Favorite At Home Coffee or Tea Drink

I think you could easily add a matcha latte to that list. I like it with strawberry or raspberry syrup.

An earl grey hot chocolate is on my radar too. I haven’t made it yet, but I can see how the flavors could work.

Perhaps a hojicha latte as well?

Do you have an espresso or nespresso machine? A browns sugar shaken espresso is tasty and easy to make (2 shots espresso in a mason jar or martini shaker with a pinch of cinnamon, pinch of salt, 1 tbsp brown sugar then shake with a LOT of ice — the more ice, the frothier it is, then top with small amount of milk of choice). I bet one of those nescafe instant espresso powders could work well in the recipe if you don’t have access to espresso. 

Original line Nespresso machines are sturdy and create a good espresso, all things considered. They are often on fb marketplace for cheap. I wouldn’t pay more than $50 for one on there, but I’ve seen them as cheap as $15. The vertuo line is more complicated.

And, of course, a pandemic-era dalgona coffee with instant coffee.

I highly recommend getting an espresso machine. While Nespresso’s are fun, I can’t help but think I’m throwing a quarter (more like 50 cents) down the drain every time I push the button. 

You can get some decent espresso machines on FB marketplace. I even bought a superautomatic espresso machine on FB marketplace which I loved until it died. I brought it into work and had a jar where people could throw change for an espresso and I’m pretty sure I know who broke it…

I never did like the dalgona coffee. lol

And I almost bought a nice $800 at Christmas, but really am not sure how often I would actually use it and didn’t want to have another appliance to clean. 

I’ll need to check out this hojicha latte. 

As for matcha, that is my kiddo’s area. I do not like the taste of grass 😜

Now give me a nice affagato – and my day is made! 

I didn’t know people actually enjoyed matcha. I thought holding it was performative and nobody actually drank it. Gross.

@govworkerfi I agree that each Nepresso pod (/shot for OL) is easily 50c, but I’m so intimidated by an actual espresso machine! Do you have any advice on how to make it seem less intimidating? 

The options seem overwhelming to me. Is there a model or a type that is a good start?

The other issue for me is I’m a relatively casual espresso drinker, so sinking $100+ into a new set-up is going to take a long time for me to recoup. Are there affordable and idiot-proof options?

As for matcha, I genuinely like it. 

@elizabeth After living in Europe for a while I find American coffee kind of disgusting, so it’s espresso or bust for me. I don’t think it’s any more difficult than making a American drip style coffee but just requires different equipment. 

If you google “15 bar pump espresso machine” you’ll see a wide range of pricess for similar “guts” of a machine. Once you know what they look like you can probably find one at a thrift store or FB marketplace. Espresso is very sensitive to the grind. So you’ll either want to have a burr-type coffee grinder or have your coffee ground in the mill at the store. (You might also want to play around with the grind size so that it matches your machine better at first). Then it’s just a matter of putting grinds in the basket, pressing them down with a spoon or other object, and then putting it in the machine. Those 15 bar machines are nice in that they also have a steam wand, so you can froth milk for your drink too if you want a latte or cappuccino. The milk frothing takes some practice but the espresso part is straightforward. 

There are idiotproof espresso makers where you just push a button and get an espresso but they’re several hundred dollars at the very cheapest. So you’d need to do the math on how many nespresso pods you’d need to use before it paid for itself. And maybe you decide that espresso isn’t worth it. I get it! I like to have an espresso when I wake up at 0500, an espresso between 0800 and 1000, and another one at 1400. So nespresso pods tend to add up fast.