Can a Manual Press Espresso Machine Extract Espresso Without Electricity? What's the Difference Between Manual Press and Espresso Machines?

Rediscovering the Manual Press: Can It Match Espresso Machine Quality?

During the Chinese New Year holiday, FrontStreet Coffee conducted a thorough cleaning of our store! In a corner piled with miscellaneous items, we discovered a dust-covered manual press coffee machine. So today, FrontStreet Coffee is going to test whether this manual press can extract espresso as delicious as that from an espresso machine!

The History and Evolution of Manual Press Coffee

Actually as early as 1947, the piston lever coffee machine invented by a Milanese barista adopted a manual press extraction design. Through manual lever operation, coffee was extracted with pressure up to 9 bar, producing espresso not only with rich golden crema but also with very short extraction time. Although this wasn't the birth of coffee machines, it was a groundbreaking moment in coffee machine history. As times progressed, machine intelligence gradually replaced manual pressing, causing manual press to fade from people's view (though a small number of coffee machines still use lever pressing)! However, the retro trend brought a series of old-era designs back to the forefront, so during the peak of camping popularity, the convenient, electricity-free manual press coffee machine attracted considerable attention.

Introducing Our Third-Generation Manual Press

This machine is the third generation of Flair manual press products, which FrontStreet Coffee purchased in 2021. It mainly consists of the machine body and a folding stand! When we disassemble the manual press body, we get several components with different functions: a top cover with a pressure pump, a water tank for storing hot water, a bottom cover that holds coffee grounds and serves as the liquid outlet, and... a coffee cup??? (the one in the bottom right corner, which FrontStreet Coffee previously thought was the bottom cover, only later discovering it's actually a cup for drinking the coffee)

According to official specifications, it can hold 18-22g of coffee grounds and can extract with 120-180ml of hot water. The bottom cover is equipped with a pressure regulating valve that allows free adjustment within the 15-20 bar pressure range.

The Extraction Experiment

These are roughly the functions, so next let's enter the experimental phase to see if it can truly extract espresso as delicious as that from a coffee machine~

The extraction parameters for our brewing experiment are as follows: We used Warm Sun Blend coffee beans, which express flavors of whiskey, berries, and butter cookies; the grind is espresso grind, directly ground using an espresso grinder to flour-like fineness; the coffee dose is 20g; water temperature is 94°C, 120ml, with a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:2, meaning we need to extract 40ml of coffee liquid. First, we filled the portafilter with 20g of ground coffee.

Next, we evenly distributed and tamped it, then screwed the portafilter onto the water tank, making sure to tighten it securely.

Then we poured 120ml of 94°C hot water, and finally screwed on the top cover – the extraction preparation is complete!

Next, we enter the extraction phase – press continuously and evenly multiple times until the target amount of coffee liquid is extracted, then you can stop!

After about 20 seconds of continuous pressing, the coffee liquid began to drip out, accompanied by quite rich crema.

You can stop when the coffee liquid reaches the target weight!

Tasting Results and Milk Coffee Test

The taste when drinking directly was surprisingly quite good!! Not only was it not as weak or thin as imagined, but it was actually quite rich, with substantial body and thickness, overall very close to espresso extracted from an espresso machine. So next, let's make a milk coffee to test its crema smoothness! We'll use the same ratio as a regular latte, 1:5, with 40ml of coffee liquid paired with 200ml of hot milk.

The crema didn't quickly break down or clump, which made latte art very smooth, so overall the crema quality is合格!

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

After a day of use, the manual press coffee machine truly brought many pleasant surprises. Not only can it extract rich crema, but the coffee taste is also quite good! The key is its high versatility – it's convenient, extraction is simple, requires no electricity, and allows easy switching between coffee beans (this really isn't an advertisement). As for extraction stability, it mainly depends on parameters and operational skill. But the crucial factor lies in the coffee bean grind size – if you want to extract rich crema, espresso grind is essential. Of course, the finest setting on a pour-over grinder can also work, but the extracted coffee won't taste very close to espresso, and the crema won't be as full! That concludes our summary – now everyone can think about what other ways this manual press coffee machine can be used to extract different types of coffee!

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FrontStreet Coffee
10 Bao'an Qianjie, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473