Building out an espresso setup goes beyond just the machine and the grinder. The right accessories streamline your workflow, improve shot consistency, beautify your coffee corner and make the daily ritual much more enjoyable. Here are my top 8 functional must-have accessories for the perfect coffee corner:

1. Magnetic Phone Holder A flexible magnetic mount is incredibly handy for seamlessly snapping your phone directly to your machine. I use it everyday to browse my espresso recipes and log brew experiments with the The Baristapp iOS app.

2. Normcore Bottomless Portafilter Switching to a bottomless portafilter is a massive practical upgrade. Spouts tend to build up coffee oils and grime quickly, so an exposed bottom keeps things much cleaner. It also gives you the flexibility to experiment with different basket depths, sizes and shapes (see Ikape Convex Basket below), all while letting you watch the beauty of the shot as it extracts.

4. Normcore Tamping Station & Puck Prep Tools Proper puck prep is the ultimate game-changer for shot consistency and avoiding channeling. It’s actually the first big upgrade to my coffee game I saw before upgrading my machine and grinder. I use the Normcore Tamping Station to keep all my prep tools neatly organized. My puck prep workflow includes:

• WDT Tool: Essential for breaking up clumps and evenly distributing the coffee grounds before tamping.
• RDT: one-two quick spritz of water to eliminate grinder static. Interestingly, evidence from Clive Coffee explores how adjusting the number of spritzcan actually impact your extraction.
• Puck Screen: Keeps your machine’s shower screen clean and heavily improves water dispersion. Clive Coffee’s testing highlights exactly how much these screens visibly impact extraction evenness.
• Normcore Gravity Distributor: A simple gravity-based tool to perfectly level the top of the coffee bed.
• Normcore Spring-Loaded Tamper: This V4 tamper ensures absolute consistency in tamping force, while its self-leveling base guarantees a perfectly flat puck every time.

5. Ikape Convex Basket Upgrading from a stock basket fundamentally changes how your coffee extracts. A convex basket is specifically designed to increase puck depth and center the water flow, which actively reduces channeling for a more even yield and has been very forgiving. It lets you grind way coarser and I even followed Ikape advice and skip the tamp.

6. Bookoo Themis Mini – Bluetooth Connected Precision Sacle

A bluetooth super compact 0.1g precision scale with a premium aluminum-glass build with auto-tare, timer and flow rate logs.

Use coupon FRANCOIS for 5% of all Bookoo products.

7. Barista Swag Milk Pitcher A highly controlled pitcher is required for pouring great latte art. Beyond its functional precision spout, I personally love the matte blue and pink color combination of the Ultra Sharp 2.0 model. It adds a great visual pop to the coffee corner setup.

8. Flair Brew Scale A fast, reliable scale is non-negotiable for dialing in espresso. The Flair scale hits all the right functional marks: it has a small form factor that actually fits on an espresso drip tray, intuitive buttons, long battery life, and crucial water resistance.

9. Set of 2 Espresso Shot Glasses Ditching ceramics for clear espresso glasses lets you visually appreciate the crema and distinct layers of your drink. Plus, they are incredibly nice to have when you want to record the shot pouring directly into the cup from below.