cache = []

def on_message(client, userdata, message):
    data = json.loads(message.payload)
    cache.append(data)

    if len(cache) > MAX_CACHE:

        with Path("data.txt").open("a") as f:
            f.writelines(cache)
        cache.clear()

# Connect function to mqtt datastream
subscribe.callback(on_message, 
                   topics="datacamp/energy", 
                   hostname=MQTT_HOST)