Home » About Us – Meet The Home Grounds Team

Get to know us

Hey, we get it. The internet is brimming with big-shot publishers claiming to be the ‘know-it-all’ of everything, including coffee. But let’s spill the beans here – most websites on Google are run by big media companies, not by coffee experts.

That’s where we at Home Grounds come in. We’re not just some faceless corporation; we’re a tight-knit crew of coffee junkies who live and breathe the art of coffee brewing daily. We’re here to cut through the noise and give you the lowdown on coffee gear and home brewing, with honest reviews from people who have used the items they write about.

Specialty coffee association banner
We are a proud member of the Specialty Coffee Association

About Home Grounds

Guess what, fellow home baristas? We make the same community! For us at Home Grounds, coffee is not just a drink but a passion and a lifestyle. And we’re here for you.

Homegrounds.co is a resource that empowers you to brew and enjoy better coffee from the comfort of your home.

Like you, we are passionate coffee hobbyists researching, testing, and educating about issues relevant to the home barista market. We strive to simplify the misinformation in the market so that you can make better-informed decisions about buying and brewing coffee of amazing quality. 

Our Story

The Home Grounds founder, Alex Mastin, wasted time and money brewing bad-tasting coffee due to the lack of transparent online education. So, he began teaching himself how to brew better coffee via trial and error. In 2015, his learning journey became his profession, turning his findings into a coffee website. Over the years, our team of coffee-loving content creators and industry professionals have come together to educate the home barista market on brewing delicious coffee. 

Our mission is to help you brew better coffee. We’re here to tell you that you don’t have to train as a professional barista to brew professional-level coffee.

Alex Mastin Home Grounds founder hugging his brewers

The founder of Home Grounds hugging his first brewing equipment

Alex Mastin attended a coffee cupping class at the beginning of his career

Attending a coffee cupping class at the Sydney Aroma Festival


The Editorial & Marketing Teams

The editorial team at Home Grounds handles the primary task of researching, writing, reviewing, publishing and fact checking coffee brewing guides and reviews into easily digestible guides.

Jovana Durovic – Editor In Chief, General Manager

Jovana has over 10 years of experience researching, editing, and writing in academic and industry niches. After trying the V60 brewer for the first time, her passion for coffee took to another level. The rest is silence. This growing passion for coffee has driven her career from academic to coffee industry fields when, in 2020, she joined Home Grounds as the managing editor. 

In her career, she has been a University teacher, a general manager, an editor, a writer, and a front-woman in a band.

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Julia Bobak – Leading Writer, Product Researcher, Email Community Manager

Julia is a scientist turned freelance writer with nearly a decade of experience researching and writing about food and coffee. She began writing for a local food blog after grad school and quickly discovered a passion for the local coffee scene. 

She joined Home Grounds in 2017 and brings a scientist’s curiosity and attention to detail to her product reviews, recipes, and deep dives into coffee industry trends.

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Kashmir Brummel – Translations Content Manager, Writer

Kashmir has more than 15 years’ experience in content management and strategy, a role that has taken her from fashion to homewares and most importantly, food! After a stint as the managing editor for a restaurant and bar guide, she took the leap into freelance food journalism. She has contributed to several books on food producers and chefs in Australia.

Kashmir joined Home Grounds in 2020 as a writer and is now the content manager in charge of all non-US language markets.

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Lei Cruz – Marketing Executive

Lei is an marketing specialist with 10 years of experience. She likes describing herself as a semi-reluctant homebody who enjoys cold brew in the company of two Dachshunds, Mommy Dog and Bibbo, and 20 house plants. 

Lei fell in love with coffee quite late, in her 20s, after having her first cold brew in a quaint coffee shop in the mountains of Antipolo. Her love for coffee (and pastries) has encouraged her to start running a small coffee shop with a couple of friends. As her passion for coffee grew, she started working at Home Grounds in 2018, to help share coffee brewing tips that work.

