A coffee blog of my exploits on the DE1 and other coffee science

What’s Pocket Science?

I first heard the term “Pocket Science” used by Colin Harmon when talking about the Mythos One. It refers to a plausible explanation for a yet unexplained phenomenon, which sounds legitimate but is backed by very little science, and is so conveniently thought of and convincingly and authoritatively conveyed, that it might as well have been in one’s pocket all along.

That is not to say that what I’ll talk about isn’t based on science. But rather that at times it’s quite possible that I will be talking out my ass without any authority whatsoever on a topic. I will however try my best to be as rigorous in my methodology and reasoning as possible, although there will still be times when I could have approached things better. 

My motivation behind starting this blog was to make a lot of the data I collect accessible to as many folks as possible. The privilege of owning a DE1 has taught me a couple of things – 1) Data is extremely powerful if interpreted correctly 2) Data is extremely pointless if kept exclusive.

With this in mind, I intend to make my learnings on the DE1 (and other coffee stuff) available to whoever wants to benefit from it. This also means that a big chunk of the blog will talk about my exploits on the DE1.

It’s also at this point I should admit to never having owned another espresso machine and it’s quite possible that the process of making a shot taste good on a DE1 may not always translate to another machine. This could plainly be due to the mechanics of the DE1. If you were to taste a “good ” shot from me in real life and spit it out, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. But I still hope my exploits are fun for you to read.

I also want to acknowledge that our understanding of espresso will probably shift massively over the next decade, which is saying something seeing as the last two decades have already seen countless innovations. This is my way of saying that every blogpost of mine is a snapshot of my understanding of that phenomenon at that point in time and I’ll try my best to retroactively either update them upon encountering new learnings or write a new “snapshot” altogether. 

About Me

I’m an electrical engineer by profession who’s fascinated by the complexity of coffee and daydreams about its various aspects. I’m also a very flawed individual.