Manual Press Flair Espresso Maker

Specifications:

HANDCRAFT SHOTS OF ESPRESSO - With the Flair Espresso Maker, you have a complete manual espresso machine that can produce professional quality shots of espresso from your home, or wherever you are. Add 60ml of boiled water and a dose of up to 18 grams to yield a 40 ml shot with beautiful crema. A burr grinder is essential for use with this product.
FULLY MANUAL & COMPLETELY BEAUTIFUL - The Flair is a 100% human-powered, manual espresso press. There are no plugs or electronics, meaning the Flair, which was designed from the ground up, will look beautiful in any coffee station or kitchen.
EASY TO CLEAN - The Flair Espresso Maker is the only manual espresso maker with a completely detachable brewing head. This patented design allows for users to completely remove the brewing head, separate the parts, and rinse under cool water.
BUILT TO LAST - Now with an upgraded, stronger base, post and lever! Made from durable materials like cast aluminum and stainless steel, you can be sure your manual espresso maker, by Flair, is built to last. Both the aluminum press stand and the stainless steel brewing head are backed by a 5-year warranty.
FULLY PORTABLE - All Flair Espresso Makers come standard with our precision cut and padded carrying case meaning you can take your manual espresso maker anywhere you’d like.

Other product info from buyers:

Having owned this machine for a while I feel like I can offer a detailed review. As an avid coffee connoisseur, I procure green beans from reliable sources and roast to my specifications. For comparison I own over 40 brewing apparatuses.

Asthetic design: very nice. I think that is w what drew me to the machine in the first place.

Mechanical design: leaves a little too be desired. Filter group/piston cylinder is cumbersome. Preheating is difficult (setting cylinder in hot water). Removing the piston can be difficult as it binds due to expansion). The ability to make more than one shot or a long pull requires removal of group, cooling enough to handle, pulling the piston out then resetting on machine (no long pulls). Also found that packing and reassembly causes the parts to start being loose.

Brewing: getting the bring just right for this machine takes time and still difficult to get a consistent drama (using sane grind as other machines that give consistent drama). If the grid is right three mental press of 25 - 40 seconds creates a decent amount if pressure. Practice.

Cleaning: as stated before, cylinder is hot. Removal of puck requires either blowing through filter or tapping out, but because puck is wet is firms a suction making difficult to remove. Other than those items cleaning is easy enough.

Travel: good concept except not enough room left in case for extras like brew heads, tamper, etc. Sleek design otherwise. Also need a source for hot water.

Overall I gives this three stars. Not an everyday machine for me as it takes too much time and effort. Nice aesthetics and portability. For a portable machine I prefer the ROK.
Works well. Solidly built. I enjoy preheating the collar but I don’t find it Necessary for good espresso. It’s mostly the coffee grind that results in good coffee. It pulls very good coffee even if you aren’t measuring, preheating, timing everything precisely. I am very happy with it as a manual espresso. Definitely slower then Automatic machines but makes way better coffee at the price point for automatic machines.

Price: $143.00