Homgeek, manual mini coffee maker for making espresso/lungo

Today I’m taking a look at a compact espresso maker. It’s an interesting little thing, and in some situations even useful. I’ll tell you all about it in this review, so if you’re curious, read on.


I wouldn’t call myself a gourmet or a coffee aficionado by any stretch, although I do drink a lot of coffee. But all my “interaction” with this drink is limited to a cup of instant Jacobs with milk. Mostly, that’s because it saves a lot of time, but unfortunately often at the expense of taste.
No, I do drink espresso from time to time, too. There’s a pretty decent Saeco coffee maker at work—if I remember correctly, it’s an Intelia Focus, though I could be wrong. But since I’m not the only one at work, it’s often a case of “either there’s no coffee, or we’ve run out of water” :)

I didn’t choose this product myself; it was offered to me with the question, “Do you like coffee?” I said yes and decided to give it a try—and tell my readers whether it’s worth it.
Since this isn’t an electronic, or even an electric, product, this review will be relatively short.

The product comes in double packaging: a plain cardboard box on the outside and a colorful one inside. For some reason, the colorful box has a hole in it. It came in handy for pulling one box out of the other.


The coffee maker and accessories are neatly packed in the inner box.


The package includes:
1. Coffee maker
2. Carrying pouch
3. Decorative rubber rings.
4. Manual.


Although the store has a warehouse in Russia, the manual doesn’t include Russian. It’s available only in English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish. I think the store—or rather, the manufacturer—should consider translating it into Russian.


Of course, the manufacturer did try to make the manual universal by illustrating the whole process. I’ll do much the same at the end of the review.


But there are a few warnings that could have been translated.
For example, the cleaning section shows which parts should be washed, and says that one of them must not be left with water in it (as far as I understand it)—or, more precisely, that it doesn’t need to be washed.


A pair of decorative rings and the pouch.


This product is marketed as portable. I won’t claim people take it hiking, since hikers count every gram and few are willing to carry anything extra. But taking it on a trip or to work is entirely realistic.
That’s what the small pouch included in the package is for. Though it’s also handy for storing the coffee maker at home. The design is such that even without the pouch, the coffee maker is fully protected from foreign objects getting inside.


The pouch is very thin and lightweight, so the coffee maker weighs 387 grams “in its packaging,” and 377 grams on its own.


The package includes a pair of colored rubber rings, intended for color-coding your trousers making it easier to tell whose is whose if you have two coffee makers. I think they could have included other colors, too; the rings can’t cost much.


For easier handling, there’s a rubber pad on the side opposite the piston. I’ll note that the coffee maker fits snugly in your hand—well, at least in a man’s hand.


There’s a piston on the side. Turn it left to release it from the lock, or right to put it in the “travel” position.
A brief digression is in order here: what exactly is espresso, and why does the coffee maker have a piston?
This quote from Wikipedia explains the brewing method pretty well:
Espresso (from Italian espresso) is a method of preparing coffee by forcing hot water (around 90 °C) under 8–10 bar of pressure through a filter containing ground coffee.

The piston is needed to generate the required pressure. According to the manufacturer, this coffee maker develops 8 bar of pressure. Of course, that’s only the bare minimum, and there are models that reach 15 bar, but in practice, this is enough.


As I mentioned at the very beginning, the coffee maker’s design is essentially a nearly sealed housing containing everything it needs. There is, however, a small error in the manual (it’s hard to see in the photo): it shows the wrong parts in the wrong places. In the photo, the coffee maker is laid out the way it should be, but in the instructions the central part is shown mirrored.


However, I found the correct assembly diagram on the product page.


Here’s a quick look at the parts.
1. Measuring cup, essentially a measuring scoop used to measure out the required amount.
2. Filter, where you put the measured amount of coffee.
3. Outlet section, through which the coffee passes after the filter.
4. This section also contains a safety valve, which keeps the coffee from pouring out until you press the valve.


The central section has a black rubber seal, and the coffee filter fits inside it. There’s a hole in the middle through which pressurized water reaches the filter.


The water inlet section has a second rubber seal, which keeps hot water from leaking out during brewing.


All the parts shown above are marked as suitable for contact with food.


As you can see, the coffee maker has a pretty simple design, so there isn’t much else to describe. Let’s move on to the tests.
First, here are all the parts in the order they’ll be used.


