A friend brought a portable espresso machine camping and it made very nice coffee. I'm pretty sure it was the http://www.handpresso.com/ . You boil water to the specified temperature (he had a hot water bottle with a temperature gauge) and pour it in the right compartment. You hand pump it up to pressure (there's a gauge). You put the grounds in the filter. Press a button and away you go.
Have been using the Moka pot exclusively for the last 4-5yrs. Love it!
The one use case where the Moka pot fails is when you don't have access to a hot-plate/stove/fire. But in urban environments (my office) I do have access to a hot water dispenser though. So something like this would be an interesting choice for me.
This. It is a neat product, but nothing beats a mocka boiler. Lightweight, tested, well never break. I see not reason to buy this product other than me being a nerd and loving tech, but when i go on a hike i will bring a mocka boilder
I have no idea about the quality of this specific product, but moka =/= espresso; the type of coffee that you do is different, and normally you have specific blend and type of grind for the two (if you go in a dedicated coffee shop)
Disclaimer: I am Italian, and even though I generally don't drink coffee, I've seen/heard enough moka vs espresso arguments (up to the fanboy level ;))
Oh, they do break… I've had one explode in a newly renovated kitchen. Bent the metal vent hood above it to a frightening degree, missed my head by a foot or two and sprayed mocha onto the white walls and into every nook and cranny.
My moka pot is currently brewing. I'm now situated around the corner from it, shielded by a large cabinet. I've never heard of an exploding moka pot, but with all that pressure, I can understand. I'll be checking the valve after it's done!
From the FAQ: "we spent three months to look for an alternative of the use of lubrificant for the semi-automatic piston as such substances appear to not be tasteless."
Glad to hear we'll only be drinking tasteless lubricant with our coffees!
Cute, but I'd wait to see reviews on the espresso it makes.
I have a myPressi Twist which makes outstanding espresso but it requires me to preboil the parts to bring them up to temp , the whole process is finicky if you really care about coffee. Not sure how this falls onthe curve
I recall Phil Hendrie did an Art Bell spoof that featured a hand-crank espresso machine (for the post y2k apocalypse) that still makes me chuckle when I think about it so many years later.
Looks promising! I have been looking into the MyPressi (http://mypressi.com/), as it has a reputation of punching far above its weight as far as a good cup of espresso goes, but in the end I decided against it because it needs compressed gas cartridges to operate.
The Minipresso appears to rely solely on hand pumping, so I wonder if it still gives as good a result.
I don't know... They've applied a lot of technology to end up with something that's more complicated, slower more expensive and objectively worse (mmm lubricant) than an Aerobie AeroPress.
An AeroPress is also really simple to clean which this really doesn't seem to be.
Neat idea, but honestly I've given up on brewing my own coffee. I now buy cold-brewed coffee (TJ's, but other brands are good also) and the acid content is much lower than hot brewed, and there is no mess or grinding involved.
Have you tried a manual stovetop frother? It's made of metal, and it has a plunger with a frothing head (looks like a coil-type whisk) on the end.
You fill it with milk, put it on a gas burner or electric hot plate, warm it until the milk is hot enough (around 60-65C). Then you take it off the heat and push the frother up and down until the milk is sufficiently aerated. Here's the one I have:
