Coffee - we're addicted to it. Hooked on its smell, the taste - and especially, the scene.

Pass by any large city cafe, it's obvious we've come a long way from 'cowboy coffee' when it's said those ranch hands simply put ground coffee in a clean sock and dipped it in water heated over the campfire! 

Today this bitter brew gets us going in the morning, keeps us upright through the day, and propels us across town if someone whispers 'I know a really great place with the BEST coffee!' 

Most of us can define a macchiato, a latte and a ristretto as easily as once we discerned the best martini or a Singapore Sling. The good news, though, is you can still drive after three coffees!

Coffee's history coffee is a long one. One story goes that Kaldi, a young Abyssinian goatherd around 900AD noticed his flock behaving excitedly after sampling red berries from a low bush. He tried some too and became so exhilarated that he skipped off to the priests to show them his discovery.

Dismissively they tossed the berries into the fire but were captivated by the aroma, then realised roasting improved the flavour. They were further delighted when realising this substance helped them to stay awake while reciting their prayers and enthusiastically gave coffee their official thumbs up.

Coffee arrived in Venice from Constantinople in l560, but Europe was wary of it. In l6th century France its use was controlled by doctors, Voltaire calling it 'a sombre exceeding cerebral liquor', and the Roman Catholic church dubbed it 'the wine of Islam', promptly banning it, although strangely, the Muslims saw it in a bad light too.

In the l6th century zealous priests in Constantinople wanted it outlawed because it cut down on church attendance and Charles II felt it was 'a disturbance to the peace and quiet of a nation. Later, some even blamed it for the French Revolution, due to the nation's changed habits and temperament - from (you guessed it) coffee drinking, although possibly it was sparked more by the practice of dissidents meeting in coffee bars to discuss politics. Worse still, other Frenchmen of the time had a much more pressing problem - they feared this insidious black brew could make them impotent! 

Finally, in 1903, Luigi Bezzera had the best idea of all - why not use pressure to brew coffee? His 'Fast Coffee Machine' translated as 'espresso', and was duly patented but, sadly, he was ahead of his time and better at making coffee than money. Bankrupted, he was forced to sell the patent for a mere 10,000 lire!

Which is where we come in today, when home espresso machines are so good and so affordable that most homes have one.

Now all we need to do is know how to use one . . .

BECOME MR (or MS) BARISTA AT HOME

• Choose 100 percent Arabica coffee. Ground coffee goes stale in a few hours, so buy beans and grind coffee as you need it.
• Store coffee airtight in a cool dark place, not the fridge or freezer.
• Use porcelain cups with a thickish lip and pre-warm them. Keep them warm on top of the machine or run steam into them just before use.
• You can go techno with an espresso machine complete with a milk-frothing attachment, or buy a stovetop espresso pot from any good Italian grocery store and a manual milk frother which works well with cold or hot milk.
• Choose your espresso machine carefully. Look at test results from Choice Magazine (www.choice.com.au ) or other independent sources. Always follow the manufacturer's directions.
• Fill the coffee basket with freshly ground coffee and tamp it down firmly but not too heavily. There should be a little space for the steam to circulate.
• After using your espresso machine, check that the 'cake' of coffee grounds in the filter is moist but still solid. This means you are using the correct amount of ground coffee.
• To froth milk - for one cup, pour 2cm to 3cm cold milk into a stainless steel milk jug. Keep one hand under the jug while frothing to gauge the temperature of the milk. Place the steam wand nozzle into the jug just below the surface of the milk and towards the side of the jug, angling slightly and swirl the jug as you would a wine glass. Stop steaming, when the jug is too hot to hold.

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY:

• Sean Edwards, cafe consultant and managing editor of Cafe Culture (www.cafebiz.net), a magazine for the cafe industry, says that all machines on the market - from the cheapest to the most expensive - work on the same principle and do much the same thing. Edwards believes that the most important thing for the home barista to realise is that it is worth the extra investment of buying an electric grinder and grinding beans only as needed. "Ground coffee goes off in seconds,' he says. His book 'Home Barista' ($14.95) is available from his website.

