As much as I love my journalism career, barista-ing holds a special place in my heart. Cumulatively, working at various cafes has been my longest form of employment. From a year at Costa Coffee (kind of like the U.K. equivalent of Starbucks, but more Italian-inspired), a year at an artisan independent coffee shop (I know, I felt really cool), to eighteen months as a supervisor at Starbucks — I’ve done my fair share of making coffee.
Whenever I visit my family home, I’m always roped into making everyone a coffee using our (very) basic and old De’Longhi Vintage Icona. It’s fine, it works, it makes tasty drinks. But can I do latte art with its spitty steam wand? No. No I can’t. And I couldn’t with the Smeg ECF02 Espresso Machine I’ve just tested, either. I was beginning to think it was impossible with at-home espresso machines.
