[Transcript starts at 1:22]
Hello, hello, hello, my podcast people, and thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my favorite podcast. Right off the bat, happy Thanksgiving. If you are listening to this when it drops, it is Thursday, November 23rd. Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate. If you don't, well then, happy november 23rd.
Uh, when this drops I will be in Pennsylvania, at my sister's house, with Lex, with my family, and with Lex's family. Dog's not going with us, cat's not going with us, um, but everyone else is going, and I'm stoked. This should be really good. I will report back afterwards. As to how it went, uh, because obviously I'm recording this way before then.
Um, this Saturday, or that Saturday, this Saturday, so when you're listening to it, this Saturday will be my 20 year high school reunion because fuck, I'm old. Um, but I'm excited. I'm gonna go because I'm gonna be on the East Coast and yeah, I'm stoked. I will see how it goes. I will report back on everything.
I hope that if you're listening to this on Thanksgiving, you're enjoying your holiday if you celebrate it, like I said, and if you don't, happy Thursday. So today's episode is an homage, a little hat tip, a little tribute to episode number one, which is entitled, episode number one of Maestro on the Mic, which was entitled Nespresso Makers and the Spice of Life. That episode dropped on March 9th, 2018. That's over five years ago. We will link in the show notes. You cannot actually listen to it on the main players because Apple only plays only hosts, or yeah, it only hosts 300 episodes and that we're currently on episode 530, so you can listen to it through the website.
Um, so we will link that in the show notes. Thank you, Courtney. Um, but that episode was inspired by my friend, by my friend, Kristina. And she bought a Nespresso machine or Nespresso maker and I was like, why? Why would you buy that? But the lesson, of course, is that variety is the spice of life and guess what? It still is.
So I recently bought an espresso machine which is far superior to a Nespresso maker, let's just say it. Let's just call a spade a spade. Uh, but the same message holds true and that's what we're going to talk about today, right? Variety will always be the spice of life. For those wondering, I got a Breville Bambino Plus and I'm realizing now over the past, I just, I literally just got it and I've made a few, quite a few cappuccinos with it, but I've realized that I'm like, oh, I could have just gotten like the regular Breville Bambino, not the Plus because I'm doing the milk manually anyway, um, but that's fine. I went with that and I went with the DF 64P grinder. That grinder is specifically for espresso. Realistically, if you're thinking about kind of like nerding out on this, I did all the research. You all know it's me. Uh, I was all up in the Reddit forums. Save your money for the grinder, right?
So, you don't have to get as crazy of a machine, excuse me, as crazy of a, of a, um, of an espresso machine, get a better grinder. So, that's what I did, and I'm having a fucking blast, right? I am all in. I weigh the beans, I've found 16 grams to be great. I'm just using, actually, right now, a, um, Starbucks roast, and I know, I, if you're like a purist, you're probably like, just like, died, hearing me say that, but like, I went to the store, I knew the machine was coming on Wednesday, I had dinner with my friends on, no, it was coming on Thursday.
I had dinner with my friends on Wednesday night and I was like, I just want to be able to try it tomorrow morning, so, went and got beans. Of note, you can make espresso with any beans. You typically make it with a darker roast, but like, you don't need like specific, special espresso beans. Um, cause espresso isn't a type of bean.
Right? Espresso comes from, uh, basically meaning, it can mean pressed or expressed- expressed, right? So pressed, cause you, the way that the actual… water, you press the, you press the, you grind them up and you press them down, makes a puck, and then you like shoot the water through it. Um, but then also it's made quickly and it's made expressly for you.
So that's kind of where the name comes from. It's not that it's like a type of bean, right? So I use 16 grams. That, that has been great. When I get different beans, I will probably use a different amount. And I'm excited about that. I weigh out how much espresso is made. I'm not quite yet at that 1 to 2 ratio that we oftentimes see.
I'm more in that kind of ristretto range, 1 to 1, 1 to 1. 5, um, like a 35 second pull. For those of you that know what I'm talking about, bless you. It's just so fun for me. Alright, nerding out, y'all know I was like this with volleyball, I still am, and when I'm in something, I'm all in. Um, I'm manually steaming the milk, which is like actually the hardest fucking part, and I spend so much time worrying about the beans and the grinding and all of that, and I'm like, wow, this is like really hard to make the milk.
So I've just bought lots and lots of milk. I use whole milk, I like whole milk, and I'm playing around with that. Latte art is like a latte far away. I, that's what it feels like. I, that's hard. Um, but I got cappuccino cups and I'm excited to play around with it. I could clearly super nerd out about this, but I put some stuff on Threads.
I've put some stuff on Instagram and I learned and putting stuff out there that all the people in the ecosystem are also into espresso and they're into it at all different levels. Right. I also went out to dinner. Lex and I go on our date night every Friday and went to Bonaparte Bistro. The guy there is super nice.
