Can You Make Espresso by Hand? How to Manually Brew Espresso at Home?

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Can You Make Espresso by Hand?

Of course you can! You just need to purchase a manual espresso machine for home use. So, how can you make espresso manually at home? FrontStreet Coffee recommends several of the most popular manual, non-electric espresso machines on the market.

Portable Manual Non-Electric Espresso Machines

Many coffee enthusiasts love manual, portable, non-electric espresso machines. Being able to make a true espresso in a weekend cabin, during travel, or when staying in hotels is a challenging task.

For a long time, coffee lovers had to rely on "quasi-espresso" devices—like moka pots—to get the espresso experience outdoors. Then in mid-August 2005, a device called Handpresso was launched. It was essentially similar to an E.S.E pod brewing system (developed by illy, featuring pre-ground coffee pods + portafilter + filter paper + hot water + manual extraction). The problem with Handpresso was that you needed to grind your own coffee, the portafilter capacity was small (less than 7 grams), and the resulting espresso tasted weak and was low in temperature.

Around the same time, a product called Presso Espresso maker was launched. It had a butterfly wing manual extraction design and could indeed make espresso-like beverages. It has since evolved and is still sold today.

The next major development in portable non-electric espresso was Mypressi, which used nitrogen cartridges (similar to the principle of cream whippers used for making whipped cream) to provide pressure for espresso extraction. Mypressi ultimately failed, but its striking appearance, portability, and extraction results were excellent. Mypressi had some issues, mainly that frequent use of nitrogen cartridges made the cost per cup too high.

Since then, manufacturers have陆续 launched some portable espresso machines, but none were very successful. Until the appearance of Flair Espresso Maker, which is also the subject of this article.

Flair espresso machine was one of the few successful coffee projects on Kickstarter. Flair manual coffee machine first started crowdfunding on Kickstarter with a goal of $45,000 and ultimately raised $58,000. At that time, inventor Sergio Landau had already created a prototype machine and prepared production equipment and molds when he launched the Kickstarter campaign, needing only funds to immediately produce 800 Flair espresso units.

Sergio Landau is an inventor, and this espresso machine came from his love of coffee and his desire to make better espresso at home.

He worked as a mechanical engineer in the medical device industry for nearly 40 years. His professional background provided all the manufacturing experience and resources needed to quickly produce a relatively simple coffee machine, including precision component development, injection molding, machining, die casting, and other fields.

Flair espresso features a minimalist style, sturdy construction, no electronics, and can be quickly assembled and disassembled for easy transportation and storage. Flair espresso consists mainly of three simple components: a base, a manual lever made of die-cast aluminum, and a durable stainless steel brewing head.

Flair Espresso Basic Specifications

• Height - 25 cm
• Weight - 1.95 kg
• Footprint - 30cm x 15cm
• Water container capacity/brewing head - 65ml
• Pressure generated when lever is pressed - 8 BAR - 16 BAR
• Extraction time - Ideal time is 25 seconds (8 BAR) / 45 seconds (16 BAR)
• Portafilter capacity - 17g - 28g
• Yield - Approximately 50ml

The FLAIR Signature manual lever espresso machine features a metal composite stand with a portable case for easy carrying. It's sturdy and durable, with a brewing head that uses plug-in connections, making it very simple and quick to assemble for coffee making and disassemble for cleaning the portafilter. With manual lever pressing to make espresso, you can go from grinding beans to serving a fragrant cup of Espresso in just five minutes.

Today, manual espresso machines are also key considerations for many outdoor enthusiasts and coffee lovers. In fact, there are many designs for manual espresso machines, but I find lever-style manual espresso machines to be more convenient and faster, with better extraction results.

Leverpresso was inspired by classic manual lever machines to create the Leverpresso lever espresso machine. The previous 1.0 version achieved great results on crowdfunding platforms in the United States and Japan and received acclaim as the 2018 Best Portable Coffee Machine. This year, the overall design has been upgraded and optimized, launching the improved Leverpresso 2.0 lever espresso machine to make coffee flavor extraction simpler. Actually, the earliest contact with lever-style non-electric coffee machines was the famous Nomad, but this model is clearly more refined and portable than Nomad.

Let's understand this 2.0 upgraded version through a video:

The Leverpresso design and development team spent over a year to develop this device. The initial prototype took 3-4 months to create. But after the prototype was completed, they found things weren't that simple. Because Leverpresso needs precise pressure to make a truly mellow and delicious cup of coffee. Therefore, they spent another two years making more than 20 revisions.

Leverpresso portable manual espresso machine is compact and can be carried around. It's equipped with a stainless steel 50mm diameter basket filter, uses manual lever press filtration to extract espresso, can achieve 9Bar pressure, and in just 3 minutes, can produce a double shot of high-quality espresso.

Hong Kong MINIPRESSO Hand-Pressed Mini Portable Coffee Maker

Product Features

1. Beautiful Design & Full of Creativity

Only 6.95 inches, approximately 18cm. A compact, lightweight, multifunctional hand-pressed coffee machine.

2. Lightweight & Portable & Powerful

Space and weight are the two most important factors when choosing travel equipment. MINIPRESSO follows an easy-to-use design concept—just press the semi-automatic piston to extract fragrant and delicious espresso.

3. Efficient & Practical

In addition to the visual beauty brought by modern sleek design, it also contains a unique core component: a press-type semi-automatic piston. Rotate to unlock and easily control the amount of coffee extraction.

4. Convenient & Innovative

MINIPRESSO requires no gas compression, nitrogen acceleration, or electrical devices. Whether at the airport or hiking in the wilderness, it satisfies your coffee addiction anytime, anywhere, experiencing a different kind of luxury. Different numbers of presses can produce different types of coffee.

How to Use

1. Loading: 【CA Capsule Version】Put coffee powder into the coffee powder holding cup/【GR Coffee Powder Version】capsule system cup, then place it into the piston body, and tighten the body and filter head.
2. Add water: Pour the appropriate amount of hot water into the hot water holding cup, then tighten the hot water holding cup and the body.
3. Invert, rotate to unlock the piston.
4. Press the piston to begin extraction, pressing directly into the cup lid, and a cup of smooth, rich espresso is complete!

Press 13 times: Ristretto (super-concentrated ristretto)

Press 18 times: Espresso (Italian espresso)

Press 28 times: Double Espresso (double Italian espresso)

You can also add water, milk, or chocolate according to personal preference to make Americano, latte, or mocha.

END

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