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Asta Tendzegolskyte – SEO Specialist

Asta is an SEO enthusiast with a strong passion for coffee. She loves to travel and explore, admires animals, and enjoys the outdoors.

Formerly a Junior SEO Specialist at an advertising agency, she is furthering her personal and professional endeavors by combining her passion for SEO and coffee into one digital realm.

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Aleksandra Peric – Freelance Barista, Coffee Recipe Maker and Photographer

Aleksadra Perić is a former professional barista currently working as a freelance barista trainer, recipe maker, and full-time landscape architect. For the past ten years, she has been part of the Belgrade coffee scene, working as a barista in one of the largest chains of coffee shops. She was also educating her younger colleagues as part of a senior barista group.

Aleksandra currently works as a landscape architect. She is no longer a coffee professional but an eager coffee enthusiast.

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Daniela Tehfi, M.D. – Medical Reviewer

Dr. Daniela Tehfi is a general physician, freelance medical reviewer, and medical translator.

During her internship years, she worked in fifteen different public and private hospitals in over eighteen Specialties. She has a particular inclination for the field of dermatology, with two published scientific articles, two others in the process of research and publication, and one year of experience in the department of dermatology of one of the most prestigious health institutes in Mexico.

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Marc Makepeace – Translator for German

Marc has been a freelance translator for seven years. His travels after completing his translator training opened his eyes to the diversity of global culinary arts. These adventures profoundly shaped not only his personal, but also his professional development.

Today, he specializes in localizing gastronomic services and connecting the food cultures of different countries. Through his many experiences and expertise, Marc offers a unique and authentic gastronomic translation service.

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Hedvig Ekmark – Translator for Swedish

Hedvig is a Swedish freelance writer with a deep passion for coffee. Her love for the aromatic beverage began in 2012 when working as a barista, and the new found passion led her to dive into the world of coffee writing and translation at Home Grounds in 2019.

Through her articles, she aims to share the rich flavors and stories behind each cup, brewing a connection between coffee enthusiasts worldwide.

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Valeria Lima – Translator for Spanish

Valeria is a translator, language enthusiast, coffee lover, and always has music playing in the background.

While studying engineering, she discovered her passion for coffee and confirmed her vocation for languages, having studied some of them since adolescence as a hobby. She trained as a barista and worked as a chocolatier, graphic designer, marketing assistant, and later as a translator.

Her interests have always been a mix between the technical/practical and the artistic, and the art of coffee is a balance of just that.

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Jaime Caballero Milani – Translator for Spanish

Jaime worked as a waiter and barista for decades in his youth. In fact, his family ran a bar when he was a kid.

His education is really varied since he has a degree in Mining Engineering, and Hispanic Philology, and he has also studied Contemporary Dance. Before, during and after he worked as a teacher in various high schools, among other professional activities. Currently, he writes and translates about technology products, coffee and coffee makers for several websites and translation agencies.

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Our former team members

Over the years, we have worked with many freelance and in-house team members who are also coffee experts. For those who do not work with us anymore, we wanted their contribution noted. Below is a list of team members who don’t work at Home Grounds anymore but have left an essential mark.

Iris M. Pang – Writer, Product Researcher

Iris is a Denver-based food/beverage, health/wellness, travel, and lifestyle writer who marries culinary technique with an engaging, approachable writer’s voice.

She helped her family establish La Petite France Bakery in Denver, CO and studied food service management with the Business Enterprise Program, where she received her ServeSafe certification through the National Restaurant Association. She received her Bachelors in Psychology through the University of Northern Colorado and a specialization in journalism through Michigan State University.

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Daria (Dasha) Toptygina – writer, Product Researcher

Daria is a freelance writer in various niches. She wrote for Home Grounds, researching, reviewing, and writing over 100 articles about coffee varieties, brewing guides, and inspiring recipes. Daria also worked as a technical writer at NetExperience, writing technical white papers and online press releases.

