I TAKE MY espresso seriously and I I've figured out how to make the perfect espresso no matter where I go.
Making a barista-worthy espresso is challenging. Doing it without electricity or a giant machine is even more daunting. Coffee fanatics will object that most of these devices use pressurized portafilters to achieve their crema, which is cheating. Usually, I am one of those fanatics, but real espresso machines don't usually fit in your carry-on. To my surprise, a little "cheating" can still turn out some killer espresso.
1. Best Overall
Nanopresso Portable Espresso Maker ($79)
The Nanopresso strikes the best balance between ease of use, portability, and taste. It extracts a nice espresso from almost any beans. There's very little bitterness, and it reliably produces a nice looking crema. The compact all-in-one design also means you can shove it in the smallest of bags and have excellent espresso anywhere you go.
A couple notes to getting the best extraction: Don’t grind your coffee too fine—think table salt rather than powder—and preheat the machine. To preheat, just pump hot water through with nothing in the basket and then make your actual shot. Espresso fanatics argue that you should pump no more than once per second, but I could not tell any difference. It takes a fair amount of pressure to pump the water, though. If you have arthritis, RSI, or other source of joint pain in your hands, the Nanopresso is probably not the best choice.
The Nanopresso has an expansion pack called the Barista Kit with a larger water tank and grounds basket for making a double espresso. I found the results with the Barista Kit mirrored the single, though it's more forgiving of poor grinds. If you don't fill the larger reservoir all the way, you can extract a bit stronger espresso with the double. The downside is that the device becomes considerably larger.
Buy the Nanopresso for $79 at Amazon.
2. A Very Close Runner-Up
The Nanopresso is lighter and easier to clean up, but the Handpresso Wild Hybrid makes an equally good shot, possibly better.
The Flair is the least portable of the devices reviewed here. It does break down to a roughly laptop-size case that's about 2 inches thick, but it's heavy. It looks great on a kitchen counter between trips, though. And what you lose in portability is more than made up for in the quality of espresso you get. The Flair Signature produces hands-down the best extraction of any device here.
The Flair is simple to use. You can see the process in the company's very helpful video guide to brewing. It's also built like a tank, and clean-up is just a matter of dumping the espresso and rinsing out the portafilter.
Experimentation with various grinds is necessary to get the ideal extraction, and of course the fresher the coffee, the better the results. That said, you can even get excellent results with pre-ground espressos like Medaglia D'Oro.
Buy the Flair Signature for $199 at Amazon.
Flair offers two other models: the Classic and the Signature. The primary differences are the size and the materials of the brew heads. If you're willing forgo stainless steel, the classic works the same way and should produce the same results. The Classic is $159 at Amazon. The Signature Pro goes for $300 and is a step up in build quality.
4. Best for Crema
The Uniterra Nomad is also not the most portable device—though it is smaller and lighter than the Flair—but it puts that heft to good use by looking like a little piece of metal art sitting on your desk and cranking out an excellent, creamy espresso.
The Nomad, which grew out of a Kickstarter campaign, is made mostly of solid metal, which gives it a sturdy feel some of our other options lack. It's also the only one to include a proper heavy, high-quality tamper to evenly press down your coffee.
The company touts its True Crema Valve, a bit of engineering that helps compensate for a bad grind or poor tamping. I tested this by using some pre-ground coffee from a large chain that shall remain nameless. The extraction from the poorly ground coffee with the True Crema valve was better than the extraction without it.
You should always use high-quality beans—nothing will improve your espresso so much as good, freshly roasted beans. But if you mess up the grind or don't tamp the grounds properly, the Nomad's True Crema Valve can save you from yourself.
It's more work than the Nanopresso, but it produces a marginally deeper and richer brew, though less of it—the water reservoir is 1.5 fluid ounces versus the 2.7-ounce reservoir of the Nanopresso. The difference is in the pumping. With a Nanopresso, you build pressure by continually pumping the water through. With the Handpresso, you build up pressure and then release a valve to force the water through the grounds all at once. The Handpresso also pumps up like a bike pump, which is easier than the finger button on the Nanopresso.
To get the best extraction, you need to experiment with your grind. My favourite results came from a very fine grind and minimal tamping. The Handpresso also works with paper filtered Easy Serving Espresso (ESE) pods.
