Pankaj Rupani — A Personal Index
Things I use, love, and would buy again.
Engineer, coffee obsessive, habitual tinkerer. Every item below has earned its place through daily use — curated for friends, family, and the curious.
01
Coffee
The daily ritual, taken seriously — roasters, brewers, and equipment that earns its counter space.
- Gracenote Coffee Boston roaster pulling some of the best espresso on the East Coast. 2014
- Broadsheet Coffee Roasters Cambridge roaster with distinctive, impeccably fresh single origins. 2018
- Breville Dual Boiler Temperature-stable espresso at home — precise, consistent, and forgiving. 2021
- Fellow Opus Grinder The right first grinder: capable, compact, and sensibly priced. 2021
- Mahlkönig X64 SD When you outgrow the Opus: single-dose grinding with commercial pedigree. 2026
- Fellow Stagg EKG Kettle Pinpoint temperature control and a spout that pours exactly where you aim. 2019
- Hario V60 Ceramic Dripper The classic cone brewer for bright, articulate cups. 2019
- Hario V60 Range Server The V60’s natural companion — simple, handsome glassware. 2019
- Chemex Classic, Six Cup An hourglass icon whose thick filters yield an exceptionally clean cup. 2019
- Cometeer referral Flash-frozen coffee capsules for travel and lazy mornings — the link earns you free coffee. 2022
- BooKoo Themis Ultra Scale Fast, accurate weighing with live flow-rate readout — equally at home under espresso or pour-over. 2025
02
Productivity
The desk setup that makes long days feel shorter.
- Keychron Q10 Pro A wireless Alice-layout mechanical keyboard — ergonomic without a learning curve. 2024
- Logitech MX Master 3S Still the productivity mouse to beat. 2021
- LG 38″ UltraWide One curved ultrawide that gracefully replaces two monitors. 2019
- CalDigit TS4 A single Thunderbolt cable for everything on the desk. 2022
- HyperX DuoCast A USB microphone that flatters every call and recording. 2023
03
Audio & Theatre
Sound and picture worth staying in for.
- Sonos Multi-room audio that simply works. 2020
- Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X Detailed, comfortable, and honest — my favorite closed-back headphones. 2023
- MartinLogan ElectroMotion ESL Electrostatic transparency at a price mortals can justify. 2015
- Pro-Ject T1 Evo A sincere audiophile turntable with no plastic in the signal path. 2024
- LG C1 OLED Perfect blacks and superb motion, for film and gaming alike. 2022
- Apple TV 4K The streaming box that stays out of your way — fast, wired, and free of clutter. 2021
04
Smart Home
Automation that recedes into the background — dependable and unobtrusive.
- Philips Hue The smart-lighting ecosystem worth building on. 2018
- Lutron Caséta Smart switches with unshakeable reliability. 2019
- Aqara Inexpensive sensors that punch far above their price. 2021
- Schlage Encode Plus The smart lock I trust on my own front door. 2023
- Sonoff Zigbee USB Dongle affiliate The economical way to give Home Assistant a Zigbee radio. 2024
05
Homelab
Self-hosted and happily over-engineered — the stack in the basement that runs the house.
- Ubiquiti UniFi Prosumer networking that scales from a single access point to the whole house without drama. 2020
- Home Assistant Open-source automation that ties the entire Smart Home section into one private, local brain. 2020
- Raspberry Pi The homelab’s utility player — mine run Home Assistant, Pi-hole, and flight tracking. 2014
- Pi-hole Network-wide ad blocking; the whole household browses lighter. 2020
- Plex The home media server my family actually uses. 2017
- Frigate Open-source camera NVR with local, GPU-accelerated object detection — no cloud required. 2024
- TeslaMate Self-hosted telemetry and charging analytics for the car in the final section. 2024
06
Travel
For staying connected and comfortable far from home.
07
Money
The tools I trust to manage, grow, and occasionally spend it.
- Monarch Money referral The budgeting app that finally replaced Mint — six months free through the link. 2024
- Facet referral Flat-fee financial planning that changed how I manage money — up to $1,000 through the link. 2025
- Rakuten referral Cash back on shopping you were doing anyway — $30 to start. 2019
- Robinhood referral Commission-free investing; the link adds a free stock. 2013
- Amex Platinum referral The travel card that earns its keep — 20,000 points through the link. 2022
08
Automotive
One car, no caveats.