mouth() << coffee;

Home Setup

Espresso machine: Gaggia Classic Pro
Grinder: 1ZPresso JX-Pro, Eureka Mignon Specialita
Basket: IMS Precision

I will mod my espresso machine at some point to have a PID.
I mostly make espresso drinks, but also own a Phin coffee brewer. It brews a very full-bodied coffee that resembles drip coffee.

Coffee Shoppe Reviews (Pittsburgh, PA)

In no particular order, based only on 12oz lattes.

Coffee Tree Roasters (Shadyside): 7/10
Cafe Carnegie: 1/10
Round Table Coffee (Shadyside): 4/10
Jitters Cafe (Shadyside): 7/10
Arriviste Coffee (Shadyside): 6/10
Centred Coffee & Wellness (Shadyside): 5/10
Georgie's Corner Cafe (Shadyside): 8/10
KLVN Coffee Lab (Larimer): 7/10 - extreme hits and extreme misses.
James Cafe (Strip): 6/10
Commonplace Coffee (Squirrel Hill): 6/10
Redhawk Coffee (Oakland): 5/10
The Vault Coffeehouse (Pitcairn): 6/10
Divvy Coffee & Buns (Oakland): 3/10
De Fer Coffee & Tea (Carnegie Mellon University): 8/10
Curbside Coffee (Blawnox): 4/10
Mechanic Coffee Company (Verona): 5/10 - sour, underextracted.
Mechanic Coffee Company (Shadyside): 4/10 - watery.
Local Provisions Cafe (Fox Chapel) : 0/10 - specialty prices for Jura coffee. Not a real coffeeshop.
Kaibur Coffee (Polish Hill): 6/10 - Tastes like peanut oil?
Delanie's Coffee (Southside): 8/10 - Serves traditional beans, sells modern beans.
Espresso a Mano (Lawrenceville): 7/10
Hilltop Coffee (Arlington / Southside Slopes): 6/10 - Traditional bitterness.
LV Coffee Project (East Liberty): 6/10 - Rotates their beans regularly, was very acidic when I visited.

To visit, also in no particular order.

Big Dog Coffee (South Side)
Constellation Coffee
Creative Coffee

Coffee Roasters / Beans

Personal preferences: don't like acidic beans, prefer a medium roast. (*) Indicates review for a single blend/bean. Also in no particular order:

Del's Coffee: 8/10 - Generally good.
Blue Bottle: 5/10 - Hit or miss, but the Hayes Blend is consistently non-offensive.
Intelligentsia: 5/10 - Generally okay all around.
KLVN: 6/10 - Hit or miss. Highline and Continual Flame are pretty good, but I do not like Alta Imabara or Luces at all.
De Fer Coffee & Tea: 7/10 - Nice decaf, others seem consistently nice.
* Honor Coffee (out of business, Crown No.1 Blend): 9/10 - Impressive light roast with toasty notes. Not sure if roasted in-house.
Coffee Tree Roasters: 7/10 - consistent roasts, mostly non-offensive.
Ritual Coffee: 6/10 - It's alright, nothing special.
* East Crema Coffee (Blue House): 6/10 - Pleasant.
* Fabrica Coffee Roasters (Kerinci): 7/10 - Pleasant. Would like to try more of their roasts.
* Syra Coffee (Santa Fe): 6/10 - Tasting notes not very distinct, but pleasant.
* Kawa Coffee (Bolivie-Manco Kapak):
* Fève Coffee (Essentiel Ethiopie Cooperative Haru): ?/10 - Don't know how to rate drip coffee.
* Victrola (Triborough): 4/10 - Tastes burnt.
* Mechanic Coffee Company (Modulator): 3/10 - Unpleasant sort of acidity. Hard to dial in.
* Alta:
Sightglass: 8/10 - Owl's Howl is consistently pleasant, toasty. Winter Solstice odd but nice.
Coffee & Water Lab (?): 6/10 - Nothing really stands out.
*Tartine (Filter 02): 7/10 - Pretty consistent and well-behaving, a bit of brightness.
*Onyx (Mexico Finca Las Chicharras): 10/10 - Distinct berry notes, low acidity, medium-light roast.
*Onyx (Monarch): 7/10 - Had this served in cafe. Very traditional taste, non-offensive.
*Onyx (Peru Roberto Roncal de la Cruz): 7/10 - Milk-chocolate-y.

To try:

City of Saints
Verve
Atlas
Corvus
Kitty Town Coffee
Dark Horse Coffee Roasters

Coffee Mugs

I like Loveramics latte cups a lot.

Steaming Milk

The timings for steaming different types of milk will vary, but the steps are the same.

Prepping milk

For a 10oz latte, get a frothing pitcher with a volume of roughly 14oz. Pour enough milk in that the level of the milk is roughly 1.5cm below the start of the spout. This is usually filling the pitcher by about a third of the total volume. Position the pitcher so that the steam wand tip is just fully submerged in the milk. Then tilt the pitcher to the side a bit so that the steam wand tip is not directly in the center of the pitcher - this is to promote swirling of milk when you open the steam valve.

Stretching the milk

The goal of this step is to introduce air into the milk. Open the steam valve. Make sure you have a steady grip on the pitcher handle (or the pitcher itself, if it is handleless with a sleeve), and lower the pitcher so that the steam wand tip appears to be under the milk, but makes a hissing sound that resembles tearing paper. Maintain the pitcher position until the level of the milk is about 1.5cm above the start of the spout (or the milk is about 20% more voluminous than when you started). Once the milk reaches that level, fully submerge steam wand tip in the milk by elevating the pitcher by about 1-2cm.

Incorporate the milk

The goal of this step is to incorporate the air into the entire body of milk evenly. Now that the steam wand is submerged in the milk, make the milk swirl, using the steam as a moving force. The easiest way to do this is to simply keep the pitcher tilted to the side. It may take a bit of additional adjustment in positioning to make the milk swirl more aggressively. If you touch the side of the milk pitcher and it feels like you might burn your fingers soon, stop - you are close to burning the milk, and burnt milk does not taste good or produce good latte art. Close the steam valve once you reach your desired temperature. Ideally, there should be no visible lumps of milk foam sitting at the surface of your milk. When you swirl the milk around in the pitcher, the milk should flow smoothly and cling to the sides of the pitcher. If there is a lump of foam on top, the best way to salvage the milk is to use a spoon and scoop out the foam on the surface. People say frothed milk should have the texture of latex paint, but I've never used latex paint so I can't comment on that. However, the milk should definitely glossy and laminated.