The title ‘Home Barista’ is flashed around a lot these days.

Since ‘barista’ literally means bartender in Italian, in theory, anyone who puts together a cup of juice and takes the time to add some ice could be classed as a ‘Home Barista’.

Of course i’m being stupid. To be a home barista, one needs to have moved on from the dingy world of instant coffee and be producing a cup that doesn’t necessarily taste good, but has been fashioned with some kind of pride and love. Be it by bodum, press, espresso, filter, a home barista takes some care and attention and perhaps pursues some kind of goal towards godliness in a cup.

Then comes the question of freshness which of course is vital if you wish to stand a fighting chance in pursuit of the perfect cup. So things like grinders come in to play in order to reduce the amount of time our precious beans are subjected to to the air around them and so that we can store as whole beans, thus reducing surface area.

And now the really serious business comes around, roasting. By purchasing green (unroasted) beans and roasting them ourselves, we’ve got freshly roasted coffee on tap! Green beans have a huge shelf life and so can be stored on mass, plus they are cheaper. Lovely.

So what’s the next step? (Yeh, I am going somewhere with this)

Here it is:

A coffee tree, in your house… or study to be exact.

I’ve been keeping this under wraps for a few months to see if the tree would actually survive. Well, the good news it that it is sprouting new leaves and getting along quite happily! The room it’s in provides it with sheltered sunlight and I make a point of drying the clothes nearby to boost the humidity. The bean harvest will be minimal but  one day, one day I tell you, I will get a cup of coffee out of this beauty!

Thanks to my bother Pat, it was a wedding present.

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