A person who seriously brews coffee at home.

Compared with China's long-standing tea culture, drinking coffee is really an imported habit. Although there are countless coffee shops in Shanghai, if you want to drink to your own taste, you have to cook it in your own home. If you have a low-utilization bar at home, why not turn it into an exclusive coffee bar, cheer up here in the morning, start the day's work, and invite friends to come over for a drink on weekend evenings and chat until dawn.

People who have time to patiently brew coffee at home every day are usually very demanding on the quality of life and want to create a warm and comfortable atmosphere and make a cup of personalized coffee that cannot be copied by hand, instead of just buying a fully automatic capsule coffee machine. to make mechanized drinks. The taste journey of the private coffee bar should be a slow three-stage style, from the rich smell of ground beans to the layers of flavor of coffee powder extracted and filtered in hot water, and finally into the coffee cup in hand to bring refreshing coffee fragrance. Each step requires a detailed cooperation of techniques, utensils and the environment.

Since we are brewing coffee at home, it is too perfunctory to buy ready-made coffee powder to make it. Coffee beans are easier to preserve than coffee powder, and in this cold winter, the sound and smell of grinding beans are warm, and only freshly ground coffee has a pure mellow. If you like to try various flavors of cooking, a bean grinder that can grind coffee powder of different sizes is a must at home. If the countertop of the coffee bar is small and the bearing capacity is insufficient, then the light and easy-to-clean electric blade bean grinder is a more practical choice; people who pay special attention to the thickness of coffee powder can also choose a stone-grinding electric bean grinder to adjust the particle size. If you are keen on pure handcraftsmanship and want to create an old-fashioned cafe atmosphere at home, then the retro hand grinder is undoubtedly the most fun equipment and decoration.

There's something in the coffee pot.

After grinding the beans, choose a suitable coffee pot to make the taste you like. The French filter coffee maker is relatively the simplest and lightest one, using a filter to filter out the coffee grounds cleanly to get a crisp quality coffee. The French coffee pot is easy to operate and can be pressed and brewed with fine coffee powder ground by the graphite bean grinder. If you have a preference for deep-roasted espresso, you can choose a mocha coffee pot, which is usually small and delicate. The fragrant coffee liquid extracted by high temperature steam is very suitable for drinking before going out in the morning. As for having time to slowly play with handmade coffee, you might as well add a siphon coffee pot, which uses the principle of steam pressure to mix hot water with coffee powder through two containers, a siphon and a filter cloth to completely extract the ingredients from the coffee powder. The process of coffee liquid rising up and down makes people feel full of experimental fun. In addition to the coffee pot, female coffee lovers who love cappuccinos will also need a milk foamer to make delicate bubbles.

Choose cups carefully

Many people know that drinking Kungfu Tea's cup is fastidious, but they do not know that there is also knowledge in the coffee cup. The cup that drinks tea has a shallow bottom, a wide mouth and high light transmittance, so that people can appreciate the color of the tea soup, and the aroma of tea can spread, while the mouth of the coffee cup is narrower, the material is thicker, and the light transmittance is low, it is better to keep the coffee hot for a long time, and it is usually white inside, so that people can clearly distinguish the grease of the coffee itself and the layer of milk foam. If you take a closer look at what kind of cups are used in frequent coffee shops, you can not escape the two materials of pottery and porcelain. Pottery cups are more suitable for deep-roasted, rich coffee, while porcelain cups are suitable for light-tasting types. The shape of the coffee cup is also important. Espresso and macchiato usually drink in small cups of less than 100 milliliters, while coffee with high milk and cocoa content, such as lattes and mochas, can use mugs without cup holders.

Lao Mai, a veteran coffee expert, runs a retro-style coffee shop and grocery store, and helps his friends do some interior design in his spare time. In the past, Lao Mai used to make coffee at home, and the small bar was decorated by him as a mini family cafe, which did not cost much money, but made the countertops, walls and lights very warm. He shared with us the practical experience of building a family coffee bar.

Quan A

Q1. What's the best size of a family coffee bar? What kind of material is suitable for the counter of the bar?

A: I don't think the coffee bar needs to be too big. Like mine, the coffee shop is quite small. It is not big enough to have a dining room at home, but it is precisely because it is small that it makes people feel warm. Find an old board with peeling paint and mottled scratches on it, grind it with sandpaper and prop it against the wall as a coffee bar.

Q2. How to decorate around the bar to create a warm atmosphere?

A: for ordinary families, the best decorations are travel souvenirs, self-taken photos and children's graffiti. If you can buy European-style wooden frames, it would be interesting to frame them up and hang them on the wall. If an old house is being demolished near your home, you might as well take the time to take a look around, find out if any stairboards have been discarded in the corner, pick them up and repaint them, and flatten the grocery shelves nailed to the wall to make teeth. It is very retro and environmentally friendly.

Q3. What kind of lamps are suitable for decorating family coffee?

A: I prefer to use old-fashioned street lamps to create a dim atmosphere. The environment for drinking coffee should be warm and warm. With a few light bulbs with low wattage, warmer color temperature or neutral warmth, you can feel leisurely and undisturbed. If you need enough brightness to operate on the bar, it is enough to install a spotlight on the ceiling.