Country Fille – the coffee snob

I’m not afraid to say: ‘My name is Country Fille and I’m a coffee snob’.

Even as an impoverished student, the Blonde and I would quite happily pick the mould off our last piece of toast for breakfast but it would always come with a steaming cup of freshly ground coffee. However desperate times are, compromising on coffee is *not* an option at casa Mansi.

I have been known to take a diversion on a road trip, be late for a meeting and become just a *tad* grumpy if I don’t get my caffeine fix before 9am. You see, whilst I’m only a 1-2 cup a day gal (and never after 1pm) I take my coffee drinking very seriously.

To this end, the OH made me *very* happy this Christmas with my very own Gaggia Baby Class.

First introduced in 1977, the ‘baby’ does not denote it’s size (although it fits comfortably onto our work surface at home), but due to the fact it was the first proper home espresso machine of it’s kind.

For the fellow coffee geeks out there, it is a stainless steel single boiler, 15-bar machine with two sizes of Porter filter for 1 or 2 cup options, steam nozzle and passive cup warmer. Basically, it’s the same spec as a commercial machine that you would find in your local coffee house, making me one happy barista.

It took a bit of knob-twiddling, button-pushing and rather revolting cappuccinos to get there, but the Baby Classic sure does make a cracking coffee.

Just look at the crema on this espresso:

I love how fanatical you can become about the nuances of coffee-making. A barista I knew in West London would only use imported Italian bottled water in his machine, while another shipped over a specific bean from Naples that to him ‘tasted of home’.

I too have taken the final initiation in the ‘home coffee nerd’ category – purchasing a Krups Burr grinder so I can grind my own beans.

If you are looking for a home bean grinder, this is it. There are just two dials: one for coarseness (from the finest for espresso machines like mine, to coarse for French Presses), and one for the number of cups you need. So you can grind just enough for each coffee you make. I cannot convey how happy the smell of freshly ground beans makes me in the morning. It’s super easy to clean, compact and the grinding mechanism is designed to crush, as opposed to chop the beans, ensuring even grains without damaging the aroma.

Although I take my coffee black (and STRONG), the milk steamer has been sooo useful for whizzing up jugs of hot chocolate (always Green & Blacks proper cocoa) when we get back, frozen, from a wintery walk.

I’ve found the Baby Class here on sale at £210, instead of £350. The Krups Burr Grinder is on sale here with free delivery (£40.99).