The Coffee Before Time

My first experiences with coffee I'm sure ring familiar to many: getting a spoonful of sugary coffee backwash from my grandmother's post-lunch coffee, and with years passing being allowed to get a bit more of that mysterious, precious, sugary liquid. Now, you might have fond memories similar to mine, but let me assure you, that that coffee was most likely abhorrent, brewed with a bottom-of-the-line espresso machine (which were and are quite popular in Hungary), from bottom shelf preground coffee, roasted to something that resembles activated charcoal rather than coffee. But facts can't contend with nostalgia, so nonetheless, I have fond memories of it.

Later, in my highschool, there was one of those unassuming instant coffee vending machine by the school snack bar, at which one could buy some milk-powdery goodness one might've called cappuccino. You could pass a free period in case a class was cancelled. But of course, if you were one of the smoking teenagers (which was and is popular in Hungary), you took one cup of the blackest coffee with you, because you were just so cool! I wasn't that cool, though… neither smoked, nor wanted to drink tar.

Leaving behind the hellhole that was the Hungarian countryside and coming to the capital to attend university didn't much improve the options, at least in the early 2010s. Within those walls, I kinda made a habit of having a cup of coffee now and again, starting with the extremely oversweetened Hollander Cappuccino from one of the machines on the ground floor of building I of BUTE. As the years passed I discovered a Lavazza vending machine on the ground floor of the neighbouring building Q (where I also had quite a few classes), that produced a serviceable cappuccino, from actual coffee, and even with the possibility of lowering its sugar content! How quaint!

The Slippery Slope

As years went by unnoticed by my sleep-deprived brain, sustained by Bounty bars and cups of milky instant coffee, the end of my curriculum grew ever closer. At this point I had my bachelor's degree, and quite enjoyed myself doing my master's. One day I got a call from one of my friends to send him my CV ASAP, because they were looking for a software engineer intern for their department and I am to come to a job interview next week, HR will be notified. So I did, embarking on one of the slippery slopes – it being software development – but this story is not about that slope!

I started working as an intern, doing my thesis work at the same time, working my ass off. And there it was, my first experience with a weird coffee person. There was this guy in the coffee kitchen, next to a perfectly good Sage brewer-grinder machine and was fumbling with a scale and a hand grinder, putting the coffee in a contraption with big red letters reading AeroPress on the side, with his stopwatch and thermometer at the ready. I was baffled. Why the hell would anyone put so much effort into coffee? Oh, how naive and innocent I was…

As the months passed I got hooked on this espresso stuff. I can't recall exactly, but I'd wager I put some sugar into it back then. As I mentioned, we had one of those Sage brewers with integrated grinders in the office – I think it was the Barista Express. It was alright, better than the bean-to-cup ones we eventually got a few years later.

I graduated, passed on the opportunity to spend 4 more years at university to earn a Ph.D. and continued onward as a junior software engineer in another team. That was when we got our very own intern, and with it things got interesting. He was very much into coffee, so we started to fiddle around with the machines in the office to improve the coffee it made, with mild success. As we became buddies, he suggested to get a hand grinder and french press into the office; he could supply the coffee, since he knew a roaster which worked for him.

The French Press

By that time I had a french press at home, which I bought for making tea and which – incidentally – I barely used, so I donated it to the cause. We started making coffee with the press every morning and after every lunch, using a scale and stopwatch, no thermometer though. It was good times. However, like everything good, this came to an end as well. I can't exactly recall when or what ended our endeavour, but it was around the pandemic. The important thing is that I had acquired the grinder we had in the office, and started making coffee at home using my french press.

We talked about coffee quite a bit and I also gradually opened myself up more and more towards the world of coffee, so one thing led to another and I bought a V60.

The V60

I started making coffee with the V60 at home, following James Hoffmann's recipe, same as we did with the french press breforehand. I've developed quite a liking for this one too, leading to drinking around 3 cups of V60 per day. The point I know there was no return, was when I started contemplating purchasing an espresso machine… more on that one later.

That buddy of mine I mentioned before came to the conclusion to buy a new grinder, so his current grinder – some basic grinder from Lidl – came up for sale. It was at a really fair price, and since I was already one of the weird coffee people, I thought What the hell? and bought it shortly. I enjoyed the jump and ability to fiddle with coffee even more, scratching that itch in my engineer brain as well.

Since my grinders were subpar, coffee made with the press or V60 was often muddy, which I didn't much like (shocking, I know), but it was awesome for me back then. I also acquired a small coffee serving pitcher, and started making V60 by the pitcher. I wholeheartedly fell in love with coffee at this point. It had such a pleasing taste with the lightly roasted Kenyan beans I used. However, my ever growing lust for coffee seemed insatiable.

The AeroPress

Of course I also had to buy one of these. I was sitting at home due to COVID, having nothing better to do but watching James Hoffmann videos and browse coffee blogs, which just made me yearn ever more, for the stuff. Buying it was a coping mechanism for not wanting to jump right into espresso, but having a coffee maker that at least has the word press in its name. I also fell a bit for the hype about it being a good approximation to espresso, wich is wildly exaggerated and untrue, by the way. There is not much to talk about this one. I obviously follow the recipe from James Hoffmann for this one as well nowadays, but I didn't really make much coffee with it when I bought it. I now use it in the office, because the coffee and bean-to-cup machine there are not really up to snuff, for me at least.

