1. This guide will reference specific models at times. Please know that I’m not saying it’s necessarily the absolute best for every situation, or the only good option. Your specific setup may benefit from another option. However, I feel like if I omit models entirely that could make things more confusing, so including some will hopefully help give you a starting place to look, even if you ultimately decide on something else in the end.
2. The recipes I include are not specifically stolen from anywhere in particular, nor are they necessarily made up on my own. I’m sure every recipe I include has been written out by someone else before. If you recognize one, let me know and I’ll credit them. I do not take credit for any recipes or brew methods I write about.
3. All recipe guides will be assuming you’re grinding your coffee fresh with a burr grinder, and that you’re using a coffee scale and a timer. While not strictly necessary, the grinder will massively improve the taste in your cup, and the scale/timer will help make brewing easier and more consistent. This will all be better explained below. If you don’t want to invest in a burr grinder and coffee scale right away, try my French press or moka pot techniques first. They’re the most forgiving without those tools.

Another area I see a lot of people miss at the start is the ingredients going in. Coffee is made up of two ingredients, coffee beans and water. To start with the beans, there’s no equipment out there that exists that will turn old stale coffee into fantastic cups. If the idea of spending $25 for a 300g bag of coffee sounds terrible to you, you may want to adjust your expectations for your end result. You can absolutely still get decent coffee with good equipment and cheaper beans, depending on your taste preferences, but if you want something better than what you’ll find at any cafe, buying high quality beans is incredibly important. It’s like buying a hexclad frying pan to cook a bad cut of steak. It doesn’t matter how expensive that pan is, it’s not going to turn that budget steak into wagyu. If you’re okay with properly cooked cheap steak, that’s great, no shame in that, but you have to have tampered expectations for the final result.
The second part is water. For filter coffee, your drink is 98% water. Even in espresso it’s over 90% water. If the water you’re using tastes bad on its own, it’s not going to make fantastic coffee. Coffee water is a surprisingly deep rabbit hole, and definitely not necessary when you’re starting out, but you may want to get a Brita filter or something if your tap water isn’t great. You can delve into the coffee water rabbit hole later, but if you’re curious, look up Third Wave Water. There’s other brands too but that’s the big brand one and will at least give you something to research before diving into all the options available.

Burr grinder - there’s two types of coffee grinders out there, burr and blade. A blade grinder has a spinning blade at the bottom of a cup that spins and cuts the beans. These make for decent spice grinders but are way too inconsistent for coffee. A burr grinder uses two cutting disks, or burrs, that spin right next to each other to cut the beans. These are adjustable and significantly more consistent. You can get metal burrs (recommended) or ceramic burrs, sometimes called false burrs. If you don’t have a grinder, don’t buy a blade grinder. If you have a blade grinder, use it for spices but upgrade to a metal burr grinder. If you aren’t doing espresso (hand grinding for espresso really isn’t fun and can get a bit painful), a hand grinder is a great way to get really good burrs at a decent price. Check out Timemore, 1Zpresso (pronounced easy-presso), and KINGrinder for brands on the budget end. I personally use a Timemore S3 for hand grinding, for what it’s worth. If you don’t want to hand grind, or if you’re doing espresso, you’ll want to get an electric grinder. Make sure if you’re doing espresso that your grinder is espresso-capable as many aren’t. For strictly filter coffee, the Barazza Encore is the standard recommendation at the lower end of decent electric burr grinders. For espresso, they have a version called the Encore ESP that is also very highly recommended. It’s a bit more expensive, but that’s par for the course for espresso unfortunately.

Coffee scale: a good coffee scale will be accurate to 0.1g and have a timer built in. While not strictly necessary, and any kitchen scale will do, coffee scales are going to give you a more enjoyable and consistent experience. I personally use a Timemore Black Mirror Mini.

Price to start: low
Price to get serious: medium
Skill floor: low
Skill ceiling: low

Equipment needed: kettle or pot, French press, basket paper filters (optional)

Really all you need is a way to boil water and a french press. It’s probably the easiest thing in the world. I’d highly recommend getting some standard basket filters though, it’ll make cleanup way easier and no grit in your coffee.

Recipe:
Grind at a coarse setting. Look up your grinder for the french press range, but it’ll likely be close to the coarsest end for your grinder. Dump grounds in the bottom of the French press. Add 16x the weight in water as you did grounds (example 320g water for 20g coffee). Set a timer for 4 minutes. After timer goes off, stir the coffee. Wait another minute or so. Place a basket filter over the mesh filter of the french press, then place the filter in the press with the lid on and slowly press down. It should take at least a minute to press all the way down. Just let the weight of your hand push it down basically. When it’s all the way down, pour out into your mug and you’re good to go. Super easy, a touch slow but not too bad, delicious coffee, easy cleanup, no grit. Definitely my recommendation if you have absolutely zero coffee equipment and aren’t sure if you want to try the hobby or not. If you’re a complete beginner, you can use pre-ground coffee and a kitchen scale if you want.

