Philip Hindes has been a passionate home barista and friend of La Marzocco for years, in between winning medals at the Olympics and Commonwealth games as a cyclist, and hosting his podcast, PodCrash, Philip shares with us a look into his home coffee setup, his love for coffee and offers up some top recommendations for other budding home baristas.
Q: Tell us about your home coffee setup.
A: I have had my La Marzocco Linea Mini for around 3 years now and it’s paired with my grinder, an EK43S with a few internal modifications. Through the years of owning my Mini I’ve modified it as well with wooden features from Pantechnicon and Specht Design. I also have a knock box handcrafted by Specht Design and my tamper is a Saint Anthony Industries Levy.
I always weigh my ground coffee, espresso shots and extraction time. For this, I use Felicita Parallel scales and Acaia Lunar scales to measure weight and now the La Marzocco Home app to time my shots. I’m always looking at how I can perfect my workflow and make my coffee better.
When I’m travelling abroad to all the races I take my hand grinder, a Kinu M47 and an Aeropress and V60 with me.
Q: You’ve been playing around with the La Marzocco Home App over the past few weeks – how are you finding it?
A: It really was a great addition to my machine. It was amazing to play with the pre-infusion and I found my perfect setting already and had some amazing coffee from it (2sec on – 3sec off). The temperature setting was also a great addition but I do still like the mechanical feel of the manual temperature wheel. And, of course the on/off scheduling settings massively helps to get out of bed to an already hot machine!
Q: What sparked your interest in specialty coffee?
A: Cyclists are very keen coffee drinkers and being in a team with Chris Hoy who is really into his speciality coffee sparked my interest. My love really started when I went to my first World Championships in Melbourne. Going to all these coffee shops and tasting amazing coffee gave me a greater insight really what coffee is about and how different varieties, processes can taste!
Q: There’s so much to learn about the world of coffee, what are your go-to sources for keeping up to date on all things coffee related?
A: I’m always researching on the internet, following coffee accounts on Instagram and always on the hunt to broaden my knowledge etc. My dream would be to one day own the La Marzocco Leva X.
Q: What are your top tips for other home baristas?
A: Always measure coffee by weight and extraction time to keep it consistent for the perfect cup of coffee.
Q: Across the UK and Europe, there are some truly amazing coffee roasters, who are some of your favourites?
A: I have to say it’s 5 Rings Coffee which is my coffee company I’m launching soon with 2 of my Olympic teammates from Rio. But apart from that I have had some amazing coffee from North Star Coffee in Leeds, Horsham Coffee Roasters, and Gardelli Coffee. The best coffee of my life was served in Melbourne in 2019 by Ken who runs Gesha Coffee, he was using beans from The Reformatory Caffeine Lab and he made some outstanding brews.
Q: Best soundtrack for brewing coffee to?
A: I like to do it in silence. I love listening to the machine and grinders working. It’s my favourite part of the morning waking up and going through the process of trying to perfect the perfect cup of coffee.
Q: When you’re not brewing coffee or cycling, what are you up to?
A: Coffee and cycling takes up a lot of time in my day. But when I’m not doing it I’m busy with my Podcast called PodCrash and working to set up 5 Rings Coffee, watching Netflix, etc.
Follow Philip on instagram (@phindes) to stay up to date on his latest races, podcasts and his upcoming 5 Rings Coffee project!