• Ashley Felderhof from Crema, the Cafe Lifestyle Magazine (www.cremamagazine.com.au) agrees. "Perhaps the key thing (and it's so simple that it's often overlooked) is freshness," he says. "If you're wanting a really good coffee, don't buy supermarket coffee, but get a grinder and grind your own freshly roasted beans (hopefully bought from a local roaster). These should have been roasted in the last 3-5 days and use within two weeks! This is the big one! Next is stuff like getting your grind right (takes a bit of practice) & don't buy a 'spice' grinder, but a real one - see our website, the Crema grinder page on our home page, for a range from around $150 up. Lastly, do a coffee course, or get help from our chat room: The Forum."

COFFEE-SHOP KNOW-HOW:

How can you know that your cafe and its barista are doing the best by you and the coffee they use? Apply the same standards at home.

• To find out if the machine is well-maintained, check the wand (the long silver lever at the side of the machine) to see if it looks clean. The water in the espresso machine should be clear too.
• The arabica coffee bean has much less caffeine and a superior, milder flavour. Robusta beans, often used in instant coffee, are smaller, cheaper (around a third the price) but with three times the caffeine, and a thin earthy smell.
• Listen for the coffee being ground fresh for each cup. Infusing coffee into the cup should take 25 seconds. An espresso cup contains just 30ml of 70C liquid. Hotter temperatures can burn the coffee.
• Likewise milk should never be overheated. Complain if it has a scalded milk taste.
• The 'crema' on top of your espresso should be an even golden colour, not streaky (a sign of a dirty machine) and constitute about ten percent of the coffee. To test: sprinkle a few grains of sugar on the crema. They should sink slowly, and the coffee under it should be dark brown, not translucent.

WHAT'S THAT IN MY CUP?

Those names on the blackboard above the barista can be confusing. You'd love to try something different. Here, for all of us who say 'Flat white, please,' but really would like to know - here is the translation:

• Espresso (aka short black) - a single shot topped by rich crema in a demitasse cup
• Long black - a shot of espresso topped up with hot water in a coffee cup
• Flat white - half a cup of espresso topped with hot steamed milk in a cup and a small amount of foam
• Caffe latte (technically the same as a flat white) but served in a tall thick glass without cocoa topping
• Cappuccino - one third espresso, one third hot steamed milk, one third froth served in a cup and dusted with chocolate powder
• Long macchiato - espresso coffee topped up with hot water in a regular glass or cup and marked, or stained, in the centre by a small amount of steamed milk
• Short macchiato - a shot of espresso, marked, or stained, in the centre by a small amount of steamed milk
• Affogato - a shot of hot espresso over a scoop of vanilla ice cream, served in a cup
• Doppio - two shots of espresso with a good golden crema
• Ristretto - a double strength espresso with good golden crema
• Corretto - a short black with a shot of brandy, frangelico, or galliano in a demitasse cup
• Iced coffee - a shot of espresso added to ice cream, ice and cold milk in a tall glass, and sweetened with vanilla syrup, then topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings
• Moccha - a shot of espresso and a heaped teaspoon of chocolate powder in a tall glass topped with frothed milk and sprinkled with chocolate
• Baby Cino - frothed milk sprinkled with chocolate powder for children in a demitasse cup

DID YOU KNOW?

• Coffee is the most popular beverage in the world with over 400 billion cups consumed every year.
• Coffee is second only to oil as a global commodity, with in excess of three billion kilograms of coffee traded annually.
• It is grown in 53 countries and provides 20 million jobs worldwide.
• The United States consumes over one-third of the world's coffee, while Brazil, where over five million people are employed in the coffee trade, produces one third of the world's coffee.
• Colombia is the world's second largest coffee producer.
• The perfect 'dose' of coffee per person is around a level tablespoon (seven grams) of ground coffee which is around 50-55 beans.
• Coffee's aroma and flavour comes from the coffeol (literally coffee oil) a water-soluble oil.
• After studying 20,000 people a Harvard researcher concluded that coffee drinkers have about one-third less asthma symptoms than non-coffee drinkers.

• In Italy 80 percent of coffee is consumed as straight black, with just 20 percent cappuccino style. In Australia it is exactly the opposite.
• Japan ranks third in the world for coffee consumption after Scandinavia (the Finns drink the most coffee at 11.2kg per) and Italy, surprisingly around half that amount. Australians now consume 60 percent more coffee than tea.
• In Italy a person might train for up to six years before he or she can be recognised as a barista. A good barista should be able to make between 120 and 140 cups of coffee from a kilo of roasted beans.
• Australian-grown coffee could be termed 'organic', because there are no pests that attack coffee in this country.

• A professional coffee-taster is called a cupper.

  Sally Hammond