- Traditional espresso machines are expensive and take up a lot of space.
- In our testing, lever devices like the Flair Espresso Maker also churned out excellent espresso.
- Using it requires a bit more time, but it's a quarter of the cost of an entry-level machine. Plus, it's portable.
If you want to make the highest-quality espresso you possibly can at home without breaking the bank, the best option is a manual device like the Flair Espresso maker.
According to Dan Kehn of Home-Barista.com, the Flair is an excellent choice for those uninitiated into the espresso world, thanks to its reliability when it comes to pulling full-bodied shots.
Why? Control. You pour water directly from a kettle and you can adjust pressure manually until you get a steady golden flow of thick, crema-rich java. In order to have that much control with a machine, you're looking at a four-figure investment.
Design and specs
There are a few options when it comes to buying a Flair; they're all more or less the same device with add-ons and slight upgrades, they're all manual and portable, and they range from about $120 to $300. The one I use and recommend is the more affordable Neo, which has no pressure gauge or fancy attachments. It might not be as foolproof as other setups, but you'll get the feel for it with a bit of practice. Depending on how serious you want to get, you can purchase a slightly more durable option like the Pro 2, which comes with a larger brew head, a stainless steel piston, and a pressure gauge.
The cylinder in every Flair device has a maximum water capacity of 60ml, so controlling extraction time for somewhere between about 30 and 45 seconds (for espresso and more concentrated ristretto, respectively) is actually much easier than with a traditional machine. That's because your arm controls the amount of pressure you apply, rather than the brew head of a machine, which will (generally) only have an on/off function.
The Flair is also light and portable. The basic package without the pressure gauge and extra accessories weighs five pounds, the Pro 2 setup is seven pounds, and both fit snugly into their carrying cases. They're wonderful for taking camping, or on a road trip, too, so long as you have a way to boil water on the spot (a tiny camping stove will more than suffice). A five-year limited warranty also bodes well for confidence, especially when most machines five times the price only come with a one- or two-year warranty.
How to use a manual espresso maker
The first thing you'll want to do is set some water to boil. Then, pop the plastic funnel atop the "brewing head" and pour in very finely-ground coffee.
Use either the dosing cup or the stainless steel tamper to tamp. Flair recommends using about 30 pounds of pressure. Tip: Press on your bathroom scale to get a feel for what that's like.
Once you're done tamping, place the screen securely on top of the tamped grounds.
Once your water has boiled, pour it into the cylinder up to the little etched line inside.
Next, you'll place the piston in the brewing cylinder, and grab the lever and pull.
Ideally, you'll keep a steady pressure resulting in a steady trickle that finishes up in about 30 seconds, give or take.
The end result, with a thick head of crema.
Tasting notes
During a series of five rounds of blind taste tests, the Flair won four out of five times — three of those were unanimous. There's something about being able to control the pressure with your own hands that allows you to deliver a steady flow in a way that is hard to achieve with most budget espresso machines. Every subject of the blind taste test agreed that the intensity of flavor, viscosity or texture, and strength was favorable to almost every other shot we pulled from the other machines, save for the Gaggia Classic Pro a couple of times.
The only caveat here is that when we adjusted the grinder to finer settings to find the threshold of each machine and device, there came a point at which the machines were still churning out espresso and the Flair would choke, and we could not physically pull a shot without breaking the machine. (Even if we had, it would have been unpalatably bitter from the drops we were able to manage.)
Cons to consider
Using the Flair is a slightly more time-consuming process than making espresso with a machine, but it's a matter of maybe two extra minutes. Again, though, if time is a real constraint, you may want to look into pod machines, or perhaps the Breville Barista Pro, which offers a relatively quicker shot.
The bottom line
The Flair is affordable (the brand also offers a modestly priced manual espresso grinder), portable, doesn't take up a lot of counter space, and is as simple as can be to use. Yes, it takes a little effort and slightly more time than your average shot of espresso out of a machine, but it is the simplest and most affordable way to get the best possible shot you can, especially if you're new to the espresso game. If you want to step it up a bit, Kehn recommends the Cafelat Robot, which is the "same animal," according to him, but heftier and made with all metal components.