We’ve all heard the story about the poor carpenter who blames their tools.
Many argue that the technique, not the technology, separates the skilled from the unskilled. While it’s true that a barista pro can probably produce a heavenly coffee with fresh beans, precise water temperature, and a little elbow grease, that doesn’t mean the right coffee-making accessories can’t make the process more accessible—and more fun.
There’s a wide range of products to explore when it comes to must-have espresso accessories. To find the right espresso tools to round out your brewing enterprises, consider your current at-home setup and what it lacks. What are your pain points?
Is cleanup too laborious? Is your grinder liable to jam up and produce uneven grounds? Or do you just want something to make your daily cup a degree fancier? In this article, we’ll explore a wide range of must-have espresso accessories and make our recommendations for the coffee lover who (nearly) has it all.
Seasoned baristas know the espresso tamper is one of the most essential parts of the espresso-making process. Pressing the super-fine coffee grounds into a dense, perfectly circular puck is also immensely satisfying. But if you’re new to home espresso machines, you might not know anything about tamping or what makes a quality tamper.
Tamping, or compressing, the coffee grounds into a puck-like shape makes the bean mass more resilient to water flow. This is important to create an ideal pressure for the espresso extraction. An unevenly tamped puck can break and thereby disperse water flow unevenly, resulting in a loss of aroma and flavor.
If you or a coffee enthusiast you know could benefit from a better espresso tamper, there are countless styles and mechanisms to consider. Some tampers give the espresso puck a different shape or surface texture, while others are fully or partially automatic compared to the manual, press-by-hand style tampers. And don't forget to grab a tamping mat for easier cleanup.
Do you love it when your local specialty coffee shop takes the extra time to incorporate a beautiful design on the foam top of your latte? Have you ever wanted to level up your at-home espresso creations with a silky smooth foam finish? If so, a milk frother might be your new favorite espresso machine accessory.
Latte art was born in Seattle and rose to popularity during the 1980s. Since then, “aesthetic” coffee posts on social media have exploded, proving that sometimes, a cup of coffee’s appearance is just as important as its taste.
For a milk-frothing accessory that makes it easy to achieve the perfect taste or aesthetic for your daily cup, the Temp Control™ Milk Jug might be just what you need. Why?
● A handy temperature gauge built into the jug tells you exactly when your milk reaches the perfect texture
● The precisely designed spout is ideal for pouring latte art, so you can be a barista pro in no time
Are your brews not quite impressing the way they used to? It might not be your coffee maker that’s to blame. In fact, the espresso’s full potential might suffer long before your espresso maker processes the ground coffee puck into liquid.
In these cases, the culprit may sometimes be your espresso grinder.
Several scientific studies have delved into how the grind of coffee beans affects taste. For example, one study on how grind grade affects cold brew taste found that coarser grinds with larger coffee particle sizes yielded a higher concentration of dissolved solids and increased diffusion more than medium-grind coffee particles, resulting in different flavor profiles for each grind method.
All of this is to say that your grinder can have an underrepresented role in the quality and taste of your espresso.
Do you suspect you or a loved one might need an upgrade to achieve a more consistent level of ground goodness? If so, it’s time to meet the professional-grade coffee grinders from Breville.
The Smart Grinder™ Pro comes with 60 unique settings. With an easy-to-read LCD display, you can say goodbye to vague dials and knobs that create confusion and inconsistency when you grind. Plus, this conical burr grinder allows you the freedom to grind directly into a portafilter, filter basket, or paper filter, reducing mess when transferring grounds to your machine of choice.
This sibling of the Smart Grinder™ Pro offers incredible timing precision down to one-second increments, allowing you to customize the dose for your perfect cup of coffee. The Dose Control™ Pro features stainless steel conical burr grinding to reduce grinding heat that can harm the essential oils of your favorite coffee beans.
These essential oils are where that fresh, signature coffee flavor comes from. So, investing in a grinder that helps you convey taste rather than muting it is crucial.
