Dammit just had a moment of pure Seattle Coffee Wanker: had the thought "I should learn how to make lattes so when they come out weird at a coffeeshop I know what went wrong."
Wow, me. :<
@starkatt The hardest part about making lattes yourself is getting a decent espresso maker and steamer. The cheap ones are worthless and the good ones are super expensive; the middle ground options (relatively affordable but still pretty good) don't have steamers. >..<
@mawr yeah I don't realistically think it's a skill I have good opportunity to learn.
@starkatt Admittedly, I've become something of an espresso machine snob, 'cause I learned on a $10,000 machine imported from Italy in 2001. ^^;;; that said, if you want professional results, you're probably looking to spend a bare minimum of $500 for something you could produce decent results with.
@IrisKalmia @starkatt Suitable grinders are easy enough to get on the cheap. It's the espresso machine that's so pricey. :x
@mawr @starkatt from my understanding, hoping to get into Good Espresso At Home is a no less than 2kilodollar venture between the espresso machine and grinder. I think the most popular 'cheap' option is hunting for the all manual machines as a refurb but I could be wrong