The Flair Espresso Maker - A Home Brewing Favourite!
Is the Flair Espresso Maker Australia's fastest growing home coffee maker? Here's your guide to the Flair Espresso Maker, how to use it and why it has shot to fame in the world of alternative brewing.
This beautiful piece of brewing equipment has been getting coffee-drinkers excited and walking out itself out of stores all over the world, so we can forgive some of our customers for wondering – what’s the big deal? The answer to that question is multi-faceted, it isn’t any one particular thing that makes the Flair Espresso Maker an awesome product. It’s the combination of style, quality and function that make it such an irresistible choice. In terms of affordability, it sits in that sweet spot between budget and high-end; you are paying for what you’re getting – a quality product that performs its intended task to an impressive degree whilst looking damn good.
If you’re a lover of pure, unadulterated espresso coffee, you like the idea of a an espresso maker that doesn’t require electricity and can be packed up to travel with you anywhere, and you revel in simplicity of function – the Flair Espresso Maker is about to make you dreams come true for a tiny fraction of the cost of most lever espresso machines.
How does the Flair Espresso Maker work?
This elegant piece of equipment makes an impressive quality espresso coffee by exerting the same pressure on the coffee dose that a traditional commercial grade espresso machine does – around 9+ Bar of pressure. It does this not with the aid of electricity, but with its specially made group head which the user will exert pressure on via a hand lever. It is truly a triumph of physics and appeals to many mechanically and technically minded coffee aficionados.
After pre-heating the brewing head, ground coffee is inserted, tamped and hot water poured over the coffee. The piston is then loosely placed on top, and you can steadily push down on the lever to start extracting your fresh espresso.
What makes the Flair Espresso Maker such a great alternative brewing choice?
When it comes to function, the Flair Espresso Maker specialises in its task – making high quality espresso. It isn’t a bit of gear that is trying to be everything to everyone, and by concentrating its efforts on a singular purist brewing method, it has come out on top as a rising star in the world of bench top, travel-friendly espresso makers.
While at first it might seem that it leaves those who like a little milk with their espresso coffee out in the cold, what it really does is open the conversation up to collecting a small group of products that independently do their jobs well. For example, the Jura Automatic Milk Frother is a stand-alone piece of equipment that expertly produces barista quality, silky smooth micro-foamed milk. It has one job, and it does it to absolute perfection – much like the Flair Espresso Maker.
Teaming these two products up to please both black and white coffee lovers at home is the ultimate duo without spending upwards of $1000 and sacrificing coveted benchtop real estate. Even including a high quality hand grinder like the Comandante to create a truly dreamy caffeine team is an option when you choose products that are so singularly focussed on high performance in one area – and you’re still clocking in under $1000!
The Flair is also impressive in that it can be packed up and travelled with at a moment’s notice. It comes with a beautifully designed and practical travel case, and is at home in any hotel room or camping table. All you need is your ground coffee and some hot water and you’re on your way to golden, creamy espressos wherever you are.
The pros and cons of the Flair Espresso Maker
Now we know what it is and how it works, but let’s take a look at the highlights and low lights. Admittedly, there just aren’t many drawbacks to this rather flash piece, but as we stated - it can’t be everything to everyone.
Pros:
- Simple & quick to use once users are familiar with the brewing process
- Has a number of extras that can be purchased to tailor the pack to each user and household such as –
- Upgraded tamper
- Extra brewing group heads for quicker brewing of multiple espressos
- Pressure gauge kit for group head
- Replacement seals and gaskets
- All spare parts
- Doesn’t require electricity
- Creates perfect pressure for espresso
- Travels easily in its tailor-made travel case
- Is aesthetically beautiful in its design
- Includes a comprehensive, easy to follow brewing guide in its case
- Comes in different colour schemes, with the original model in Black & Red and more premium models in Chrome & Copper and the Black & Copper
Cons:
- Comprises of multiple small parts, making the clean up a little more arduous than comparable products
- More expensive than some comparable manual espresso makers
- Only makes a single espresso shot at a time
Brewing guide for the Flair Espresso Maker
Here we detail a step-by-step guide on the brewing process, to give the already converted a solid method, and for the interested to get an idea of what is involved.
- Grind your coffee fresh, or get it ready for brewing by dosing out between 16-22g of coffee – experiment over time to see what works best for you taste wise!
- Detach the brewing group head and pre-heat with water
- Fill the basket with your grind coffee and tamp it firmly with the supplied tamper
- Reattach the group head
- Fill the water reservoir with hot water
- Lightly place the piston over the coffee and water
- Slowly but firmly press down on the lever – so satisfying!
- Espresso will extract as your push down on the lever for between 25-45 seconds, and produce roughly 45ml of tasty goodness
- Enjoy your brew!
It’s probably already clear to see that we’re a little in love and we know that makes us endearingly biased. What we can say to anyone who is on the fence about the Flair Espresso Maker is this: come in and test drive it in our showroom! We always have one set up and ready for brewing, and our expert staff are here to demonstrate, troubleshoot and answer as many Flair-related questions as you can shoot at them. You can call us on 02 49697422 to talk to one of our team members about anything coffee, or hit us up on chat on our website. We’re here to help, so we’ll leave you to brew on that.
