My Seasonal Home Barista Bar

Writers are known for being coffee (and/or tea) drinkers. Not every writer, of course, but hundreds of us thrive on the stuff. I’ve been known as the Coffee Queen by my readers for many, many years. My characters are famous for the amount of lattes, mochas, and coffee that they drink. In fact, I’ve often been asked if they really reflect my caffeine consumption. And the answer…used to be yes, now that much caffeine is a lovely memory.

For a few years my chronic illness forced me to stop drinking coffee, and I felt so bereft. I love the buzz of caffeine, it helped me focus. And although they say you get used to going without it, I never did. I mourned the loss. When I was able to start adding it back in again, early this year, I was SO thrilled. I felt like myself again. Funny thing, during the time I had to cut down/give up coffee, my characters drank more and more of it, and I didn’t even realize that.

I never drank any sort of coffee until I started doing signings in the late 90s and when I was at Barnes & Noble, they always offered me a drink. But everything was caffeine-based, so I ordered a mocha, thinking: chocolate. I really loved it and before long, I was drinking 8-12 shots of espresso a day. I can drink a quad-shot latte without blinking. But now, I keep it to 4 shots a day, sometimes 5, divided into two lattes. All made at my home barista bar.

I used to have a Rancilio Silvia espresso machine. However, when I was forced to give up coffee, I gave it away because just knowing it was in the house was really hard for me. When I bought a new one, I bought a slightly less expensive brand, which is still very good. Though I hope to have a Rancilio again at sometime, this time, I bought a Breville Infuser (which you can see in the header picture), which works well too.

When you buy an espresso machine, you’ll also want a knock box, a really nice calibrated tamper, shot glasses for the espresso, a counter mat, and a bean grinder. I always grind my own beans–you need a very fine grind for the espresso, and it just tastes better. I used to have a Rocky Grinder, and that I will be buying again at some point. I currently have a Cuisinart and it’s not…that great. It works, but it’s not very sturdy. Whatever brand of grinder you get, make sure it’s what’s called a burr grinder rather than a blade grinder. This insures a better consistency, with the ability to grind a finer grind of coffee.

I don’t use the milk frother because I drink most of my drinks iced, and I use almond milk (or coconut milk) rather than dairy. But if you want hot lattes, etc., you’ll want to learn how to use the frother on the side.

As you can see, I also have a variety of coffee syrups–I buy sugar free but you can get whatever you like. My favorite is chocolate-peppermint, but I have a number of combinations and some of them I drink mostly as seasonal drinks.

My favorite latte is an iced sugar free, triple shot, chocolate-peppermint, almond milk latte.

But, during autumn I often drink these combinations of flavors:

• Pumpkin-Vanilla
• Caramel-Vanilla
• Chocolate-Caramel

During winter, I love these flavor combos:

• White Chocolate-Raspberry
• Chocolate-peppermint
• Chocolate-English Toffee
• Chocolate-Cherry

Spring and summer, I drink a lot of vanilla, caramel, or whatever I feel like. I also make mochas when I feel like a hot drink–here’s my recipe:

• 3 shots espresso
• 3/4 cup whatever kind of milk you drink
• 1 tbsp sugar free peppermint coffee syrup
• 1 heaping tbsp unsweetened cocoa
• 3 pkts Splenda or 1 tbsp allulose

Whip everything in a nutribullet or blender. Pour into tall latte mug and microwave for 2 minutes. Stop to stir down the foam, if necessary (don’t leave it or you may get overflow in your microwave).

Now, a final note for you to laugh at. Some of you know I collect china and teapots. But…I hate tea. I’ve never liked it, and it makes me sick when I drink it (literally–I’m either allergic to it or it just reacts really badly with my system).

So…what’s your drink of choice? Do you have a fave coffee drink? Or are you tea or herbal tea drinker all the way?