Our Advice: Home espresso machines

Heading into the Christmas season this last year, we had many customers come to us to chat about purchasing an espresso machine for home. While there are many options out there for coffee + espresso at home, we have a few things we can give direction on to help make your decision. Here's how we can help and what you should know to make your best drink at home.

You’ve picked out your machine, purchased it, maybe watched some Youtube videos. Like most things, practice makes perfect and having knowledge can be a step forward. If you don’t have an espresso machine at home and you’d like information on that, we’ll have a note about those coming soon too!

Three things can make or break the taste of your latte:

1. Espresso

2. Flavor

3. Milk

Espresso. When purchasing coffee beans, be sure to choose a fresh selection of beans (usually not found in a big chain place) and if you have the worker at the place grind it for you, let them know how you are using it at home and what you are using to brew your coffee. If the beans are ground incorrectly, you’ll have terrible espresso shots from the start. Fresh + ground correctly.

Flavor. There are many different brands of coffee syrups and sauces out there. Some are WAY better than others. If you find one you like, stick with that brand.

Milk. If you are steaming milk with your espresso machine, know there are great techniques to steaming milk and doing it correctly can directly effect the taste of your latte.

Just like making your favorite meal from that well-known restaurant at home might not be quite the same, we think the same of specialty coffee. There really isn’t a perfect match to having your favorite coffee from #theCabin at home, but you can get close.

Specialty Roasted Coffee | Light, Medium and Dark

If you're used to buying beans from the grocery store, you won't believe how much flavor specialty-grade, freshly roasted coffee can have at every roast level. We choose to serve highly rated, specialty grade coffee at #theCabin. We brew our usual coffee options: House, Dark Roast as well as many flavored versions available in every season.

Roasting is a heat process that brings out the aroma and flavor locked inside the naturally green coffee beans. The roast “level” is determined by a combination of the bean type, the amount of heat the beans are exposed to, and the length of time they’re in the roaster. Sometimes people think that the terms light, medium, and dark are related to caffeine level, but the label actually refers to how long the beans have been roasted for.

If you have a few minutes, watch this mesmerizing roasting video we came across. It’s done phenomenally and will give a glimpse into why we aren’t a roaster on our own, but we found an outstanding company for us to partner with for the last 20 + years instead. Roasting coffee beans is truly an art form much like us hand-crafting your favorite espresso drink at the cabin. Check this video out:

Roasted Video on Vimeo

Caffeine content

A question we get asked many times over is, “which one has more caffeine??” Some people may think that the darker the roast, the more caffeine coffee has. However, that's not the case.

The difference between roasts is taste not the caffeine content.

Ultimately, the amount of difference in the caffeine content between light and dark roasts is pretty minimal and nearly impossible for the average roaster or the average coffee drinker to accurately know about any given coffee. If you feel that the caffeine in a dark roast coffee affects your body more, consider drinking a medium roast instead, but remember there’s no guarantee that your reaction will be different, unless you choose our Decaf coffee.

The simple rule of thumb we’ve found is this:
It ain't the shade of bean; just add more coffee to get more caffeine.

Light Roast

Lightly roasted coffee beans have a light brown color and don't have oils on their surface because they are not roasted long enough for the oils to reach the surface.

Lighter roasts are light-bodied with delicate fruit and floral flavors and high acidity.

They often display delicately fruity and floral flavors but can also taste like cereal or lightly toasted nuts, honey, or freshly baked bread.

• More antioxidants

• Color is lighter

• Taste is mild

• Less bitter

Medium Roast

Medium roast coffees are medium brown, with little oil on the beans surface. Medium roast coffee is considered to be sweeter than the light roast, with more body and balanced acidity. This combination gives a smooth flavor.

Medium roasts are full-bodied with balanced flavor and a subtle sweetness, and dark roasts are robust, with cocoa and caramel flavor notes and very low acidity. Because of the caramelization that continues to happen in the bean between the light and medium roast levels, you’ll often taste more gently “cooked” flavors in these roasts. Caramel is common, as well as toasted nuts and milk chocolate.

Medium roast is the ‘just right’ roast between light and dark.

• Rich, dark color

• More balanced roast: aroma, acidity + flavor

Dark Roast

Dark roast coffee has a shiny black color with an oily face. Unlike the other roast types, it has a bittersweet taste. Dark roasts usually have a substantial bitterness to their taste.

