

Minipresso – Hand-powered portable espresso machine - colinprince
http://www.wacaco.com/

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YZF
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/](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.

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killerpopiller
why all the hastle? get an espresso cooker / cafetierra
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moka_pot](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moka_pot)

low tech and not a perfect espresso, but cheap, durable, no moving parts, no
lubricant

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thecopy
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

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janfoeh
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.

Not fun.

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switch007
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!

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rikkus
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!

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TTPrograms
That reads like they were looking for an alternative to using lubricant at all
i.e. in their design choices.

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rikkus
Perhaps. It'd be interesting to see if coffee oil worked though!

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gcapell
I've got (an earlier model of)
[http://espressounplugged.com/rok](http://espressounplugged.com/rok) Less
portable, but much less fiddly than this minipresso seems to be.

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notthetup
How's the rok holding up? I always wanted to get one. But I read reviews that
it had issues with balance and it would topple easily etc.

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gegtik
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

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notthetup
Also it needs compressed air capsules right? Those need to be refilled. :(

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karma_fountain
I'm not enabling my auto-rotate screen and turning my phone sideways for this.

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isani
I'm on a _desktop_ and they're telling me to rotate my screen.

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EdSharkey
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.

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micheljansen
Looks promising! I have been looking into the MyPressi
([http://mypressi.com/](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.

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oliwarner
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.

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r00fus
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.

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458QxfC2z3
e molto erotico !!

Let the home page load fully, then scroll to the bottom.

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spikels
Hot pumping action!

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davesque
Literally.

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fizx
Where is the heat coming from?

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artsrc
I think you put hot water in.

Creating really nice steamed milk is more difficult than creating an intense
coffee liquid that will I enjoy.

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lobster_johnson
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:

[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X7GF40](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X7GF40)

It produces microfoam that is at least good as those electric frothers from
Nespresso etc. Not as good as a steamer wand, but close.

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greglindahl
The manual frothers usually say that they work best with non-fat milk. Yuck.

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lobster_johnson
Mine works great with whole milk, actually. I don't use anything else; lower-
fat milk just isn't capable of foaming, in my experience.

(The HIC one doesn't come with any instructions and I'm pretty sure they don't
say anything about the type of milk to use.)

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pjmlp
Does it taste like good Portuguese and Italian espresso, though?

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rikacomet
Hmm, I wonder if I can make tea in it. (sip)

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greglindahl
I have never seen a tea-maker that required or used high pressure, while
espresso machines always use high pressure.

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rikacomet
That doesn't mean that tea can't be made in that way.

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cmelbye
Forcing mobile users to rotate their devices to landscape mode to see the site
seems like a very lazy design decision.

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nickff
Even after rotating, the text was too small to read (on an iPhone 5).

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petepete
On an Nexus 5, too.

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darryl42
It seems to want me to rotate my monitor to view the site. Very poor design.

