shop practically in the shadow of Liverpool’s iconic Anglican Cathedral.

In my heart of hearts, I was holding out to replace the La Spaziale with a La Marzocco GS/3. Mark’s epic review, from prototype to production model, did nothing to dissuade that goal. Putting a little aside month to month, whenever I remembered; figuring that pour-over and French Press could placate me until I made that one big, splashy purchase. 

Suddenly grounded from work travel during the pandemic, however, plans changed. I’ve always been a geek – of the gadget sort – and so when I saw what the team at Decent Espresso were doing, I was hooked. Compact, deeply flexible, and most importantly forward-looking rather than sticking rigidly to the pattern of classic machines, the DE1 also had the benefit of being half the price of a GS/3. Figuring I’d be drinking my coffee at home rather than on the road for the foreseeable future, I staked my place on the Decent order list and waited. 

My CoffeeGeek consumption over the years has been punctuated with fitful binges. Times when I’ve been researching a new purchase, maybe, or digital window-shopping. Trying to figure out whether the problem I was having getting the right extraction, or microfoam, or water recipe was mine alone, or a pitfall others had experienced. One where expert voices and keen amateurs could help me navigate my way out. 

I’m about six months into DE1 ownership, rediscovering rusty espresso techniques and marvelling at what’s now relatively attainable in a Niche Zero grinder, something that once would’ve demanded a titan who is more at home in an actual coffee shop. One of the things that attracted me to the Decent was just how amenable it is to those times when you want to tinker: tweaking pressure, temperature, and all the other factors that go into making an interesting cup. It feels a thoroughly modern machine, ready and willing to experiment with me when I’m feeling adventurous, but predictable when I just need a morning wakeup.

Ironically, over the years my tolerance for caffeine has dwindled somewhat. 3-4 cups a day is my sensible limit at this point. Still, I think it’s worth it; those few cups I’m drinking are so much better than what I’d pay $4 for at a regular cafe, even with my own average barista skills. 

It’s that which really makes me so excited about the reinvention of CoffeeGeek, as a site and as a resource. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about technology in my years writing about it, it’s that most people aren’t fully using the devices they’ve paid so handsomely for. The same, I suspect, goes for coffee-makers of any variety, whether espresso, filter, siphon, or whatever else. 

The accessibility of great coffee has never been better. Few hobbies, too, have such low barriers to entry: a drip cone and some paper filters, perhaps, or a cheap French press. A hand grinder, or a refurb Baratza if you’re feeling lavish. And of course, most important, a bag of great beans and a way to boil some water. I struggle to think of many pastimes in which “geeks” in the truest, most devoted sense of the title are still often using the same hardware that the newbies are. 

Both groups — and everyone in-between — benefit from a trusted, independent, knowledgable voice. CoffeeGeek may sound like it caters to the most fastidious of brewers, but the requirements for membership have always been straightforward: enthusiasm and an eagerness to make a better drink. The site may be relaunching, shinier and easier to use than ever, but it’s that ethos – of coaxing nirvana out of simple beans in whatever way you can – which will always earn it a spot in my bookmarks.