The Coffee Handbook exists to answer one question honestly: which coffee gear is worth your money, and why. No sponsored placements, no rewritten manufacturer copy, and no pretending a spec sheet is a hands-on test.
What we do
We write buying guides, product breakdowns and comparisons for home coffee equipment — espresso machines, grinders, brewers and beans. Every guide is written to be read before you spend, and structured so you can disagree with our conclusion and still make a good decision, because the reasoning is on the page rather than hidden behind a verdict.
How we research
This is the part most sites are vague about, so we will be specific.
- Manufacturer specifications for the objective facts — burr size and type, boiler configuration, portafilter dimensions, adjustment mechanisms.
- Owner reports and long-term community discussion, which surface the failures and annoyances that only appear after months of use and never appear in a launch review.
- Established coffee science for the underlying principles: extraction, particle distribution, pressure, solubility and temperature stability.
- Cross-referencing across sources, so that a claim repeated everywhere but sourced nowhere gets treated with suspicion.
What we do not do
We do not currently claim hands-on laboratory testing of every product we write about, and we will not imply otherwise. When an article draws on specifications and documented owner experience rather than direct measurement, that is what it is, and we would rather say so than dress research up as a test bench.
If that changes — if we begin publishing our own measurements — we will say precisely what was measured and how.
How we make money
Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you buy something after clicking one, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. That commission is what funds the site.
It does not influence what we recommend. We have no arrangement with any manufacturer that trades coverage for payment, we accept no sponsored placements in guides, and where a product is genuinely not worth buying we say so, including when it would be more profitable not to.
Our biases, stated plainly
Every publication has them. Ours: we think grinders matter more than machines and most people underspend on them; we think pressurised baskets hold beginners back; and we think most people buy more machine than their routine justifies. Where those views shape a recommendation, you will see the reasoning rather than just the conclusion.
Corrections
If something here is wrong, we want to fix it. Specifications change, products get revised mid-production, and we make mistakes like anyone else. Send details through the contact page and we will correct the article.