Latest news with #barista
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
KATE WILLS: My baby name consultant has suggested Ever, Jules Sidney and Scout River... what WILL my mother in law think?
I knew things were bad when I found myself hanging around in coffee shops just to listen to the names the barista was calling out. I hoped that one of them would spark inspiration. Every time they yelled a name across the room, I tried to imagine myself yelling it across a playground for the next decade. But nothing stuck. Despite numerous lists of names on my phone and 5am wake-ups where I mull over various monikers ideas in my mind, I'm six months' pregnant and struggling to find a name for our baby. Is it time to call in expert help?
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Amazon slashes 40% off coffee machine capable of making lattes and cappuccinos
There's nothing quite like the taste of a fresh, robust coffee made by a professional barista. However, regularly buying takeaway cups can quickly become a costly habit. As a result, many are now investing in home coffee machines, with many options available that can produce top-quality coffee at the touch of a button. Those looking to elevate their home coffee experience can currently snag the Philips 5400 Series Fully Automatic Espresso Machine for just £400, reduced from £679.99 on Amazon. This versatile machine is capable of making 12 different types of coffee. The coffees include espresso, cappuccino, latte macchiato, americano, caffe crema, caffe latte, ristretto, cafe au lait, and iced americano, ensuring there's something to suit all tastes. From superstar gigs to cosy pubs, find out What's On in Wales by signing up to our newsletter here. READ MORE: More than 50% off Oral-B toothbrush that 'leaves teeth really clean' LATEST: Dunelm shoppers rave about £29 padded chair that's 'ideal for snoozing in the garden' The machine also features a user-friendly touch display, allowing users to brew their favourite coffee quickly and effortlessly. Boasting an aroma extract system, the coffee machine is designed to strike the perfect balance between brewing temperature and aroma. It also includes a milk system that can be cleaned in as little as ten seconds, along with a durable ceramic grinder for coffee beans, reports the Daily Record. For shoppers still on the fence, an alternative budget-friendly pick is the Style Friendly - Cream and 'Coffee Shop Favourites' Bundle for £44.99 from Tassimo. The machine boasts a convenient one-button brewing system and comes with five packs of t-disc pods; it's also designed to be compact and space-saving. Alternatively, coffee connoisseurs might opt for the Ninja Luxe Cafe Premier Espresso Machine ES601UK, retailing at £549.99 from Ninja. This premier range machine features 19 settings, a dual froth system, an assisted tamper, can manage 15 drink recipes, and essentially combines three functions in one: espresso, filter coffee, and cold brew. The Philips model enjoys a glowing endorsement on Amazon, currently holding a 4.4-star rating out of 450 reviews. A contented customer remarked: "My husband and I love this coffee machine. I only had it a few days but it was very easy to set up and now also easy to use every day. The coffee quality is very good." Another shared: "Great product, I use daily. Lovely coffee, and I would buy it again." A third user, impressed by their experience elsewhere, noted: "I used this at a family member's home and was blown away by how easy it was to use and the quality of the drinks it made," further recommending the product for any regular coffee drinker with its custom settings and straightforward maintenance. But not all feedback was positive. One individual expressed a drawback, stating: "It's an easy-to-use machine, but the milk-based drinks aren't very warm - more ready-to-drink, but could definitely do with heating." One individual noted: "It's great and I won't deny the coffee is good. However, cleaning the internal part and greasing it is awful." That being said, at a discount of over 40%, the Philips 5400 Series Fully Automatic Espresso Machine is likely to be a worthwhile purchase for anyone who appreciates a good cup of coffee.
