I feel like I have so much to say about my little friend I could write an entire essay. I'll try and be brief.

This little piece of hardware has changed my life. Well, kinda. First I have to say that the pump I use is the original Handpresso, which does not have the adapter to use coffee grounds. I bought this one because my original model failed and I just could not live without it, and the cost of sending it for repair vs replacing made the most sense. But then given my new purchase, I decided to try and fix my original, and much to my shock It was uber-easy to replace the failed O ring in the handle and BOOM back to delicious morning shots! Why do I love this machine you say? 1) it's beautiful, dare I say sexy. When you have that shaft in your hand you can tell it's quality, nothing cheap here. 2) it's so easy to use and minimal clean up. 3) it's fun! You should see the looks I get when it's sitting on my desk at work "What the hell is that?"(check out some of their YouTube videos,hilarious!) 4) it makes better coffee that the $400 Breville that now just decorates my kitchen counter. 5) No more freaking out at work wondering if I left my coffee machine running and reducing all my belongings to ash! (I had to give a neighbor a key over this one)

My only regret is that I gave this one away as a gift and never tried the grounds adapter, I have dreams about it though. I can say that the person I gave it to, LOVES hers as much as I love mine. Were thinking about starting a fan club.

I literally cannot function without espresso, I need to drink three or four every day otherwise I'm grumpy. A year ago I got the Minipresso GR for Christmas. It's been with me around the Oregon coast, Grand Canyon, Koh Phangan, Yosemite... always making great espresso with loads of delicious crema, comparable to what my Krups machine at home makes. The Minipresso broke after six months, so I bought another. The second one also broke after six months, so I decided to try this product instead, the Handpresso.

It's a bit more expensive than the Minipresso, and on paper sounds like it should be better -- 16 bars pressure versus I think 6 bar on the trusty Minipresso, plus you can tamp coffee for the Handpresso whereas you can't tamp with the Minipresso. It also looks a little fancier, although when using it you look like you're working out with a ShakeWeight, if you catch my drift.

After a few uses, I returned this product. The coffee it makes just wasn't up to my standards. To me, it's like a strong filter coffee, or something from a French press, and it never produced much crema. Like going to a backwater tea-house and asking for an espresso, and you get a sort of thin, slightly bitter giant cup of dark brown water with bubbles on top, versus going to a downtown coffeeshop where every time you get a tiny, intense shot of smooth black tar topped with shining golden crema.

Whilst it breaks far too often (and the US importer is unresponsive), I still recommend the Minipresso instead of the Handpresso, if you're trying to choose between the two.

Even though I usually have a big mug of drip coffee in the morning, I frequently want some espresso in the afternoon, but don't have time (or the inclination) to go to Starbucks.

The Handpresso is very easy to use, doesn't take up a lot of room in my desk or suitcase and I can fling a handful of pods into my bag when I travel. Finding hot water on the road isn't usually too difficult, but finding coffee you like at some hole-in-the-wall is sometimes nearly impossible.

Making espresso is a breeze. I usually use the pods, but have used freshly ground coffee as well. I've found it best to pump the Handpresso first, then preheat the water chamber and cup with hot water from the tap while I'm heating the rest of the water in the microwave. Once it's up to temperature, I pour out the water I preheated with, fill the chamber, insert the pod, lock on the top and dispense the espresso. I'm impressed that I can get actual creama this way. I've never been able to make anything even close with an Aeropress.

I prefer fresh ground to pods, but either works well in the Handpresso. I've seen some complaints about clogging, but I usually avoid those issues by soaking the portafilter part in some cleaning solution and blasting the holes clean with an old waterpik filled with coffee cleaning solution (there's usually a lot of TSP in them but they do a great job).

I've seen a lot of people gushing about the Aeropress, but I vastly prefer the Handpresso

Perhaps with ESE pods this device would work well, but using ground coffee it was hit or miss. It was very messy and difficult to clean. Espresso from the device tasted fine. You need to make sure you actually stop the pull before the reservoir empties or you will end up getting large bubbles in your espresso, which is unfortunate. Stopping at just the right time requires practice and I would prefer to use all the water available for the pull, especially since the reservoir is so small to begin with.

Very good quality construction, although the first piece I received had an air leak. Amazon replaced it and even paid for the international parcel charges for the return - that is the good part of buying from Amazon. Yes, they do deliver internationally, though may not be to all countries. There is a hand pump, something like a balloon pump, that you have to pump initially to build up the pressure to 16 bar. Towards the end of the pumping it takes a fair amount of effort. I use coffee that I grind myself and pack into the supplied filter cup. The first time I used it, the brewing (filtration) time was just 5 seconds. I realised that not only do I need an extremely fine grind (due to the smaller size of the filter cup) but also tamp it more than I usually do with bigger machines. I do not know whether the "Intense portafilter" optional accessory is really required as I can probably get the same effect with a finer grind and more tamping. The standard portafilter does not let finer grounds powder through to the cup, so that is good. The biggest thing that differentiates this gadget from standard pump machines is that though this machine can also take the pressure up to 16 bars the pressure dissipates to less than a few bars within a few seconds of pressing the release button. It does not maintain the same 16 bar pressure throughout the brewing process, unlike pump machines. For that reason alone I have subtracted one star. I am aware that there is another portable machine in the market that allows you to continue pumping to keep up the pressure. Considering the design of the Handpresso, it is impractical to continue pumping once the release button has been pressed. The proof of the coffee is in its taste, and I must say that there is very little difference in the taste between the coffee made by this machine and the one I make in my 18 bar pump machine. Maybe the crema is a bit less.

