Espresso in the wilderness

For those of us who prefer an espresso when we're out in the wilderness instead of boiled or freeze-dried coffee, there are a few solutions.

The machines we've tested in the past have been a little too heavy to put in your backpack and have worked best in Basecamp or on trips, but now we've found a new solution in the form of the Wacoco Minipresso GR.

The Minipresso has a smart and stylish design and feels solid in the hand despite weighing only 360 grams. Everything you need for your coffee is in the cylinder and if you add the coffee in advance, all you need is some hot water from a thermos and you have your coffee ready in less than a minute.

You pump up the pressure easily with your fingers thanks to the semi-automatic piston and continue with about 20 pumps until you run out of water. An espresso takes about 8 grams of coffee (2 cl) and 7.5 cl of water, resulting in 5 cl of finished coffee. The pressure is 116 PSI/8 bar, which is clearly acceptable.

The coffee is delicious and the machine creates a really good crema. It's impressive that such a small hand-pumped and portable machine can actually produce coffee on par with large electric machines.

When you're done, simply rinse the machine and it's ready to go back into your backpack.

Some tips for use include preheating the machine by running it with hot water without coffee once before refilling the coffee. It is also important to choose real espresso coffee. If you are grinding yourself, you may need to experiment to find the right level of grinding.

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Magnus Brink

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We do not sell the goods we review. Nor do we accept payment from anyone for writing reviews. Our opinions are our own.

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