The five-minute routine that fixes most bad espresso
Before you buy a better machine: four things that cost nothing and account for most of the difference between a sour shot and a good one.
Sofia Almeida
Pulled espresso professionally for six years before writing about the machines. Owns four thermometers and trusts two of them.
5 articles · 2 reviews · Average score awarded 8.1
The best espresso setup for a home kitchen
Six machines and five grinders, 900 shots, and one conclusion most buyers get backwards: spend the money on the grinder first.
Brioso Piccolo E1 review: café pressure on a 24 cm footprint
A proper 58 mm group and PID control in the smallest machine Brioso makes. One boiler, though — and you will feel it every time you want milk.
Brioso Grind X review: grind quality you can taste, retention you cannot ignore
A 64 mm flat-burr grinder at $299 that produces genuinely narrow particle distribution, and holds on to 1.4 g of every dose.
Reading a spec sheet: the six numbers that predict how a product feels
Most specifications describe a laboratory. A few describe your Tuesday. Here is how to tell them apart, in any category.
The list
Know before you buy.
One email a week: what we scored, what changed, and what we quietly stopped recommending. No sponsored picks, unsubscribe anytime.