STARESSO Portable Espresso Maker - Third Generation Mini Espresso Maker for Two Shots at One Time Upgrade Version Hand Espresso Maker for Rich & Thick Crema with Ground Coffee for Camping & Office

This is my first time making espresso, but I've been making fresh coffee for a few years now. Freshly ground with a bur grinder, perfect water temperature, filtered water, I take it pretty seriously. Understanding the factors that come into play when brewing coffee is like understanding the acoustics to making music. Yea, you can turn on the regular coffee pot, pour in some tap water, and some stale coffee grounds, and call it coffee, but there's a reason you add a cup of sugar and milk to cover up the taste. It's not pleasant, or enjoyable. Many people don't realize, but making coffee is an art, and leaving it all up to a machine, you end up with something unsatisfying.All that being said, making great art, takes quality, reliable tools. This is a quality, reliable tool. So far I've only used it once, but in all my experience, and lack of experience, even my first shot of espresso was something amazing. The flavors I never knew coffee had, and I could taste them. I'm no professional, but I am proud to own this.Let's get into a few details. The surface feels like a kind of textured rubber, so easy to grip, not easy to scratch up or anything. Underneath, it feels like solid steal base. Some parts may be plastic, but parts that are safe from damage. Thoroughly cleaning this, I'd say it's obviously very well made, and the craftsmanship is worth the price tag.Cleaning was easy. There were artifacts left from manufacturing I image, little pieces of, whatever it was, and some kind of oil, or residue. Hot water and dish soup cleaned all that away, which you should clean anything you get new like this anyway, so no extra work there. Afterwards, I ran hot water through the system as if pressing a shot, to clear out any left over soupy water. After brewing, all the coffee grounds easily washed away with just a rinse of water, didn't even need to use soup, or scrub. Very happy with this effortless clean up. (:The espresso maker came with a little plastic scoop for coffee grounds, however nothing to tamp with. 18 grams of finely ground coffee is about 3 scoops of whole beans, and after grinding, it won't all fit in the filter unless you tamp it down, so getting a tamp is highly recommended. You want an even, dense puck of fine coffee, not a mounds of loosely packed, lumpy coffee. Pumping the water took a little force once the pressure built up, but not too much.Considering the volume of water, the size of the basket, and adjustable pressure valve, this tool can work how you want it to work, figure out your own perfect shot of espresso, and that flexibility is amazing in my opinion. Also, the duel outlets which make it possible to make 2 separate shots at once.Bottom line, durable, solid build, easy to clean, easy to use, flexible usage, and works great. Only missing a tamper, or the product page should at least tell us that it doesn't have one, and what size to get.This is the Gen 3, Mirage Portable Espresso Maker.

I have used earlier version of the STARESSO and 3 other portable machines of other brands in the meantime. i travel a lot and drink a lot of coffee. so i have a lot of experience with these machines :). In short this new machine is excellent. and the best on the market. it is easy to use and clean and makes great coffee.Pros:- improved pumping system is much easier to use than other manual machines which takes a serious effort. this machine makes it very easy. and with 15+ bar makes great coffee- larger water reservoir means you can make a good cup in one water filling.- the product is much safer than others. one is managing boiling water and the other machines require more handling and upside down handling of boiled water. not safe. i have been burned with other machines leaking water.Cons:- design is well done but lacks finess. i am sure they make this better next time around. staresso has made great imrpovements over the last 3 years.- the alu feet should be made more stable. a little design change would make that happen.i wanted to give it 4.5 stars but since that is not possible 4 is what it is. Not a 5 star yet but getting there soon i hope.all in all excellent product and worth every dollar.

Seller was great, product went out before they said it would go out, when I requested refund all was done very rapidly.I was disappointed with it, it's very bulky, nearly impossible to make a good expresso, first no coffee should touch a cold part of machine, impossible to warm up it all, and most important, steam/water should be pressurised before brewing, machine does it after going through the coffee grounds.

This little machine actually makes a pretty good double shot of espresso. There's good crema and flavor. I don't find it hard to clean, especially since most of its parts only require rinsing. I love that it doesn't take up much space, because I really don't have much in my kitchen. Including boiling water, it takes me less than 10 minutes to make espresso using this machine.The first time I used it, the espresso was watery, so I made some changes which improved the flavor a lot:- Grind the coffee beans really fine- Fill the grounds container as much as possible and tamp like crazy (add grounds, tamp, if there's still space, add more and tamp again over and over until full)- Pre-heat the water chamber (don't screw on the part that holds the grounds. Stand the staresso up in the sink. Pour freshly boiled water into the water chamber, place the part with the handle pump on top, do not screw it on. Let the hot water drain through the machine and into the sink) You can also pre-heat the little cup by pouring boiled water in it and letting it sit while the water drains through the rest of the machine.- Make sure the part where the coffee comes out is turned as tightly as possible before attaching it to the water chamber. (Turn the part with the nozzles upside down so that the nozzles are facing you. Using the nozzles for grip, turn it as tightly as possible to the right.)Once the machine is put together and has grounds in it, I just follow the directions exactly. Wait 2 seconds, pump, wait, pump, and so on. To lessen mess, once I'm done pumping, I pour the espresso into a cup, and place the little cup that comes with the machine back under it so it can catch the drips. I'm pretty quick, so I rarely get any espresso on my counter. Getting the grounds into the coffee chamber and tamping is the messiest part for me, so I just do that over the sink.Once you're done pumping the espresso, slowly unscrew the hand pump part. Let it sit on the counter to cool and depressurize. I don't recommend attempting to clean the machine right away, since it might be really hot and there might still be a lot of pressure built up inside. I usually make coffee in the morning and then clean the machine at night, because that's when I do the dishes. It hasn't caused any problems to be lazy about cleaning.Unscrew the part containing coffee grounds over the sink. That can be messy otherwise.There are only 2 things I'd change about the Staresso:1. Make more espresso at once - I love triple and quad shots. I could just buy another machine, but I don't feel like shelling out the cash for another just yet.2. Include a tamp that fits over the coffee ground chamber perfectly. This would probably be less messy and take less time than using the spoon that comes with it.