Ratio is the whole game
Espresso is usually 1:2 — 18g of coffee in, about 36g of liquid out. Pour-over runs nearer 1:16. Write the ratio down and a great cup stops being an accident.
The journal
Every cup worth repeating, repeatable. Nothing here is for sale — this is yours.
Remember a cup
My cup
No cups yet. The next one you get right goes here — with the recipe, the note, and the morning attached.
The shelf
What you've poured and pulled, newest first.
Your cups
Nothing logged yet.
The notebook
Plain-English notes. No jargon for its own sake.
Grind changes everything
Finer grind slows the water and pulls more out; coarser speeds it up and pulls less. It is the first dial to move, and usually the only one you need.
Sour or bitter
Sour and thin means under-extracted — grind finer or brew longer. Harsh and dry means over-extracted — grind coarser or brew shorter. Almost every bad cup is one of these two.
Process, in plain English
Washed coffees have the fruit removed before drying and read clean and bright. Naturals dry inside the fruit and read heavier and sweeter. Honey sits between the two.
Water is most of it
A brewed cup is around 98% water. Temperature near 200°F and water that is filtered but not stripped of minerals will change your coffee more than a new grinder.
Latte, cappuccino, flat white
Same two ingredients, different proportions and different milk. A latte is the most milk with a thin layer of foam. A cappuccino is roughly equal espresso, steamed milk and a deep cap of foam. A flat white is smaller, with a thin microfoam and usually a double shot, so the coffee stays in front.
What a mocha actually is
Espresso, chocolate and steamed milk. A regular mocha uses dark or bittersweet chocolate; a white mocha swaps in white chocolate, which is sweeter and has no cocoa solids. If it tastes flat, the chocolate is usually fighting the milk, not the espresso — try less milk before more syrup.
Frappé, frappuccino, granita
A frappé is coffee shaken or blended with ice until foamy. The blended frozen drinks most cafés sell are ice, milk, syrup and coffee blended smooth. A granita is different — a sweetened liquid frozen while being scraped, so it stays coarse and crystalline rather than creamy. Different texture, different technique.
Steaming milk
The sweet spot is roughly 140–155°F. Milk tastes sweetest near there because lactose has broken down without scorching. Past about 160°F the proteins scald and it turns thin and papery — and you cannot re-steam it back.
Iced drinks need more coffee
Ice melts into the cup, so a recipe built for hot will read watery over ice. Brew stronger, or pull the same shot over less milk. Cold brew sidesteps this by being concentrated from the start.
Settings
Your data lives in this browser and goes nowhere else.
Your data
ESPObarista stores every entry locally on this device. There is no account, no server copy, and nothing is transmitted anywhere. Export is free and always will be — take your cups with you whenever you like.