I share stories every Friday night when I go there. And he was just like, hey can I interest you in some free cappuccino or cappuccino on the house? Or excuse me, espresso on the house. Just want to say thank you for all that you share. Like they know us there. Like we have the same table all the time.
Like, it's a really cool thing. We go every Friday. Um, but I was like, I would love an espresso, but more than that, can I watch you make it? Um, so I watched him make it and I'm saying this because it's all automated. Like he was like helping me, but I was just like, you're not nerding out as much. Like he just has like the buttons, those machines in the, in the restaurants that can be fancy, but it's like literally just like automated. I was like, how many, how many beans are you using? He's like, I don't know. I push this button, this much comes out. And I was like, Oh, and they're clearly not weighing how much espresso comes out. But it's cool. I was just like, I love hearing his excitement about it and like how he does it and what he suggests and the waitress was like, I just got a Breville and I'm guessing she probably got the Breville Barista Express, which you don't need folks, you could get the really cheaper one reason being for those you who want to nerd out for a second, the Breville Barista Express, which is what you mostly see, it's like the big shiny one. It has the grinder built in. Realistically, one of the most important parts is the grinder and having a really good grinder. So you, you can't really upgrade the grinder because it's a part of the machine. So it's like taking all the space, whereas you might as well just get like a good espresso machine and get a separate good grinder.
So like I said, I probably could have gone with the Breville, Breville Bambino. Just regular. But, um, either way, she was like, she had one, you know. I put in my stories and my girl Kathy reached out and she has a stovetop one and a plug in frother and she goes, it's not the same as what you have, but it keeps me happy.
Um, Meredith, you know, my homie, Meredith Root, she has one, it's probably 11 billion, but she nerds out just as much as I do. We were going back and forth about it. My mom hit me up and one of the guys that she takes care of, um, she was like, look, I make this for him every time I come over and I'm like, oh, who knew?
I say this because it's the spice of life. It's just such another great example of just, there's a million things you could do, right? And real talk, unless you're drinking in a straight espresso, like, can you even tell the difference? I don't know. Like, it kind of feels like. I like coffee, I just drink it, and I'll drink the hotel coffee, it's fine, I'm just like, I drink it black, so it doesn't really matter to me.
And to me, if you're drinking, most people probably aren't drinking espresso, they're probably having like a cappuccino, or they're having a latte, so there's so much milk in it anyway. I'll probably go super deep with this, I did get, um, espresso cups as well just to be able to have it and just taste the espresso and kind of play around with that.
I, some folks just like the routine of it and they're just like, I want to say it's good enough. I'm going to put all this milk in it. I just want it to taste good enough. I like, like this thing. It feels familiar, right? There's possibility to go and have play around with all different beans. Lex was like, I think I want to sign up for like a coffee of the month.
And I was like, whoa, okay. But you know, of note, there is discussion about using different burrs. That's like what the piece inside of the grinder is if you're gonna use a lighter roast. Like I said, espresso is typically the one with the darkest roast, but you can make espresso with decaf beans, you can make it with light roasts, but apparently in order to like pull out the notes and the flavors, you use a different type of burr.
And I was like, I don't know about all that. But honestly, would I be able to tell? I don't fucking know. I don't know. But either way, the fact that it, the fact that it even exists, you can do all these things with it, right? That even just for me with my own, how I'm making it, I could change the beans. I could change the grind size.
I could change the amount of beans that I'm using. I can alter the tamping. That's when you squish it down. I could go for, you know, the manual shot time as opposed to I do that part automatic automatically. Now I could change the milk. I'm doing the milk manually right now. I could go back to that.
There's so many different options. And to me, that, this is the point, right? Don't let anyone tell you how to make your espresso or how to drink it. Learn. Explore. Make your own way. Make it your own way. See what others doing. Listen to them. Judge the folks who have a Nespresso maker. I don't know, just have fun with it.
I think it's another perfect example. Five plus years, right? Variety is the spice of life. It was the spice of life, March, whatever, 23rd, 2018, when I first recorded that episode, when I first started this podcast, and it is still the spice of life. That's all I got for you. Keeping this one short because it is Thanksgiving, it is a holiday, you probably got other things to do, but I did want to nerd out for a second about the Nespresso, the Nespresso, wow, no, about the Espresso machine that I got, um, and I think it's just such a, a true lesson there of do it your way.
Enjoy it. Life is short. Enjoy it. Enjoy your espresso. Make it how you want. Nerd out if you want. Don't nerd out if you don't. Go get an espresso machine if you want. Your choice. All right? All right. Happy Thanksgiving. As always, endlessly appreciative for every single one of you. Truly, truly, truly, truly grateful for every single one of you.
Until next time, friends, Maestro out.
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MOTM #001: Nespresso Makers and the Spice of Life
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