The Espresso Machine

I had been long contemplating buying a posh coffee maker for sime time. So on a cold January afternoon I ordered my very own espresso maker. A Lelit Mara PL62X. I didn't want to go too overboard (some might disagree, since this machine costs twice as much as a middling bean-to-cup one), so I settled on the Mara. E61 espresso head, a sight to behold, shiny metal, with buttons, knobs, and levers, what more could an engineer want?

Being an enthusiastic amateur, I jumped in right away. Fiddling with the dose, grinder settings, volume, and preinfusion. I was in coffee heaven… or should I say purgatory? Having a decent espresso machine and a lowly grinder is not the best combination for coffee self confidence. However, undeterred I pushed forward, until on day that dreadful grinder broke. Luckily, my coffee buddy had another grinder for sale! I jumped on the opportunity and bought his Graef CM802. Now let me tell you, it might not be a top of any line, but it was a huge improvement for me! Its consistency was way better than what I was used to.

The Moka Pot

I know what you're thinking, and yes, I am obsessed with coffee making apparatuses. One day, as I was visiting one of my friends, I was talking about how I was considering buying a moka pot. He had a Bialetti Brikka (the induction variant) lying around, and said he'd lend it to me. It has been several years since then, and he didn't really asked for it back, so I guess it's mine now. I'm sure no one's surprised at this point that I'm using James Hoffmann's moka pot recipe, but I mention it for completeness' sake.

The Grinder

Using the Graef for some time, I started noticing that somehow I couldn't achieve the same euphoria with the cups of espresso I was making like in the beginning. Now, some might say that it is because of my ever evolving snobbery – not unfounded – but I was thinking, that it might be the years of use and abuse of the grinder, and it was starting to get noticeably dull. Could I have bought a new burr set for it for a handful of Euros? Might have… I could also buy a brand new grinder for like €500. So I did… preordered it, anyway. There was a preorder opportunity for a handful of grinders at the coffee roaster I frequented and after much back-and-forth in my head, I put up an order for a DF64V.

The months of waiting did not really blunt my enthusiasm for it, when it finally arrived. I invited friends over to test it right away. It is a gorgeous grinder, let me tell you. Everything about it just radiates this is the home of some weird and smug coffee nut.

The Cafés

Coinciding with my sliding down the abovementioned slope, I also started to frequent cafés. It was at the time I was working at my second place of employment as a software engineer I started exploring the city for coffee. First I went to the bigger-name places, not Starbucks or the like though, those are shit and should be avoided, but there are some chains in Budapest which server very nice speciality coffee.

One of these chains is Madal, where one could easily buy supplies as well, so it was convenient for my V60 setup. I started to take a liking to the coffee there. I also started to talk to baristas about the coffee they made, and how they did it, which helped me improve immensely. Now, I have to add, that my coffee didn't improve because I was doing everything like they were; it just gave me ideas in what ways I could do things differently. I think this is an important life lesson as well: don't take any advice without adapting it to your situation.

Now that you've pondered enough about taking an advice about not taking any advice, let's continue our tour into the world of cafés. Not long before quitting my job at the time, one of my colleagues introduced me to a new place near to my place, called Kastner Kommunity. It has very nice coffee, and is at the midpoint of being a café, a pub, and a coworking space. First I was just spending some time there over coffee, but after a while I started to get recognised by the baristas, who started chatting with me. We talked mainly about our enthusiasm for coffee, and sometimes I was asked about how that day's coffee was, and they've taken the feedback quite seriously, if I were to mentioned, that it wasn't as nice that day as I've experienced it at en earlier date. It is always quite nice, though.

Some time after starting at my next place of employment, I discovered another café near to it, that – coincidentally – opened not long before came accross it. It is a tiny, cosy place not far from Keleti railway station called Ivy Coffee. Since it is just a convenient walk away from my workplace, I started to frequent it as well. This one has the quirk, that they have two types of coffee on the menu. One of them is a standard darker roasted Brazilian bean, which is always available, and the other one is usually a lighter roasted, a much more interesting taste to me. I tried a few serving methods here the first time, e.g. cold brew with orange juice and aerocano.

The most recent café I've taken a liking to is MTRM, which is also very close to where I live. It doubles as a sample shop for their own roasted beans, which are really nice. I've bought many kinds of their selection of beans, either as a trial in a 250 g bag, or as a proven daily driver as a 1 kg bag.

Now that I covered the most significant cafés in my life, let's go over some of the others I quite like, but do not frequent for one reason or another. Orient Café, next to Keleti railway station (hence the name, I suppose); another cosy place with excellent coffee and two beans on selection. Anton, which has a nice selection of baked goods as well as nice coffee. Apricot, which was recommended to me by one of the baristas and I quite enjoy occasionally. Wömbat Bagel, which I first encountered on a festival, where they were present with their coffee and bagel truck; both are excellent, with a quaint sense of humour about their café's decoration.

The Conclusion

This was my brief summary of my adventures in coffee-land, thanks for reading! I hope you found it interesting. If you'd like to read about my espresso making process, follow the link!

Drink coffee! It's good. 9/10, would recommend!