The Home Barista's Craft
Like Duolingo, but for The Home Barista's Craft. 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.
21 levels across 4 sections, about 42 minutes end to end, roughly 8 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Precision Extraction Control, The Science of Milk and Texture, The Professional Menu, and The Bean and the Machine. It assumes you already know the basics.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in The Home Barista's Craft
- The 1:2 ratio is a calibration baseline to find a bean's flavor profile
- Longer yields extract more sugars and bitters to balance early acids
- Deviating from the baseline allows for intentional flavor profiling
- Shorter yields cut off the extraction before bitter compounds dominate
- Sticking strictly to 1:2 can result in missing a bean's peak sweetness
- Yield is the primary lever for moving between 'sour' and 'bitter' poles
- Dialing in with yield
- Yield adjustments for flavor
- A larger coffee puck creates more physical resistance for the water
- Darker roasts are more soluble and require cooler water to avoid ashiness
- The 1:2 ratio is a starting point for dialing in, not a fixed target for every bean.
- Higher doses generally lead to a more viscous, heavy-bodied mouthfeel
- Lighter roasts are denser and need higher heat to extract sweetness
- Using yield adjustments to fix flavor imbalances like sourness or bitterness.
- Matching brew temperature to roast level to optimize extraction.
- Flavor is the ultimate metric, while time is just a secondary indicator
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's Craft 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.
If your espresso tastes unpleasantly sharp and acidic, what does increasing the yield achieve?
Get it right to open this lesson and 20 more in the app.
Where The Home Barista's Craft takes you
Move beyond the basic shot. Learn to manipulate extraction variables, master microfoam chemistry, and build a professional-grade cafe menu using your home setup.
- 1
Precision Extraction Control
- Beyond the 1:2 Ratio
- Advanced Puck Dynamics
- 2
The Science of Milk and Texture
- Microfoam Chemistry
- Pouring with Intent
- 3
The Professional Menu
- Building the Espresso Menu
- Sensory Diagnosis
- 4
The Bean and the Machine
- Roast Profiles and Solubility
4 sections · 7 units · 21 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
The Home Barista's Craft is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. 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.
More Food & Drink on Tomo
The Professional Barista's Craft
Move beyond basic brewing to master the precision, chemistry, and workflow of a professional espresso bar. Learn to manipulate extraction variables and perfect your microfoam for world-class drinks.
Espresso: Dialing in the Perfect Shot
Move beyond the basic 'push-button' espresso and learn to manipulate variables like a professional barista. Master the physics of the puck, the chemistry of water, and the sensory skills required to diagnose any shot.
The Art of the Espresso Shot
Move beyond the button-press and master the variables that define a perfect extraction. Learn to diagnose flavors, manipulate brew ratios, and maintain professional-grade equipment.
Roast and Extraction: The Espresso Method
Move beyond the basics of brewing to understand how roast chemistry and precision extraction physics create the perfect shot of espresso.
Espresso Extraction and Service
Master the science of the perfect shot, from the physics of puck resistance to the nuances of water chemistry and high-volume workflow.
Espresso Barista Techniques
Move beyond basic brewing and master the precision required for professional-grade espresso. Learn to dial in complex roasts, steam perfect microfoam for every drink size, and manage a high-speed bar workflow.
Start The Home Barista's Craft today.
Download Tomo, search The Home Barista's Craft, and play your first lesson in under a minute.