Dark roast beans will taste as much like the roasting process as they will the inherent characteristics of the coffee. You may taste more bittersweet chocolate notes and drier nut flavors like walnut or pecan, and often there will be less fruity or floral flavors present.

• Less acidic

• Slightly dark to charred

• More bitter

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We hope this helps you choose your favorite drip coffee when you stop in our coffeeshops. We also hope this maybe help you to think about purchasing specialty roasted coffee beans for your home brewed coffee over the grocery store isle version. We know you’ll find a difference in taste. Not only does roasting make a difference, but freshness and flavors change the taste as well.

We are currently brew our our “House” coffee and a “Dark Roast” as daily brewed coffee options.. Our “House” coffee is a medium-dark roast and our “Dark” is just that, dark roast. We’ve been talking amongst ourselves and the baristas about having a “Light Roast” coffee available, but we can’t add another coffee option without taking one away… don’t worry, the “House” is here to stay.

Do we have any customers that really would like a “Light Roast” option? Do we take away our “Dark Roast” because our “House” is medium-dark and there really isn’t a huge difference between the two? Weigh in for us if you would drink light roast or if you’d just like to keep that Dark Roast on the menu.

Have you tasted the difference between our House and Dark Roast?

Sometimes we like to try new things to make sure we are doing the VERY best we can to serve the best cup of coffee around with the choices our customers are looking for. We also understand things like our choice of House coffee is here to stay as long as our doors are open. We are always here. Talk to us.

Educating one coffee drinker at a time,
Alyssa and the Cabin Fever Crew

The Cabin at NSCC pt 2

How did Cabin Fever end up with a location at Northwest State Community College? 

Part 2 

We had been looking for a third location that would work and fit what we hold dear as a local community coffee shop. We started building a mobile coffee trailer in 2019 and rolled it out to the community just before COVID hit in 2020. With the many things that COVID changed, the success of the coffee trailer took a hit too. We made the tough choice to wait it out a year and see what would happen in our industry. The longer we waited, the more we knew we would love to do another permanent location over something mobile. 

Cabin Fever Mobile

We sold the coffee trailer and turned it into so much more at Northwest State Community College. 

We looked at a space in Napoleon and really liked it. It’s funny, having a drive-thru (or capability to have one) was HIGH on our list after watching our business morph a bit through COVID and now we are at Northwest State Community College without one. Without us having a drive-thru on the Southside, we aren’t sure how we could have survived 2020 as a small business. Our communities are becoming more and more drive-thru driven. Everyone wants something at the moment they think of it: an answer to a text, a photo, lunch, a coffee, you name it. 

Anyway, back to the story of HOW we came to be open at Northwest State… 

It was no secret to our baristas that Adam and I had looked at locations in Paulding and Napoleon a few times through 2020 and 2021. While on vacation at the beginning of this year, Chelsi (one of our baristas many of your know and love) contacted us and said there was a building for sale in the area we were looking at and there was an open house. The very day after we got back to the states, we checked out the space and on the way home talked it over. 


While driving down Route 6 outside of Archbold to head back toward Defiance, I flippantly said to Adam, “what if we checked out NSCC? I wonder what they have going on since we’ve been there?” We chatted about how we would order burgers, nachos and cheese, and drinks from the snack bar by the bookstore and laughed about old times and how far we’ve ventured since then. We talked about emailing someone from the college just to say hello and see what interest there would be from their end. Just like normal spousal conversations, it then morphed into something else. Probably about the kids or getting our schedules straight for the week coming up. 

That next day, Adam and I both sent emails to the college without the other knowing and that began our journey this spring. Together, Cabin Fever Coffee and Northwest State Community College worked out loads of details. What would it look like to be a tenant in a state school, a college? What would it look like for them to trust us with their space, our coffee knowledge, and their students? How would we get all of the equipment in? Who is allowed to have access to the building and how? So. Many. Things. 



Contracts were signed by the beginning of fall and by the end of September, water lines were being formed, equipment ordered and the Health Inspector was on alert to come and give us the green flag to finally serve coffee. Where would we find staff? We started hiring! 



