Minimalist, robust, and portable espresso maker lets you craft - by hand - professional quality espresso, exactly how you like it.
The Flair Espresso Maker is made out of precision machined stainless steel and premium grade aluminum. No other espresso maker has a brewing head that is detachable from the machine. This allows you full manual control of the process. You can easily pre-heat the stainless steel cylinder and maintain the right temperature to extract the espresso just the way you like it. Plastic in the pressure chamber can make for inconsistent shots; there’s none of that here.
Despite being such a simple design, the Flair Espresso Maker is pretty clever. Because you can customise your espresso – pick your beans, adjust the tamp, change the pre-infusion time or the temperature, and experiment with varying degrees of pressure to achieve the perfect drink.
The Flair Espresso Maker is made with quality engineering materials. All of the important stuff; everything else taken away. The most elegant and simple way to make espresso by hand. Not many consumer products on the market let you brew a professional quality espresso. Even fewer let you make a double shot espresso (around 20g) by hand, which is delicious every time.
The Flair Espresso Maker is so easy to assemble and use. You simply fill the portafilter with coffee grounds and tamp with the measuring cup. Then place it on the main post. Fill with hot water to the fill line, add the piston, and press down on the lever for between 25 and 45 seconds to extract the perfect shot.
Sergio Landau, Founder of The Flair Espresso Maker, has a long and successful background in mechanical engineering and biomedical devices. The Flair Espresso Maker came from his love of coffee and a desire to brew better espresso at home. Espresso machines – offering few customization options, often costing a lot, or requiring pods and maintenance, and generally not providing a satisfying double shot espresso – weren’t doing the job. So he built one from the grounds up.
Product Specification
- Height – 10” (25cm)
- Weight – 4lb 4oz (1.95kg)
- Case size – 12½” x 9″ x 3¼” (32cm x 23cm x 8cm)
- Footprint dimension – 12” x 6” (30cm x 15cm)
- Cylinder water capacity – 65ml
- Pressure generated when the handle is depressed – from 8 BAR to 16 BAR (you choose, based on ground size and tamp force)
- Shot extraction time – ideally from 25 seconds (about 8 BAR) to 45 seconds (about 16 BAR)
- Portafilter capacity – from 17 to 28 grams of grounds (depending on the coffee beans)
- Shot volume – roughly 50ml
Attractive Features of The Flair Espresso Maker
- No disposable items required.
- No parts or electronics to break or fail.
- Easy to use, easy to clean.
- Easy to assemble.
- Like a vintage watch, this product is made to last generations. Every single component is built to last.
“There is a distinct satisfaction in loading freshly ground coffee into your Flair Espresso Maker and squeezing down the lever to personalize the espresso you want.”
To Make a Perfect Espresso, You Need Flair
We think espresso is delicious as it comes. But it’s also the base for a number of other coffee drinks, such as latte, cappuccino, macchiato, mocha, and americano. There are four primary techniques involved with extracting the perfect espresso shot:
- Grind
- Dose
- Tamp
- Brew
Grind: One of the great things about making your espresso at home is how fresh it tastes, so capitalize on your coffee’s flavor by freshly grinding your beans right before you pull your shot. All you’ll need is a good conical burr grinder.
The grind texture is a very important aspect of shot quality: if it’s too fine, you may not get any extraction, or it will be too slow, resulting in a shot that can taste bitter and burnt; if it’s too coarse, it will be a fast, under-extracted shot with a weak and watery consistency, and no crema.
Dose: The dose is the amount of coffee grounds that you put into the portafilter for your shot. The proper dose for a double shot should be between 14 to 22 grams. The Flair comes with its own measuring cup for whole bean coffee. Fill it to the top to ensure you always use the perfect amount of coffee beans for your double shot.
Tamp: The tamp ensures uniformity of extraction by leveling and packing the grounds to ensure consistent pressure and equal water contact as it is forced through the coffee. The Flair measuring cup also acts as the perfect tamping tool and piston removal tool. The pressure you use is ultimately up to you. If you’re the only barista in your household, then calibrate your grind/tamp based on what feels natural to you. A coarser consistency will require a firmer tamp.
Brew: Place the filled Flair portafilter on the main post and insert your preheated cylinder (using the silicone hot pad) on top, then put your heated cup on the drip plate. Now fill the cylinder with boiling water to the fill line. Place the piston on top of the cylinder and press down the handle firmly all the way to the end.
The total time you’re looking for is between 25 - 45 seconds, so if you’re running too long or too short, check your grind and tamp, then adjust it accordingly. You want to create a fine golden crema atop a rich dark brew, which tastes sweet and smooth. It’s well worth the time to experiment and learn how to pull the perfect shot from your Flair Espresso Maker - the result will be a perfect espresso every time.
Note: Before you start your shot, preheat your cylinder and cup by running boiling water through the cylinder and into your cup. Warming will ensure that your shot’s temperature is maintained throughout the process.
Take It With You Wherever You Go: From home to office, to camping in your favorite spot, there’s nothing to plug in. Just add your favorite coffee and some hot water, press, and enjoy.
You can also check out the link to watch a demo:
Sergio Landau has started a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of raising $45,000 in order to bring the Flair Espresso Maker to market.
The retail price for the Flair Espresso Maker is $159.99, but by backing this project on Kickstarter consumers can get an early offer of $115.00, plus shipping. Similarly, you can get your hands on the full Hostess Kit – the complete Flair Espresso Maker plus an additional brewing head, so you can make two espressos quickly one after the other – for just $144 (retail price $189.99).
For more information on the new Flair Espresso Maker, jump over to the Kickstarter website by following the link:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/flairespresso/flair-espresso-maker/