Out of the box, operated properly and using good quality ese pods (Lavazza seem to be consistently poor, Lucaffe have been great) it makes excellent espresso, good crema, if you pressurize to the redline.

However, two of my three units have now developed leaks in the output mechanism (as noted by some other reviewers), which releases almost all of the pressure almost immediately, producing no reasonable amount of espresso. Closer examination of one unit shows that one of the eyelets on the pastic cup (water reservoir) it cracked, and that's resulting in a loss of pressure. Since it's an easily removable piece, I expected to be able to get online and buy a replacement part (the pump is still fine...) but cannot find that either here at Amazon or on the Handpresso main website.

This would be at least a 4 start review if I could easily repair my two broken units, 5 start if they'd not both broken.

This thing surpassed my expectations. I love it. Your friends will certainly have some "envy". Those who've already used/purchased this know what I mean. LOL

Anyway, some of the background is this: I was looking for an espresso maker that would allow some portability, ease of use and quick cleanup. I was entertaining a few of the more popular solutions I found on Amazon but wasn't satisfied with how clunky they seemed. So, I kept looking. I then discovered the Handpresso and was instantly intrigued. I watched a few video demos and decided it was the solution for me. I made the purchase.

I'm very please with my Handpresso and would recommend it to anyone looking for a quality espresso on the go. This has also become my espresso maker 100% of the time because it frees up a lot of counter space by not having one of those super expensive machines, which are difficult to clean.

Bottom line - get yourself one of these because you'll be surprised by how often you use it.

One thing to keep in mind regarding ese pods - I've noticed that various espresso pod manufacturers seem to do it a bit differently and their manufacturing and quality depends on how quickly the water passes through the portafilter. Cafe Borbone pods filter at a nice pace while Island Joes brand filtered much quicker. I'd recommend getting the Handpresso add-on of the Intense Portafilter, which solved the problem from one pod to another.

Happy Pumping.

I am coffee snob. A lazy, want-more-doing-less coffee snob. And a cheap one. I'm happy to pay stoopid $ for good espresso beans, but cannot bring myself to drop over $1,000 on a "proper" espresso machine. So when I came across this product my first thought was "hand pump, that's too haaaaard". The reviews convinced me to give this a go, based on the cost.

First espresso was OK, not great. Then I figured out that the filter (for using your own coffee rather than ESE pods) tends to concave in a bit: press firmly through when tamping and you get more coffee into the device. I also found the advice on many sites (heat the device before filling with water and coffee to press your espresso) equally important.

The coffee is very good--probably as good as you can make it without a pro machine and mad pro skillz. It's a bit more "exherting" than the French press, but the coffee is soooo much better. I've ordered a second one to use at work: I figure the savings will pay for itself in 2 months. I continue to be lazy and "steam" my soy milk in the microwave, then use a frother to whoop it good.

Haven't tried ESE pods yet, though have some on order. I'll use those when road tripping. Will be interesting to see what airport security thinks of it in my carry-on.

Habe ja gezweifelt aber ich muss sagen Super. Qualitativ hochwertiges Gerät und es macht auch noch einen leckeren Espresso mit ordentlicher Creme.

Ganz wie versprochen. Ich kann's nur empfehlen

J'ai testé pour la première fois cette machine lors d'une longue et humide marche en montagne ; le réconfort d'un véritable espresso, ça n'a pas de prix. Super simple (fallait y penser, faire un café avec une pompe à vélo !) pas encombrante et écologique. Ça serait génial si on pouvait aussi chauffer l'eau en pompant…

I bought this after falling in love with it during a trip to Milan. It's a great product, it works both with ESE pods as well as ground coffee, reducing the amount of waste when enjoying our favorite espresso. The 19bar pressure ensures that you always get a perfect cup of coffee. The whole process is fun and enviromental friendly.

Even though I also own an electrical espresso machine, I find myself using this one more often as I enjoy the entire process.

Would highly recommend to espresso enthousiasts, people that go camping often as well as espresso lovers.

Article de très bonne qualité. Facile d’utilisation.

Fait un très bon espresso

Prodotto eccellente. Materiali ottimi e resistenti, il caffè è ottimo, simile a quello di una macchinetta elettrica. Se usato correttamente non sporca e non fa alcun rumore. A mio parere è la migliore macchina da caffè portatile manuale. Perfetta da usare in biblioteca e ovunque.