Buy the Handpresso Wild Hybrid for $80 at Amazon.
3. Best-Tasting Espresso
5. Best for Hiking and Cold-Brew Espresso
The Cafflano Kompresso is the lightest espresso maker in this roundup and also the easiest to clean, making it ideal for backpacking.
It relies on a manual hydraulic compressor to force the water through and extract espresso. It's the least forgiving device I tested, and the results can be the best cup of espresso or the worst among these picks. You need fresh, high-quality beans and time to get the grind right. Grind too coarse and you'll end up with a watery mess. Grind too fine and you'll have to use your whole body weight to force the extraction. But when you find the sweet spot, you can get a good 3/8 inch of crema and a deliciously smooth shot.
Unlike every other device, the Kompresso makes a good cold-brew shot. The secret, which I found on the company's Instagram account, is to tamp extra hard and presoak for one minute. The results are amazing (again, assuming you have high-quality beans and a good grind).
Buy the Cafflano Kompresso for $59 at Amazon.
6. Best for Car Camping
Handpresso 12V Auto Hybrid ($160)
Technically, I'm cheating with the Handpresso Auto Hybrid. It requires 12-volt power to operate. But if you travel by vehicle and have access to a 12V socket (a cigarette lighter socket), the Handpresso Auto makes a quick espresso. The Auto Hybrid's extraction is very close to that of the Wild Hybrid, our runner-up.
Like its hand-pumped sibling, the Auto Hybrid can use either ESE pods or ground coffee. Put in your grind, tamp it down, and add an ounce of water. It takes about two minutes for the water to heat, and you can watch the progress on the tiny display screen. It will beep three times when it's ready. Turn it upside down and press the brew button to start the extraction. (For safety, the brew button won't do anything until you flip it over.)
There's one quirk to the auto-detection tech: Most bottled water won't work because the mineral content is too low. This may also apply to water from some filtration systems, though I did not have any problem using it with water that had been through a simple charcoal filter system.
Buy the Handpresso 12V Auto Hybrid for $160 at Amazon.
Why I Didn't Test the AeroPress
Coffee must meet three requirements to qualify as espresso.
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It must be brewed under pressure instead of infused.
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It should have a very high brew ratio, usually two parts water to one part coffee. Brewed coffee is more like 15 to one.
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Espresso tends to be darker, heavier, and richer than infusion-brewed coffee. As such, the beans are typically a darker roast, though I've noticed lighter roasts may be growing in popularity.
For this review, I limited the options to pressurized brewers, which is why there's no AeroPress or moka pot, neither of which make espresso. (A moka pot is pressurized, but not enough to qualify as espresso.)
How to Make Great Portable Espresso
There are three basic, vital espresso tips I'll leave you with.
Find good, fresh beans: If you haven’t made espresso before, start with high-quality beans. Quality beans can make even cheap brewing equipment shine. And high quality means fresh. Find a local coffee roaster in your area.
If you don't have a coffee roaster nearby, you can order beans online or try one of the preground espresso blends at your local grocery store. I've tried popular espresso blends like Lavazza, Medaglia D'Oro, and Café Bustelo. Medaglia D'Oro has a smoother flavor than the others, but it's still more bitter than freshly roasted and ground whole beans.
For testing, I used beans from Jittery Joe's roasting company in Athens, Georgia, specifically the Wake-n-Bake blend. (Disclosure: I worked for Jittery Joe's for many years, so I grew to like its coffee.) I also used an espresso blend from Fahrenheit Coffee Roaster in Mancos, Colorado. The latter are the best beans I've purchased in the United States in two years of traveling.
Get a quality grinder: Once you have good, freshly roasted beans you need to grind them. You'll want a burr grinder, which grinds your beans evenly rather than chopping them like a blade grinder. I use a well-loved Hario Mini that I've had for years, but if I were buying a new one I'd get a stainless steel grinder like this Mueller Manual Coffee Grinder.
Start experimenting: Pick one of these makers and start experimenting. At first, make sure you weigh out your beans and water using a good scale like this Eravsow Digital Scale, and take notes. It may sound like extreme nerdery, and it is, but after experimenting for a few days you'll likely find something you love, and you'll know how to pull your perfect shot every time for espresso—no matter where you are.
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