Besides Microsoft Cloud Technology, I have a healthy interest in coffee. At least I have convinced myself so, and as explained in my blogpost about my journey, this is about sharing and connecting with people around the world. No better way then through common interests and sharing experience for others who come along.
I wanted to share the interest with everyone finding my blog and articles, so this is a the story of my journey in making coffee at home. Hope you enjoy it and should you ever meet me, this is one of my ice breakers 😀
Long story short (long story)
I didn’t enjoy coffee before later in my career, but started drinking coffee at work and around the city. Mainly for the social interactions, but coffee started to taste good for me. I was and have always been a black coffee kind of guy, and don’t fancy much milk-based coffee drinks. I remember everyone was so thrilled about Starbucks opening in Trondheim, Norway. But I didn’t fancy Starbucks much, as the black coffee wasn’t that good. At least compared to other coffee shops in my town. I was mainly frequenting ‘Dromedar‘ and through friendship I am very faun of the roaster and coffeebar by Tony Jacbosen, ‘Jacobsen and svart‘.
At home I didn’t make much coffee, unless we had visitors, but the working from home wasn’t legalized like it is today after covid hit us all. I had a french press, and at some point we also had a Moccamaster for filter coffee. My other half don’t fancy black coffee, so until later in this story we didn’t make her type of coffee at home.
When we moved to Oslo in a suburban house we continued to drink coffee, and we upped the game with a pod machine from Nestle. We now had access to americano pods and milk-based pods. But then we got the idea to up the coffee game even more, and changed to a Nespresso pod machine. Ordered a ton of different pods, but this wasn’t much better. We also purchased the milk frother from Nespresso, that was better and we still use it today.
We then got the idea to make coffee similar to what we bought in cafés. We where 100% in our home office at this time, so I purchased an Sage Bambino Plus espresso machine and a Sage Dose Control Pro to grind fresh beans. Also some additional equipment like WDT tool, funnel, .0g/time scale and bottomless portafilter.
This was a game changer, and at one point I tried drinking an americano pod from the Nestle machine. What surprised me most was how my tastebuds had changed, because it was now worse then coffee machines found at work and I couldn’t find myself to enjoy it anymore.
After a year with the Sage setup, it felt like we where limited and wanted to upgrade the espresso machine. That’s when I purchased a used and modified Rancilio Silvia with an Auber PID. I also got hold of an Rancilio Rocky grinder. Because it didn’t work that well to change setting on the Sage grinder back and forth between espresso and french press grinding. Rocky is loud! So that became the french press grinder hidden away.
This setup is currently making 3-4 coffees a day, and we try to order different type of beans now and then, but our most used vendors is Solberg & Hansen and when we can’t wait for mail delivery, we buy from the nearest Stockfleths coffeebar. It need a number of attempt to get the shots tasting good, and still haven’t unlocked the key to make change in the espresso recipe based on taste.
I also got a great christmas gift from my family, a Chemex pour-over, so now I also enjoy some filter coffee during while working from home. Its also the go-to when we have visitors that doesn’t care for espressos.
If you like to read the long story or a deeper introduction to the equipment, please read this blogpost here.
Coffee bean experience
I also wanted to make this page useful outside my short story, so here is a table of beans I have used, how I brew with them and what my experience was drinking the liquid gold from them.
| Coffee beans | Brew method | Taste Experience |
| Stockfleths Klassisk | Espresso (Sage Bambino) | Common black coffee |
| Stockfleths Espresso | Espresso (Rancilio Silvia) | More fruity, but tastebuds normalize it. |
| Stockfleths Santa Ana | Pour-over (chemex) | Fruity and clean |
| Stockfleths Badra | Pour-over (chemex) | Fruity and clean |
| Solberg & Hansen Barreiro | Espresso (Rancilio Silvia) | Nutty and more body in my mouth |
| Solberg & Hansen Half & Half | Espresso (Rancilio Silvia) | Common black coffee |
| Jacobsen & Svart Diamond Santos | Espresso (Sage Bambino) | Nutty, chocolate and more acid bitterness |
| Mad Heads Rwanda Rugali Nyamasheke | Pour-over (chemex) | Fruity, clean and interesting |
| Mad Heads Kenya Kahiraini | Pour-over (chemex) | Too be tasted |
| One Live Kenya Keramikui | Espresso (Rancilio Silvia) | Too be tasted |