the best coffee, every morning

I need to begin with a story about my Dad.

For the better part of a decade (maybe more), he had often told me how he wanted to get into woodturning. He has always worked with his hands, making things, and once had a friend who ‘turned’, so the fascination had long existed. I remember seeing him over Christmas ’15 and asking “So Dad, when are you getting this wood lathe?”, knowing he had been mentioning it again recently. “Soon, I just need to…” And then followed a general excuse. And for some reason this particularly bothered me – I think it was the idea of ferociously wanting to do something, but not going through with it. That thwarted desire.

So a few weeks later I found this beast of a machine, called a Wadkin Bursgreen, built in the 1950’s and 1960’s in Leicester, it is a remarkable contraption. Made mostly from cast iron, it is incredibly heavy, but also standing the test of time, compared to the more commonly available imported lathes. Not an easy item to ship, so I must thank Keith Maden for being so helpful and kind in getting it down to Shropshire in perfect condition.

So we’re now accumulating many round objects, as you might imagine!

Now, to the serious matter of coffee.

I love great coffee. For me, it’s mostly about the flavour.

It also gives me that extra ‘launch’ as I run through my regular work of photo editing, scheduling consults, designing products, and so on. So I’ve recently tried to go back to grinding my own coffee – which really is a must for any coffee enthusiast. Something I disliked about the previous coffee grinder I had was it was a pain to adjust the grind setting, and to get it fine enough I had to put it through the mill twice, making the whole procedure quite an event in itself! I discovered these antique coffee grinders, made in the UK, which are genuinely marvelous tools. Long discontinued, but commonly found under the brand name “Spong”. They’re hand grinders and work incredibly well. To quote this excellent review of them from “home-barista“:

I have a Rossi professional electric grinder that works fine. Except it is larger than my espresso machine. Except that is very loud. Except that it retains over a gram of grinds. Except like most electric grinders, static causes a layer of coffee to stick to the doser. If I count the endless cleaning, brushing, blowing, and counter cleaning, the Spong takes less time and makes less mess and makes less noise than an electric. It also doesn’t heat the coffee as it grinds. It will also never wear out, at least not in your lifetime nor your grandchildren’s.

All of those qualities have massive appeal for me. I hate anything that just won’t stand the test of time, or that’ll actually make life more difficult. It has to solve a problem, not create new ones, and simply do it’s job for the foreseeable future – so I can get on with life!

With the lathe, there was also an opportunity to make a custom “coffee catcher tray” for the Spong coffee grinder, with the original missing, and also the design not being quite what I had in mind.

With this new “coffee catcher bowl”, I get zero spillage, and an effortless transition to the coffee pot.

So efficient!

To complete this rather winding coffee journey, I must also mention my friend Zeb Reynolds who I commissioned these beautiful ceramic espresso cups, seen below. He is incredibly talented, and if you are on the Welsh coast, you must visit his gallery in Harlech.