She began her freelance writing career at Flowjo, creating content on mindfulness, parenting, relationships, and self-care.

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Marina Maletic – Writer, Coffee Recipe Specialist

Marina Maletic is a freelance writer with over three years of writing experience. She started her writing career at CopySmiths. Since then, Marina has written hundreds of coffee articles for a number of industry publications including HomeGrounds. Her areas of expertise include sustainability, cooking, coffee, and health & fitness. 

Currently, if she’s not writing, she can be found thinking about coffee or trying out the latest coffee trick she found on social media.

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Rea Terzin – Writer, Editor

Rea is a versatile writer and editor with a passion to explore and shape functional yet attractive copy. With a degree in art history, she is a creative influence and is not afraid to dig deep into the soil of coffee history to find the treasure that lies beneath.

Her approach is research-based, systematic and intuitive. The result is content that has originality and longevity for the people who perceive coffee as art.

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Steven Holm – Video Content Creator, Barista, Roaster

Steven is a barista, roaster, and an experienced video content creator. He was a YouTube reviewer and video content creator at Home Grounds from 2020-2023. His coffee journey began in 2014 when he found a $2 espresso machine at a thrift store and instantly fell in love with the process. He’s done a bit of everything in the coffee industry, ranging from barista, roaster, green coffee buyer, quality control, and business owner.

Outside of Home Grounds, Steven loves to travel, hang out with his dog, Leo, and spend as much time outdoors as possible!


Our Editorial Process

At Homegrounds, all new and existing articles are researched and fact-checked to ensure their relevance to our audience’s needs. We strictly adhere to our standards of accuracy and concise writing. Our writers, editors, and fact checkers only use fact-based research and real-life coffee-brewing experience to give you the best content to help you make the best-tasting coffee at home.

Learn more about our Editorial Guidelines

Our Ethical Principles

The Home Grounds team stands by rigid ethical principles when it comes to writing, especially writing about coffee. This concerns both the products we feature and the values we represent: 

  • We love black coffee – milk-based brews have their place, but we prefer to brew and enjoy black coffee most of the time. Through black coffee, you learn to appreciate a certain region and its characterizing tastes, aromas, and history. We do not recommend instant coffee.
  • We love the process of brewing coffee as much as we love the coffee – for us, home-brewed coffee is not about the cost savings, nor is it about the caffeine kick. The process of brewing coffee is a daily ritual that we cherish. Sourcing, roasting, grinding, and brewing coffee is a hobby that gives us true satisfaction.
  • We respect the environment – we believe in a strong connection and respect for Mother Earth, and therefore, we do our best to help reduce our impact and create lasting sustainability in the industry. For this reason, we are against wasteful methods of coffee brewing, such as pod-machines and K-cup.
  • We support the coffee farmers – Where possible, we seek to support and pay recognition to all members of the coffee value chain, and in particular, the farmers and direct plantation workers in the coffee industry. We aim to promote coffee roasters who are Fairtrade, Ethical-Trade, Sustainable, and Bird-friendly certified, as well as those who have a Rainforest Alliance certificate.

Media Appearances

Featured in coffee lovers magazine part 2
Contribution: ‘ A Coffee Tour of Ubud, Bali’
Featured in coffee lovers magazine part 2
Contribution: ‘ A Coffee Tour Of Chiang Mai, Thailand’

Contact Us

We’d love to hear you. If you have any comments, suggestions, corrections or any relevant information you wish to share with us, please do not hesitate to contact us at hello@homegrounds.co.

For partnerships, please e-mail us at partnerships@homegrounds.co.

For customer support email us at support@homegrounds.co.

If you would rather call us or send us a letter, you can reach us at:

Blexr Ltd.
Attn: Home Grounds
Office 1/2514, Level G, Quantum House, 75, Abate Rigord Street Ta’ Xbiex XBX 1120 Malta
+356 2703 4979

You can also reach us via Social Media:

For more details on how to contact us visit this page.