The Daily Grind

OUR COFFEE ADDICTION

“Just stop buying lattes” is often a rebuttal provided to millennials by boomers when we complain about the unaffordability of housing today.  Almost indignantly, I continued to mindlessly buy my $7 lattes–multiple times throughout the week.  I justified it to myself as a way to socialize, try new places, keep up with cultural trends, and even a guilt-free treat or pick-me-up.  Little did I realize, the bill was quickly racking up between specialty coffee shops on the weekends and mediocre but convenient coffee pickups on the weekdays. 

One October day, Peter and I were sharing a half-tan at La Colombe, lamenting over the fact that we just paid nearly $8 for a drink that was easily replicable at home.  We also were not a fan of the milk options, as we’ve been trying to opt for more health conscious or protein-dense choices as of late.

November 2024 rolled around, and I was perusing Costco’s Black Friday inventory.  As chance would have it, I found a Nespresso set up at a steep discount of 50% off.  Coffee was suddenly not only simple and straightforward to make at home, but reviews were very positive around its performance and taste.  This meant, at the very least, eliminating weekday coffee runs that served only a purpose of loading my arteries with caffeine.  I thought to myself, I could still make the weekend trip to the chic, up-and-coming coffee shops. 

Before I knew it, I ordered 10 different sleeves from Nespresso, mixed and matched them with various milk types (Fairlife’s lactose free whole milk being our favorite for a balance between nutrition and taste), and became my own barista.  Making coffee was now a fun “hobby.”  Fast forward 3 months to when we ran out of Nespresso pods: browsing their website’s catalogue sticker shocked us with $80 just for 1 month of coffee! Granted, Peter and I together were consuming, on average, 3 cups per day.

Peter then asked me a question I never thought of asking myself: “How hard could it be to take coffee making one step further and pull our own espresso shots?”  He would regale me with “the best cup of coffee” he’s ever had, made by a friend with a fancy espresso setup.  In a quest to answer his question, we dove into the vast ocean that is espresso making.  We figured that with the plethora of options for beans and intricate technicalities of pulling shots, there would be significant room for experimentation–the facets that underlie our intrigue. 

This undercurrent of excitement ran parallel with the financial sensibility that came with learning how to brew our own coffee.  We had already calculated the cost per cup if we bought our own beans to grind. Though we had no clue what we were doing, I excitedly asked my coffee enthusiast friends who suggested a grinder and espresso machine combination that was upwards of $2000—our jaws dropped.  We didn’t know initially if this would be a worthwhile endeavor. 

Needless to say, we did not opt for such a set up.  Instead, we (meaning Peter) prepared a cost analysis on Excel.  The conclusion?  If our setup was $500 or less, we could break even with Nespresso costs by 9 months, assuming we used an average bean (18 cents per cup) for our day to day coffee needs.

Basic research revealed that the bean grinder mattered most, and that the espresso machine was, in essence, a glorified hot water dispenser.  We then scoured Facebook Marketplace for a like-new machine on discount, and invested in a good, entry-level grinder.  We settled on the Breville Bambino alongside the Baratza Encore ESP.  The retail cost of a Breville Bambino was $300, but we were determined to find one at $210 (70% of retail) or less. 

We found a seller within the same week, offering her like-new Bambino for $150 (used only twice)!  Almost serendipitously, the seller had lost all the default accessories–we were meaning to invest in a higher quality bottomless portafilter and tamper anyway.  We used this opportunity to haggle the price down further to $135!  The portafilter and tamper end up costing $70, and the grinder $195. We could not find the specific grinder on sale, so had to settle for retail.  In total, we spent $400, substantially less than the $500 we had initially allotted and with upgrades to boot!

The grinder arrived a little late, so we had our first round of fun with just the espresso machine and a tin of $4 ground espresso beans from Walmart.  Of course, it tasted awful and the espresso machine was spraying all over the place.  Was it the tamp? The portafilter? The machine? The grind inconsistency? We ended up trying another pre-ground bean from Trader Joe’s (never again, Walmart) and this tasted much better, though the espresso machine was still spraying like a leaky faucet. 

The blender finally arrived by this time, and we brought home a bag of Kirkland espresso beans.  For the first time, we made a cup of espresso from start to finish with the grinder.  Maybe it was the coffee, or maybe it was the unbridled excitement, but that first sip tasted sublime.  Since then, we have honed into the optimal grind size, extraction timing, and favorite preparations for this particular bean.  There are still some challenges, but we are finding this creative process to be as fun as initially anticipated.

Perhaps buying lattes is not the primary reason millennials cannot buy homes, but for us it is a mindset and a conscious decision.  By transitioning from bougie lattes to home made espresso, we effectively reduced our daily coffee spend by 28 times per cup of coffee.  As we generalize this to other areas of our lives (especially with microtransactions), we started to see just how quickly the snowball accumulates financially. 

On the flip side, we get to enjoy a creative process with endless combinations and opportunities, fine tune it to our dietary needs, and have a solid cup of coffee at our fingertips.  Of course, there is the time and clean up involved in having such a home setup, but it quickly becomes routine when I’m not actively trying to reconfigure or refine my technique.  We still find it very enjoyable to visit our local coffee shops, whether to experience ambience, discover flavors, or spend time with friends–but we now do so much more mindfully.

XOXO,

Howard and Peter