The Home Barista
Like Duolingo, but for The Home Barista. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in The Home Barista
- A dry basket ensures the grounds stick to the walls for a proper seal
- Water follows the path of least resistance
- Residual moisture on the basket walls causes water to slide around the coffee (channeling) instead of through it
- Water will tunnel through the thinnest or loosest part of the coffee bed
- Leveling creates a uniform density across the entire puck
- Uneven beds lead to 'channeling' where some coffee is over-extracted and some is under-extracted
- The impact of moisture inside the portafilter basket before dosing
- The purpose of leveling the coffee bed
- The primary goal of tamping
- The most reliable metric for shot consistency
- Purging before a shot removes old, overheated water and grounds
- Purging after a shot flushes out used oils and debris before they bake onto the screen
- The group head must be cleared of the previous shot's 'memory' to keep the next shot tasting sweet
- The correct sequence for maintaining a clean group head during a rush
- Finer coffee particles pack closer together and slow down water flow
- Acids and salts dissolve first during brewing
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives The Home Barista the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
When hot water hits your coffee grounds, which path is it most likely to take?
Get it right to open this lesson and 10 more in the app.
Where The Home Barista takes you
Learn to pull professional-grade espresso shots and steam silky milk from your own kitchen. This course covers the essential mechanics of the 'perfect pull' and the secrets to café-quality latte art.
- 1
Crafting the Espresso Base
- The Espresso Workflow
- Dialing In for Flavor
- 2
Mastering Milk and Texture
- Steaming Silky Microfoam
- The Basics of Latte Art
2 sections · 4 units · 11 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
The Home Barista is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Finding the Flavor in Your Coffee
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Start The Home Barista today.
Download Tomo, search The Home Barista, and play your first lesson in under a minute.