Home Espresso Has Always Been a Compromise. Fellow Changed That | Nick Terzulli | Ep. 34

Nick Terzulli didn't set out to reinvent home espresso. He started with a latte at Sightglass, a honeymoon in Barcelona, and a medical engineering background he couldn't stop applying to coffee problems. Now, as VP of R&D at Fellow, he's the person behind one of the most talked-about espresso machines to hit the market in years — the Espresso Series 1.

In this episode, Nick breaks down the boosted boiler architecture that makes the Series 1 tick, why shot-to-shot consistency has been the white whale of home espresso, and how building the Aiden brewer laid the foundation for everything that came after. He also gets into burr design, why unimodal isn't always better, and what it actually takes to bring a product from a blank piece of paper to thousands of people's countertops.

Find Nick: Instagram: @nicholasnumbers LinkedIn: Nicholas Terzulli

Equal Parts Coffee is a podcast about the people, gear, and ideas shaping specialty coffee. New episodes drop every other week. Subscribe so you don't miss one.

0:00 Intro

0:40 Welcome & Guest Introduction

1:14 What Nick Does at Fellow

1:53 How Nick Got Into Specialty Coffee

3:30 From Coffee Lover to Coffee Engineer

8:24 First Espresso Machine

9:42 Was Espresso Always in Fellow's Roadmap?

17:17 How Aiden Influenced Series 1

18:40 The Boosted Boiler Explained

21:39 The Challenge of 120V Home Espresso

22:17 Designing Three Machines

24:06 Fellow's Growth as a Company

27:22 Series 1 Dev Time

34:44 For the Casual Home Barista

38:21 Designing for Everyone

41:38 Shot-to-Shot Consistency

44:40 Reliability & Longevity

48:21 Repairability & Refurbishment Facility

54:19 Unimodal vs Bimodal Grind Distribution

57:41 The Hardest Thing Nick Has Done

1:02:08 Rapid Fire

1:06:27 Wrap Up & Where to Find Nick