Price to start out: low
Price to get serious: medium
Skill floor: medium-low
Skill ceiling: high

Equipment needed: kettle, dripper, cone filters

To start out, any kettle will do (you can even use a pot on the stove if you really want), but if you get serious about it you’ll eventually be looking for a gooseneck kettle, optionally one that is temperature-controlled if you really want to take it seriously. The gooseneck pouring spout makes it far easier to pour at a slow, controlled, steady rate, and the temp control can be especially good if you’re using darker roasts, as those tend to brew better with slightly cooler water (around 85-90°C). But it’s not necessary. If you’re looking for a really good, high end, expensive kettle, the Fellow Stagg EKG Pro is highly recommended, and what I personally use. I love it. It isn’t cheap though, and totally unnecessary when starting out. Seriously, just use any kettle at first, don’t worry about it.

For dripper, the industry standard is the Hario V60, most commonly in the 02 size. Look up any pour over recipe online and it’s a safe bet they’re assuming a V60 unless otherwise stated. It’s not the absolute easiest to use but it’s not insanely challenging either. There’s actually a better recommendation from me, the Hario Switch, which is, in my opinion, the superior pour over dripper, but that’ll get its own section after this. There’s tons of other drippers out there, but I’d honestly recommend sticking with a V60 (or Switch) and trying others later. There’s just so much support and suggestions around the V60.

For grind size, you’ll want to be around a medium grind. Lots of grinders will have a range written either on the grinder itself or the manual that’ll tell you the ideal range for pour over on that particular grinder, or you can look up your particular model on this grind chart to give you some idea, and you can play with grind size from there.

Recipe:
I started writing out a recipe but then I realized that honestly, it’s probably easiest to just watch this video which will do a far better job explaining it than I could.

Price to start: low
Price to get serious: medium
Skill floor: low
Skill ceiling: high

Equipment needed: kettle or pot, Hario Switch

Recipe:
You can just copy the V60 recipe above, and get the same results, or you can do a full immersion brew like I mentioned above for a really easy brew, but I thought I’d share my daily recipe with the Switch as it’s quite easy still and doesn’t require much more effort.

Keep in mind this is a general structure and is easy to play with for different quantities of coffee. I won’t bother using time stamps as that’ll depend on how much you’re using.

Grind size: medium, same as V60  

Ratio: 16:1 (for example 240g water : 15g grounds)  

Start with the switch open and pour water up to 3x the weight of the coffee (so for example, 45g water for 15g coffee)  

When the bed starts to dry, pour up to 10x the weight of coffee (so for example, add 105g to reach 150g water for 15g coffee)  

When the bed starts to dry again, close the switch and make your final pour up to 16x the weight of coffee (so for example, add 90g to reach 240g water for 15g coffee)  

Let the grounds immerse for 45 seconds, then open the switch, swirl, and let drawdown

Maybe a touch complicated for a beginners guide but it’s still overall not super complicated and I think definitely worth the extra effort.

Price to start: low
Price to get serious: medium-low
Skill floor: low
Skill ceiling: medium

Equipment needed: moka pot

If you’re not too sure what size moka pot to get, I’d recommend getting a 3-cup if it’s for one, or a 6-cup for two. I personally find the 3-cup to be easier to work with, but you can get good results with any size.

Recipe:
There’s a bit of a debate over whether to use hot water or cold water in the base. Hot water will start the brew faster, but cold water will start the brew at a lower temperature which may taste better. Play with both and see which you prefer.

For grind size, you’ll want to be between espresso and filter, around medium-fine.

Add your water to the bottom portion, filling to just below the safety valve. If you find your brew is consistently bitter, fill to 1cm below the valve or use cold water. If it’s sour, fill right up to just below the valve or use hot water. When you add your grounds, it should fill the basket right up to the top. It’s more of a volumetric fill than a weighted one, but 3-cup is often around 15-18g, 6-cup is obviously double that. If you’re willing to try it, use an AeroPress filter as well as the metal filter. I find it gets better results, and will eliminate any grit in the final cup. Screw the moka pot together tightly, and place it on your stove at around medium heat. Keep the lid open. When liquid starts to come out, reduce heat if you’re on gas or take the pot half off the heat if you’re on electric. If the coffee starts to come out really fast, remove from heat entirely until it almost stops flowing, then place it back on until it goes too fast, rinse and repeat. This is called temp surfing. Once the brew starts to sputter and mostly produce bubbles, remove from heat. If you’re dividing it into multiple cups, stir the coffee first before portioning it out. When it’s time to clean up, just use water, absolutely no soap anywhere. Dry it off well too, especially the aluminum models.

Moka can be a bit frustrating because there’s not many variables to play with, so it’s harder to fine tune. At the same time, that makes it a touch easier to first get into, because there’s less to worry about.