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
The best coffee subscription services to save you money on your morning brew, tested
A steaming cup of barista-made coffee is something worth getting out of bed for on a Monday morning. Whether your poison is a flat white, a filter or an oat milk latte, a little treat makes easing into the working week significantly less painful. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. But habits are changing. More than half of the respondents to a Deloitte study of 7,000 coffee drinkers said price rises have put an end to their coffee pit-stop en route to work. And with a coffee shop cappuccino often commanding prices upwards of £4, it stands to reason that more of us are learning to recreate barista-quality coffee at home. Happily, many wonderful independent coffee shops sell beans for home use. But if your favourite cafe isn't nearby, or like me, you're always running out of beans, a coffee subscription could be the answer. With a good coffee subscription, you can enjoy a world of speciality beans without leaving the house – and at a fraction of the cost. From light and bright washed beans with acidic, fruity floral notes to cocoa and caramel-rich blends from Guatemala, Indonesia, Brazil and beyond, there's a whole flavour wheel to discover. And sometimes by subscribing to these independent coffee brands, you'll be supporting worthy causes in coffee-producing countries, too. As a long-time coffee fan, I've tried a lot of beans over the years. As a rule, I buy whole beans, grind them myself and brew them either in a Bialetti stovetop coffee maker, cafetiere or in my Sage Barista Pro machine. I drink it black; but there are a few exceptions – like when I fancy a lazy Sunday cappuccino. I tested all of the coffee black and made it using my machine, unless it was in pod format. So, after a heavily caffeinated few weeks, here's just a selection of my favourite coffees for your drinking pleasure. From £7 a month at Rave Coffee I've been a fan of Rave for years, and if you're serious about getting to grips with speciality coffee, it's the one to choose. With every box, Rave sends useful advice on the best brewing techniques, educates you on varietals, grind, extraction and how to texturise milk, and provides a flavour wheel with tasting cards to help get the most from your coffee. Sign up for the Discovery Subscription and you'll receive a hard-to-find, single-origin coffee from one of Rave's 52 chosen farms around the globe, roasted to order and delivered to your door, along with the roastery's tasting notes. The Tanzanian Mbili Twiga this month was exceptional, if you like dark roast coffee. From £10.69 for 30 pods at Grind Since opening its Shoreditch coffee shop in 2011, Grind has gone from strength to strength, selling sustainable, directly traded coffee everywhere from Soho House to the supermarket. Its house blend is a universally pleasing high-quality coffee that can be taken in beans, ground, pods or cold brew cans; I'm here for the pods. Nespresso-compatible, genuinely delicious and with a decent strength, the pods are also completely compostable – as is all of Grind's packaging. Choose from 15 different blends, single-origin coffee and flavoured pods, or go for a mixture, then pick out your refillable Grind tin (there's a special edition Clueless tin available at the moment). Plus, with each pod, cop or can of coffee sold, the company will recover ocean-bound plastic – to the tune of 60,000kg in 2023. From £13 every four weeks at Rise One of the joys of coffee is experimenting with different roasteries, beans, processes and types of drinks. If that sounds like you, then a Rise subscription is sure to brighten your mornings. Each month, you'll receive a selection of ethically sourced coffees from independent UK roasters such as Oxford-based Routes or Tamp in London, which this month produced a sweet, tropical-tasting Colombian coffee I loved black. Rise also throws in cute treats and surprises like a dreamy ready-to-drink pistachio latte, chocolates and other coffee-adjacent goodies. And 1% of your purchase helps to send Ugandan children to school through the Friendly Coffee Fund. From £9.45 every four weeks at Kiss the Hippo Kiss the Hippo's eight coffee shops have some of the best baristas in London, in my opinion. Its coffee never misses the mark, and while most of it is in the mastery of the making, it's also a delight to have a go yourself using Kiss the Hippo's signature beans direct from its roastery to your door. Its blends are brilliant, with Donna (dark chocolate, caramel, walnut notes) among its most popular. Try them all, then get your favourite delivered fresh – you won't regret it. From £16 every four weeks at Exhale After an extended bout of ill health and the discovery that he was developing an autoimmune condition, Exhale co-founder Alex Higham committed to a healthier lifestyle. The realisation that coffee can be contaminated with mycotoxins and pesticides – while losing the good stuff – saw him launch Exhale, an organic, health-focused coffee that harnesses the benefits of the coffee cherry. More lightly roasted but still packing a flavour punch, Exhale's deliciously nutty dark(ish) roast from Colombia is antioxidant rich, a good source of vitamin B3 and optimised for polyphenols to counter any potential jitters, while the decaf option still offers the same health pros without the caffeine cons. Incredibly, one cup contains the same antioxidants as 12 punnets of blueberries and 55 oranges. Exhale is also B-Corp certified and pays farmers higher prices than Fairtrade. Sign up to The Filter Get the best shopping advice from the Filter team straight to your inbox. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. after newsletter promotion From £7.43 every four weeks at Tambia If single-origin, rich and smooth Colombian is your coffee bag, then Tambia has you covered. The company grows, harvests and processes several varieties of arabica coffee by hand at its family-owned and operated mountainous Rainforest Alliance certified farms before it's shipped to the UK for roasting. You can subscribe to Tambia's house coffee, Finca La Sierra, which is so abundant with plum, coffee and chocolate flavours that it can stand up to your roast of choice. Choose from deliciously fresh whole beans (if you can), or pick your grind level to suit espresso, Moka pot, filter or cafetière. It's not available on subscription, but I'd also recommend the company's limited-edition Geisha light roast, which is delicate and unusual for those up for trying something different. From £8.08 every four weeks at Ueshima Coffee Company Japan was a centre of coffee innovation long before the west, pioneering techniques such as pour-over, siphons