We can’t thank NSCC and it’s staff enough. Every single person has been beyond welcoming and helpful. The maintenance staff has become our BFF’s forever (even though they might not like it much ;)) and have done impeccable work for our business to come in, set up, and run as smoothly as possible. We’ve been asked by their staff countless times, “what do you need?” It has been smooth and bumpy all at the same time. Things never go totally to plan. Our espresso machine quit working completely two days before opening and we lost three blenders in the first two days of being open. Not everything works 100% of the time without any hiccups or bumps in the road. You learn to pivot. A lot. 

We are here. We are OPEN. We are working out hours to be open and serve coffee that is good for the NSCC community, outside community and Cabin Fever. With a few tweaks here and there, we are hoping everyone will be happily drinking their favorite Caramel Cabin Fever, Lotus energy drink, tea or coffee when they are looking for something to de-stress, study hard, or celebrate that great great on a test.

A couple of quick Q + A's that we've had LOTS of... 

Q: Can ANYONE come inside or just students? 

A: YES! Anyone from the community can come in while the college is open. Our hours are posted on social media + Google Business. 

Q: Are you open on the weekends? 

A: We are closed. Campus is closed on the weekends so we are as well. They ask us to be closed when they are. It's different for us to work inside of someone else's building but it works. 

Q: How do we find where you are? 

A: We have more signs coming soon! We have shared a video and photos with a map as well. You can also email us any time. We'll do the next mail on how to find us so this one isn't too long! BUILDING A -- between the library and the bookstore. 

Keep checking in on our emails. You'll never know if it's going to be a great coupon, an inside look, a story around the fireplace, or something you NEED to know... like our Holiday Gift Card Bonus or our Christmas hours. 

We'll have more coffee together around the fireplace for soon,  

Alyssa and the Cabin Fever Crew 

The Cabin at NSCC

How did Cabin Fever end up with a location at Northwest State Community College? 

Part 1 

If you haven't heard yet, we have finally opened our THIRD Cabin Fever Coffee location in Archbold, OH at Northwest State Community College. We call it “Cabin Fever at NSCC.” We opened to the staff, students AND community on Tuesday, October 4, 2022. We are VERY excited to be a part of the NSCC Community. We mentioned before that we would tell you why, so here goes! 

Adam and I are BOTH Northwest State Community College Alumni. Almost 23 years ago, we married VERY soon after graduating from high school and began our family right away. We chose to enter the workforce right after graduation, as many young adults in this area do. In our eyes, we didn't want to go to college and just spend the money to do so without knowing what we wanted to do. After a handful of years working and living in the Defiance Community, we both decided we finally had a passion for something enough to be ready to attend college. 

With two young boys and jobs to work, we decided the best economical decision and place that worked best with our schedule was Northwest State Community College. We headed back to school for Business. Ten years after we graduated High School, I graduated from NSCC with my Associates Degree in Office Administration. Adam has one more elective class to take to complete his degree in Business Management, but that's still being discussed. We finish what we start, right honey?! 😘😉 Let's see if he's reading these. LOL 

Anyway, we spent MANY hours at what everyone now calls "Downtown" Cabin Fever Coffee doing homework, studying, writing, taking online classes and sometimes hiding from each other and the boys to get our work done for school. While having our favorite cup of coffee in hand, the baristas supported us (in more ways than one) to finish each assignment. Downtown Cabin has always been "home."

The journey from college days as young parents, to owning and operating a coffee shop has been a wild ride. It has not been without so much learning, growth, blood, sweat, tears, smiles, laughter and amazing baristas along the way. Without all of the experiences combined together, we wouldn't be where we are today. Without each other, we wouldn't be where we are today. 

We wanted nothing more than to bring our favorite thing (Cabin Fever Coffee) to the students and staff of a place that contributed to what we feel is success and has had an integral part of how (school at NSCC) we became who we are. <--- that's the "heart answer" 

College students NEED good coffee. <--- That's the experienced student turned business owner answer! 

Keep checking in on our emails. You'll never know if it's going to be a great coupon, an inside look, a story around the fireplace, or something you NEED to know... like FREE Hot Chocolate on Trick-or-Treat night!

We'll have more coffee together around the fireplace for Part Two of this story soon,  

Alyssa and the Cabin Fever Crew 

Throwback!

CABIN FEVER AT NSCC

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Are you there yet? Good deal!