Price to start: medium-high
Price to get serious: extremely high
Skill floor: medium-high
Skill ceiling: high

The biggest thing before you can even get into espresso is having to buy everything. Everything for espresso is unfortunately expensive. Espresso machines are not cheap, grinders capable of espresso are usually more expensive than their non-espresso counterparts, and you’ll likely want at least a couple additional tools to make things a bit easier, which will also cost money of course. Here’s what I’d personally recommend for different budgets:

Machine:
Fortunately budget machines have come a long way recently and there’s some decent options available now. If you don’t want to spend much money but still want an electric pump machine, check out the DeLonghi Stilosa. There’s obviously going to be some compromise at that price, but it’s mostly superficial (plastic exterior, buttons don’t feel great to use, etc) and the internals are surprisingly decent for the price. If you’re wanting a manual espresso machine, I’ve heard good things about the Flair Neo but I don’t have any experience personally. It’s something else to look into though. For the next price up, in electric pump check out the Breville/Sage Bambino. For manual, if you can find it, the Cafelat Robot. If not, the Flair 58. At a bit more money, I personally use a Gaggia Classic Pro and love it. Highly moddable if you’re into that, but also really good stock too. For anything higher end, I’m honestly not too sure, that’s not something I have much experience with. I’ve heard good things about the Decent DE1 though. And at the very high end, La Marzocco Linea Mini is sort of a standard for the luxury price point.

Grinder:
On the lower end you’ll likely have to be careful to choose a grinder that’s capable of espresso, as there’s lots that can’t go that fine. The standard recommendation is the Barazza Encore ESP (make sure it’s the ESP version as the regular Encore can’t do espresso). The Fellow Opus is also mentioned a lot too. This is an area I’m currently looking to invest in myself so I don’t have a ton of hands on experience yet but I have been doing research on. If you want a flat burr grinder (if you don’t know what that means, don’t worry about it for now), DF54 is great value for money and what I’m currently leaning towards buying myself. For a bit higher end, look at the Niche Zero or Option-O Lagum Casa. For high end, check out Zerno Z1 or Option-O P80 or P100. For ultra high end, take a look at Weber Workshops EG-1. (Don’t actually check it out unless you’re swimming in cash. It is astronomically expensive). There’s tons and tons of other options at all price points of course but these are some starting points for different price ranges.

Additional tools:
I’d highly recommend picking up an espresso dosing funnel and a WDT. The funnel makes it a lot easier to prep your coffee puck without making a mess on your counter, and the WDT breaks up clumps and helps with an even distribution. They’re both relatively cheap, though expensive high end versions exist for both. You’ll also need some sort of tamper. Your machine should come with one, but it’ll probably be a cheap plastic one that probably sucks. I personally use a Normcore self levelling tamp, as it makes sure even pressure is applied to the whole puck. Espresso is brewed at very high pressures so even slight inconsistencies in your coffee puck can have a large impact on the final shot. Like I mentioned before, it’s not an easy brew method to learn.

To actually make espresso, start by turning on the machine. Most machines will need to preheat for a certain amount of time. Some are longer than others, you’ll have to look up how long your machine takes. Mine takes about 10 minutes, but some are ready in 3 seconds. It really depends on how they’re heating the water. While it preheats, you’ll grind your beans really quite fine. Most people make the mistake of grinding too coarse when they start. Look up the espresso range for your grinder, but in most cases it’ll probably be the first 10-20 clicks on the finest end of the adjustment scale. A standard modern espresso double shot is around 18g but your tastes may be different. It’s a good place to start though. Once you have your grounds, put them in your portafilter basket. If you have a funnel and WDT, place the funnel on top, then use the WDT to distribute the grounds evenly. Once you’re happy with it, give the basket a little tap, either with your finger or on the counter, to settle the grounds, then remove the funnel, and tamp. When you’re tamping, just press down until it no longer feels squishy. The old rule of thumb was 30lbs of force, I’m not sure if that’s still relevant or not but it’s a decent starting point. Don’t worry about tamping too hard. It’s a pretty binary thing, either you’ve tamped hard enough or you haven’t. You’re basically just trying to squeeze out as much air as you can and compress that puck as much as possible. Once your puck is sufficiently prepped, tighten the portafilter to your espresso machine, place a scale and espresso cup under the basket, and run the pump. Ideally, you’re looking for coffee to slowly come out around 7-9 seconds after the pump comes on, and you should be hitting around double your weight out as you had grounds in around 25-30 seconds, with a flow rate of around 2g/s, but those are just benchmarks. You may find you prefer something a bit different, but that’s a good place to start. If you find the water is just gushing out, grind finer next time. If the machine chokes and nothing comes out at all, grind coarser next time. With espresso though you really should be making very small adjustments each time. Another tip if your machine is choking, you don’t need to throw out your puck and start over, usually turning the pump off, letting the grounds saturate a bit from the first failed attempt, and then running it again over wet grounds will allow it to come out after. It won’t be a fantastic shot but at least you can still have something to drink without throwing it away.

There’s tons of additional stuff I could’ve added but I’m really trying to make it as basic as possible without missing anything important. Espresso just really is a challenging and complicated brew and does require lots of practice and fine tuning to get something good. But hopefully this guide will help get you there.