Handpresso Wild Portable Espresso Maker for Travel, Camping and Picnic
If you’re the kind of person for whom a coffee is okay as long as it looks like coffee – even if it doesn’t necessarily taste like coffee – then you don’t need to read any further. For you the product that follows probably is a gadget. But if you’re a coffee lover for whom instant coffee is an inconvenience too far, even while on vacation, the Handpresso Portable Espresso Maker might be your savior. Personally, I can’t stand instant coffee. I’d rather have no coffee at all, even if my blood caffeine levels do get dangerously low as a result during our camping vacation.
Why It’s Clever
I’ve heard that when you ask for a coffee in Ethiopia there’s an hour-long ceremony, starting right from the roasting of the fresh coffee beans. It’s not exactly the same with the Handpresso, but it’s a kind of ceremony as well.
So how does it work? A regular espresso machine has an integrated electric pump generating a pressure of 16 bars to push the hot water through the compressed coffee. It’s also the pressure that’s responsible for the crema (the reddish-brown foam on top) that you don’t have with your regular cup of coffee. That’s all very well at home, where you can install a countertop espresso machine – or a regular coffee maker if that’s okay with you. But when you’re traveling, camping, or picnicking, there are two difficulties. First of all, you often don’t have an electrical outlet available to plug your machine into. Second, even if you do have electricity, nobody wants to drag an espresso machine with them; it’s simply too bulky and too heavy.
That’s where the Handpresso comes in. It’s very compact and light, allowing you to take it with you wherever you want. And it doesn’t need electricity for a pump – instead you’ll have to use your muscles to bring it up to pressure. It works just like a bicycle pump, requiring about 25 pumps to bring it to a pressure of 16 bars. Then you add a coffee pad, hot water, and press a button to release the pressure into the water reservoir. Seconds later, you can enjoy your cup of espresso. Even if real espresso isn’t a must for you, it’s still a good portable coffee solution.
The only thing you’ll still need is hot water. When camping, you’ll probably have some portable cooking equipment anyway that you can use for hot water for your espresso. You’ll be camping in style, and you can be assured of envious looks from your neighbors as they bend over their plastic cups of instant coffee. You can invite them over if they’re nice.
When picnicking, you can take hot water with you in a thermos bottle.
The video manual below shows how it works.
Summary
- Espresso maker that doesn’t need electricity
- Uses coffee pads
- You’ll need to get hot water somehow
- Use for traveling, camping, picnicking, and so on
- Light and compact at 17 oz (470 g) weight and 8.8 inch (25 cm) length.
Tips
There’s also a Handpresso Wild Outdoor set, including a thermos bottle and cups. I haven’t tried it, but since a good coffee requires really hot water, I doubt that it will still give the same results hours after you’ve filled the thermos bottle. But for a picnic it might be okay.
It will take you maybe half a minute to open the water reservoir, add your coffee pad, fill the reservoir with water, and set the device in position. Already this will let your water cool off a bit. You’ll probably get the best results when you use some of the hot water to preheat the cup and reservoir, empty it again, and use fresh hot water for your coffee.
Where to buy
You can buy it online from Amazon.com
Approx. price: $90 w/o carrying case (February 2010)
Categories: travel, simply original
