ABOUT US
Who the h*ck are Home Coffee Expert?!
Two kids from Scotland who spent years as baristas and got fed up with the coffee snobbery. So we’re un-gatekeeping everything we know and helping you make better coffee at home – without having to sell a kidney for the latest espresso machine or training to be a barista
What you actually get around here
Honest reviews of coffee gear written by real people who’ve used it (machines, grinders, kettles – you name it, we’ve tried it)
Coffee recipes that actually taste good and are easy to make at home – not just look good on TikTok.
No sponsored opinions, no AI-generated filler, no recommendations shaped by what pays us the most.
That’s the short version. Here’s why it matters:
What our hands-on testing means for you
Before any product review goes up on this site, we’ve used it. Multiple sessions, consistent parameters, real coffee. We test how coffee gear performs when you’re half-awake on a Tuesday morning (our natural state), not just when conditions are perfect.
We look for what actually matters to you:
- does it make good coffee?
- will it make your life easier?
- is it worth the money?
- what will start to annoy you after a month?
- and what (if anything) makes it genuinely worth buying?
The goal is that by the time you finish reading one of our coffee gear reviews, you’ll know whether something is right for you. You won’t have to buy and hope for the best. We’ve done the buying, the hoping, and the brutally honest writing for you.
Between us, we have over 20 years of professional coffee experience. That means we know the difference between a genuinely good result and something that just looks impressive on a spec sheet. And we never overhype something that doesn’t deserve the marketing fluff.
Why you can trust what you read here
A lot of gear review content in 2026 is AI-generated, sponsored (but not declared 👀), or both. Here’s where we stand:
No AI writes our content. Our testing, opinions, and words are our own. We’re saying it plainly because it matters and because you deserve to know. It’s also why writing takes us a while, and we can’t review every new product that comes on the coffee market.
No ‘paid-for’ opinions, ever. If a manufacturer sends us something to test, we say so at the top of the review. It changes nothing about what we write. We’ve given bad reviews to gear we received for free, and we’ve turned down collaborations when we didn’t have time to test something properly.
Affiliate links fund the site. If you buy through a link on our site, we earn a small commission at no cost to you. This doesn’t change what we recommend, and we don’t score gear higher because it pays us more. But it does mean we can continue to buy the coffee machines to test (and food 😅) so you can access this info for free. So if you’re planning a mad shopping spree, do us a solid and click one of our links first.
The faces behind Home Coffee Expert
Matt and Katie Woodburn-Simmonds. Because couples who obsess over coffee together stay together.
Between us, we have over 20 years in hospitality – barista to sommelier to restaurant management, handling coffee sourcing, ordering, and service across every place we worked.
That experience means we’ve spent years understanding what makes coffee actually good, not just theoretically impressive. We know what holds up under daily use, what’s overhyped, and when a price jump is actually worth it.
Matt
Started as a barista, ended up as a sommelier. Spent well over a decade handling coffee sourcing and service in restaurants. His obsession started with dialling in espresso and watching someone touch the grinder and undo all of it. Still not over it.
Believes great coffee should be straightforward and accessible, which is why you’ll find zero patience for gatekeeping anywhere on this site.
Favorite beans: Yirgacheffe light roast
Preferred brew method: AeroPress
Katie
Started in hospitality at 16. The journey from “I need caffeine to survive this shift” to actually caring about what’s in the cup took a while, but trying single-origin beans from around the world will do that to you.
A trip to Rwanda changed how she thinks about sourcing. Seeing coffee farming first-hand made her serious about where beans come from and how farmers are treated. If a bean doesn’t clear that bar, it won’t get a recommendation here.
Favorite beans: Rwandan medium-light roast
Preferred brew method: Pour over
Home Coffee Expert is for you if…
You want to make genuinely good coffee at home without it becoming a full-time hobby.
You want to know whether a piece of gear is actually worth it before spending the money.
You want honest advice from people with real experience, not a wall of text that tells you nothing.
Skip it if you’re a competition-level barista, a specialty snob, or someone who wants to debate espresso ratios on the internet. There are better coffee resources for that.
Psst… got a question you can’t find an answer to? Drop us a message. We’re approachable, promise.