and flannel-dripped coffee with typical Japanese precision. Ueshima is Japan's number-one coffee brand, using responsibly sourced arabica beans (although note there's no more detail than that provided) in three blends: House Blend, Tokyo Roast and Fuji Mountain. All are harmonious, smooth and bold, and the company boasts six Great Taste Awards. A subscription offers beans, ground or Nespresso-compatible pods in various sizes and frequencies: a good value option for everyday coffee. From £12 a month at Voyager Coffee Each month, Voyager selects a single-origin coffee with a unique character to roast in-house at its roastery on the edge of Dartmoor national park to showcase to subscribers. From the sweet, clean Brazilian house favourite to the standout Kenyan coffee I tried that was fizzing with fruity notes thanks to its unusual anaerobic natural processing, and the Guatemalan washed coffee with notes of candied orange, a Voyage subscription really is a treat for coffee connoisseurs. There are extensive tasting notes to make the most of your experience, and all the coffee is sustainably sourced, and the bags are 100% compostable. From £5.53 every four weeks at TrueStart Whether beans or ground, bags or – whisper it – instant, plus cold brew, a subscription from sustainable family-owned roaster TrueStart is sure to have something to please all coffee drinkers out there. With an emphasis on coffee that's free of added chemicals, mycotoxins and heavy metals, yet retains high antioxidant levels, TrueStart's slow-release caffeine speciality coffee offers you the ability to choose your roast, flavour and strength. I like the super-strong Super Blend medium roast – a blend of intense Brazilian, Ethiopian, Indian and Vietnamese varieties – to kickstart the morning. From £8.75 a month at Monmouth Coffee Monmouth Coffee was the first independent coffee roaster in the UK back in 1978, and its Covent Garden coffee shop remains, along withtwo more shops. It's worked with some of its farmers for decades, and all of its beans are top-notch. For a prepaid subscription, select your favoured roast profile (Monmouth is known for its darker roasts) and duration – any coffee-loving recipient will be thrilled. Personally, I'd self-gift a rolling medium-dark subscription and hope that it included the delightful Brazilian Fazenda Santa Inês in all its chocolatey, nutty wonder. Create your perfect cup of coffee with our expert guides to the best coffee machines and the best espresso machines Joanne Gould is a food, drink and lifestyle writer with a decade of experience. As well as enthusiastically eating her way through London's best bars and restaurants, she's also a keen home cook and can often be found trying a new recipe or kitchen gadget, while taste-testing anything from South African wines to speciality coffee or scotch. Luckily, she also enjoys walking, running and keeping fit and healthy in her spare time – for balance
WIRED
27-05-2025
- Business
- WIRED
Ninja's Luxe Cafe Premier Espresso Machine Makes Short Work of Morning Shots
I really, really appreciate Ninja's take on the Luxe's milk steaming system. Some automatic espresso machines incorporate a container of milk that has to be brought back and forth from the refrigerator, like the ones from this list. The Luxe, however, keeps it classic with a pitcher that you simply add milk to and a wand that begins steaming at the press of a button, another reason why it's great for those who want barista-quality coffee drinks without all the guesswork. You can manually steam milk if you so choose, or you can steam milk to four programmed settings, and this includes a cold foam. There's also a setting for a plant-based option, and the Luxe adjusts automatically to this. I had little to no issues with this milk frother and enjoyed the opportunity to practice some latte art, even if the pitcher's spout isn't ideal for it. Quirks and Quality The Luxe has a removable hopper and rapid heat-up time, which are fantastic. To the left of the machine is where much of your coffee's assembly happens. Before you grind your coffee, you'll place a funnel on the portafilter to keep it in place. Unfortunately, after a couple months of use, the funnel's plastic corners are chipping. When not in use, there's a designated spot for the funnel on the left side of the machine alongside the pressure-click tamper. I really like this tamper, as tamping is something I often overthink (Am I creating enough pressure? Do I have an even surface?), and the Luxe's is designed for you to apply the ideal amount of pressure. The water reservoir doesn't come with a filter, unfortunately. As for the drip tray, it's easy to remove and clean. An orange notch pops up when the tray needs to be emptied. On average, I empty the drip tray every four to five drinks. A handful of times the machine has leaked, even with the drip tray being empty. A shelf allows the Luxe to accommodate your 2-ounce espresso shots but can be removed to allow room for a travel mug as large as 18 ounces. One common gripe about the Luxe is that despite the portafilter having two spouts, there is not enough room to accommodate two espresso cups on the shelf or drip tray, which is strange. However, one of the biggest misses on this machine is that there's no hot water spout, something I particularly enjoyed with a machine like the De'Longhi Magnifica Start. My beef with many Ninja kitchen appliances is that sometimes they try to do too much, like the cooler with an added 'frost vault.' The Ninja Luxe Cafe feels different, however, considering how intentional it was in competing with other new-age espresso machines. Pulling espresso is solid and, while occasionally inconsistent, delivers an overall smooth and robust shot. The drip coffee was good, not great, and the cold brew can be bitter since it uses the room-temperature water from the filter. Like many Ninja products, the machine sits in a weird space. A coffee purist may choose a straightforward machine without all the assists of the Luxe, while a true beginner may not feel comfortable investing in the Luxe's 'all-in-one' style. Nevertheless, it's an overall quality piece of equipment at a fair price that makes me view the Ninja brand with respect when it comes to its coffee game.
RNZ News
27-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Al Brown urging people to switch to filter coffee
In the face of rising coffee prices top chef Al Brown is urging people to park the snobbery and make the switch to the more filter coffee rather barista made espresso. Brown reckons filter has come a long way, since the bad old days. The cost of coffee beans hit a record high of $14 a kg earlier this year. Al Brown spoke to Lisa Owen. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
