Mid 2023 or so, I realized that I have a coffee addiction. Even though I have no barista training and can't even draw a potato on my latte, I grew a taste for good coffee and could immediately tell what went wrong with a certain cup. I started noticing a good bitter versus an acidic aftertaste. My YouTube feed was full of James Hoffmann and Lance Hedrick. At some point, I self-graduated from a cappuccino to an espresso shot, and felt like an authentic connoisseur. Only filthy peasants drink salted caramel lattes after that point. If the real coffee guys went all আগে চান্স পেয়ে দেখান on the newbies, I would be in deep shit, because I am pretty sure my self-taught coffee expertise is just overconfident bullshit.
Regardless, I had access to a really beautiful Lelit Bianca machine at work, which I nurtured like a baby for a while, and I wasted a few good cups trying to teach myself how to froth properly. Over time, this grew into a wish to get into the culture and get myself a basic espresso machine (after a while I was also convinced that the Bianca is overkill, considering the cost and the maintenance headache). Every weekend, I would wake up and moan about how all I needed was a good espresso machine to feel good. But the cost kept me at bay. It felt like a bad financial decision.
Fariha gifted me a machine last March, to much fanfare and elated glee. I finally had access to good coffee on a Friday morning. I was ordering specialty roasts left and right. Funnily enough, I had a grand total of three months of excitement after launch day. Now weeks go by and I don't make any coffee at home. Life is busy and I feel like I am barely at home anyway. To the point that I am now starting to realize that I did not have a need for a coffee machine. I just wanted one because it was a tick on a list that cool dudes fill up.
So I am back to ordering salted caramel lattes when I can. I am even okay with whatever it is that the automatic machine serves at work now. Oh, they also got rid of the Bianca because it was a maintenance nightmare. The bitter is just back to being basic bitter again. I also like putting a Zerocal into my double-shot whatever-it-is nowadays, which is apparently a crime.
I should say that humans are weird. But this one is on me.