COMMENTARY, June 24 — First the paper filter is folded along the seam. The resultant cone is placed into a beautiful dripper, clear as crystal. Hot water is poured into the filter to rinse it, then drained.

Now it’s time to tip the freshly ground coffee into the dripper. Start the timer and then a slow, steady pour, allowing the grounds to “bloom”, rising like a cloud.

Sounds like a familiar scenario in your favourite café? Yet what is remarkable is that this is happening as frequently within the walls of private homes as well.

With the growing interest in specialty coffee, there has been a rise in amateur enthusiasts whom we may call “home baristas.”

Perhaps the trend has been there all along; after all, a decent café that prides itself on its coffee often sells single origin coffee beans for customers to purchase and bring home.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown might have just sped things up, when everyone was stuck indoors and could only order their favourite Americanos or caffè lattes from their regular coffee shop.

One easy way to start brewing coffee at home is with Italian-style moka pots.

An espresso machine, even one designed for home use, can cost thousands of ringgit. Hardly a budget friendly option. But coffee aficionados soon discovered a more affordable alternative — pour over coffee drippers for hand brewing.

One easy way to start brewing coffee at home is with Italian-style moka pots. I remember my friend Manuel who would brew coffee every morning using a moka pot on the stove top as a student in Milan.

Later when we studied together in Munich, he would teach me how to do the same. The moka pot, invented by Alfonso Bialetti, begins with ground coffee in a basket; when heated, boiling water pressurised by steam is pushed through this basket and the resultant coffee is collected in the uppermost chamber.

Manuel called the cups he made espressos, though moka pots extract coffees at lower pressures compared to a commercial espresso machine. Still, it’s a convenient cuppa at home!

A colleague shared a story about how her friend bought such a moka pot, failing to realise these come in different sizes. Manuel used a Moka Express that produces one espresso cup when alone; a slightly larger one that made up to three espresso when I was around.

My colleague’s friend got a six-cup moka pot — which is probably a lot more coffee than most of us want in the morning! (But then again, I could be wrong; we all know folks who only deem coffee worth drinking if it has triple espresso shots in it… or more.)

So many options for coffee brewing equipment.

There are so many other options for coffee brewing equipment, of course, from the classic Japanese pour over drippers such as the Hario V60 and the Kalita Wave to the elegant Chemex 6-Cup Brewer and easy-to-use Clever Coffee Dripper (which is an immersion brewer, and one I am personally fond of using at home).

For those who prefer plungers, there are the redoubtable French press (also known as a cafetière) as well as the more modern and sleek Aeropress (first introduced at the 2005 CoffeeFest trade show in Seattle).

Some have preferred more traditional methods such as using flannel drip coffee filter (popularised in Hong Kong cha chaan teng as si mut nai cha or “pantyhose milk tea”; it can also be used to brew coffee) or the Vietnamese phin used to make dark, robust coffee meant to be sweetened with condensed milk.

What you use at home to brew coffee is up to you and might well be a reflection of your personality (my preference for the Clever Coffee Dripper mentioned above might have a lot to do with my lazy nature or a perfectionist pursuit of consistency; both needn’t be mutually exclusive).

For one thing, whenever I am travelling and staying at a hotel, I cannot resist making use of the complimentary coffee machine at the minibar area. These days, most hotels use some model of coffee capsule or pod machine.

The results are inevitably terrible, ranging from uninspiring to absolutely undrinkable. But it is fun to try every time I check into a new hotel, perhaps in vain belief that one day they would make a decent coffee pod.

Yes, sometimes you create monsters. Brew coffee at home often enough and soon you might find yourself labelled as a coffee snob. An appellation I vehemently defend myself against but I have friends who hear only a compliment.

Pour-over coffee lovers are learning the craft of hand brewing.

Becoming a home barista can be a badge of honour, of claiming your membership in an exclusive tribe.

Whatever the reasons and results, benevolent or baneful, home baristas are mostly a community of like minded folks sharing tips of the trade and geeking out over a lifelong passion.

Everyone begins with curiosity, then as they transition to become hobbyists, soon brewing coffee at home is a way of life. When pour-over coffee lovers learn the craft of hand brewing, something inside of them flourishes.

Perhaps that feeling is camaraderie or kinship. Whenever I travel, I always make it a point to hunt down really good coffee roasters in distant cities and buy bags of beans back to give to my favourite baristas.

Yes, it is a souvenir (somewhat more useful than touristy fridge magnets) but it is also a way to share a common love with those you respect and appreciate. Certainly many of us first learn about brewing coffee at home from these baristas and these cafés, perhaps even purchasing our first bag of beans from them.

The cynical amongst us might argue that, of course, it is in the best interests of such cafés and coffee roasters to educate their customers; now they get double the business — once for the cups they sell in the shop and once more for the beans bought to take home.

The result: a beautiful brew… in the comforts of your own home.

But I like to believe that it is something more meaningful than that.

For when you happen to have a really good day and brew a truly beautiful cuppa in the comforts of your own home, these are the ones who would rejoice too and cheer you on. These are your people; like you, they are baristas too.

For more coffee and café stories, visit coffeeforbeginners.com.

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