Cleanup is probably everyone’s least favorite part of the home barista lifestyle. If cleaning your counter and maintaining your equipment is so much of a hassle that it discourages you from brewing, you probably need some new gear to make your espresso cleanup faster, easier, and neater. Here are some suggestions:
The Knock Box™ is a simple, stylish solution for disposing of your used ground coffee pucks. Built like a basket with a bar laid across the top, the Knock Box™ synchronizes perfectly with your cleanup routine. When you need to dispose of an espresso puck, simply strike the portafilter against the knock bar, and grounds will fall right into the large-capacity bowl for easy disposal. Plus, the interior bowl is removable and dishwasher-safe for the ultimate convenience.
● Want an even more seamless, high-tech method to dispose of unsightly espresso grounds? The Puck Sucker™ is a vacuum-technology-enabled waste container designed to work perfectly with your Breville portafilters. Simply apply your portafilter to the Puck Sucker™, and it will rapidly extract the puck with zero mess, zero noise, and zero stress.
● Minimize the mess before you make it with our Dosing Funnel, a coffee and espresso machine accessory that attaches to our 54mm portafilters to keep your coffee grinds from escaping, cutting down on mess and wasted product and yielding a more accurate dose.
Many enjoy the convenience of barista-grade coffee-making equipment at home without realizing the care needed to keep these devices performing in peak condition. When you invest hundreds or even thousands of dollars into your espresso maker setup, you want to enjoy a return on that investment for as long as possible.
A 2011 study by the NSF, an independent health organization, found that coffee maker water reservoirs were the fifth germiest household item because of fairly predictable mold development. Additionally, many don’t realize that the build-up of minerals in all types of espresso machines can also affect coffee’s taste.
When considering an espresso machine for yourself or as a gift for someone else, don’t forget that the cleaning and maintaining processes are just as important as the brewing process, from refreshing the water reservoir to cleansing grinder parts regularly. To that end, it helps to prepare for machine upkeep by investing in these items ahead of time:
Maybe your coffee setup has it all. Maybe you have a state-of-the-art grinder, a high-quality milk frother, and tampers that pack a mean puck with a tamp mat to match. What else could you possibly need to make your at-home barista experience even more rewarding?
Truth be told, there are still plenty of accessories and kits that can offer you utility and joy, no matter your experience or current utensils.
The Barista Tool Kit is a perfect gift for any coffee lover, yourself included. This all-in-one box consists of some of the gadgets we’ve discussed to support your machine. For instance, if you want to practice your latte art styles with your new milk frother, the Tool Kit comes complete with Latte Art Training Cups to practice on. Discover more on how to make latte art.
The Tool Kit also has a Bean Keeper Canister to keep your coffee beans fresh and organized. A set of measuring scales helps you achieve a consistent brew by capturing precise, accurate weights of your beans. Plus, who doesn’t love to admire their coffee in a beautiful, dual-walled transparent glass? The Barista Tool Kit includes two espresso shot glasses and two latte glasses, so you and a partner can enjoy matching espresso beverages in style, whether you want a quick espresso shot or something to sip on.
Breville takes coffee crafting seriously. If you put love into the espressos, lattes, and cappuccinos you brew for your friends, family, and yourself, you deserve to have coffee equipment that you love to use, too.
At Breville, our own love for making coffee informs the design of our accessories, from the purposeful design of the Knock Box™ to the ease of use of the Temp Control™ Milk Jug. If you’re still putting together the best espresso machine setup for your home, you might consider an excellent all-inclusive package like The Barista Tool Kit to round it out.
Whatever you need to make great coffee at home, Breville has it. Check out the espresso machine line today to get inspired and unlock a professional-quality brewing experience from the comfort of your home.
Sources:
1. Perfect Daily Grind. Why are distribution and tamping so important for quality espresso? https://perfectdailygrind.com/2023/03/why-are-distribution-and-tamping-important-for-espresso/
2. Perfect Daily Grind. Understanding the history of latte art. https://perfectdailygrind.com/2022/01/understanding-the-history-of-latte-art/
3. ResearchGate. Coffee Flavor: A Review. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342790252_Coffee_Flavor_A_Review
4. NSF. 2011 NSF International Household Germ Study. https://d2evkimvhatqav.cloudfront.net/documents/2011_NSF_Household_Germ_Study_exec-summary.pdf