The instructions include a step-by-step diagram, but I found a clearer version on the store page and followed that instead.



But pictures are one thing, so I decided to describe the whole process in my own words and show how it works.
First, besides the coffee maker, you’ll need coffee. I usually drink instant coffee, but this one needs ground coffee, so I went to the store and bought a couple of varieties. One was Jacobs, a brand I’m already familiar with, but in the Espresso variety. The other was less familiar; I liked the packaging and the note that it contains Arabica coffee, which I used to enjoy.


Before using the coffee maker for the first time, be sure to wash it thoroughly.

Open the coffee bag and fill the measuring cup. Make sure to fill it so that it gives us a full filter cup. Once we screw the body together, the coffee will be compressed and the result will be better. The coffee maker does a great job of compressing it: after brewing, the coffee in the filter forms a very dense puck with a clear imprint of the mesh pattern. I even took a photo, but the flash made the result hard to see, so I’m not posting it.


1. Cover the measuring cup with the filter cup.
2. Turn it over so the measuring cup is on top. You can tap the top lightly with your finger to make sure the coffee falls where it should.
3. The coffee is now in the filter cup.
4. I tamp the coffee a little using the bottom of the measuring cup. The instructions don’t mention this, but it became a habit after using a manual coffee maker at work for quite a long time. Normally you’d use a special tamper, but since I don’t have one, I use the bottom of the measuring cup. The goal is to get something like a compressed puck.
Clean any coffee powder off the rim of the filter cup. This is necessary to prevent leaks and allow the coffee maker to build up the required pressure.

By the way, an important note: the measuring cup needs to be not only clean but dry as well. When it’s dry, the coffee doesn’t stick to it, making it easy both to scoop and tamp. But even a little moisture makes it immediately awkward to use. Moisture in the coffee bag is also a problem.
You might ask where the moisture could come from. Here’s why: the measuring cup is stored in the water reservoir, and if you put it back after use, some moisture will inevitably get on it.


Install the filter with the coffee as shown in the photo. There’s a special notch in the body, so you don’t have to do much “aiming.”


Next, take the outlet head (it’s on the right in the previous photo), place it on top, and screw it on. Tighten it firmly.


I completely forgot about the hot water :) Since the coffee maker can’t heat it, you’ll need to heat it with a kettle, immersion heater, or microwave.
The first time I made coffee, my first thought was how much water to pour in. But it turned out to be much simpler: there’s a MAX mark inside the water container (the larger, threaded part).


Boil the water and fill it to the mark.
For some reason, this reminds me of making coffee many years ago with spring water drawn directly from a spring, rather than from a pipe, as is often the case at springs. The taste changes dramatically compared with regular water—and for the better.
They say online that espresso is made by passing water at 90 degrees through the coffee. But you can actually pour boiling water into the cup: by the time you pour it, set up the coffee maker, and the water reaches the coffee, its temperature will have dropped to just the right level.


Carefully place the coffee maker body on top of the cup of water and screw it on. The threads are short, so this is quite easy to do; just be careful for safety.


Turn the whole assembly over so the water container is on top, then unlock the piston by turning it to the left.


Next, simply hold the coffee maker above the cup and pump the piston until coffee starts flowing. Start with a few strokes to build up pressure; the piston moves quite easily at this stage. Once the pressure builds and the piston starts to take some effort to press, the coffee will start flowing. Keep pumping to push all the water through.


That’s it, time to drink :)


At the very beginning, I mentioned that I’m used to drinking coffee with milk, although while testing this coffee maker I only added sugar.
But you can also add milk or cream after brewing, as well as grated chocolate—whatever you like. The store page even had a nice picture, so I decided to “break up” this dry review with a pretty one :)


The coffee tastes great, but the serving size... I’m used to large cups. Even my friend, a coffee connoisseur, always tells me that you don’t drink coffee from cups this size.
That got me curious about two things: the volume of one serving and how much of the original water ends up in the cup.
I measured one full cup of coffee at 106 grams; the same cup weighs 35 grams empty. The water cup weighs 156 grams full and 74 grams empty.
So one fill is 82 grams (156-74), and the finished drink weighs 71 grams (106-35), leaving 11 grams in the coffee maker (82-71). If you make a second cup right away, you’ll get about 10-11 grams more, since there’s already some water left in the coffee maker from the previous brew.


Based on the calculations above, what we get is a lungo, not an espresso. The difference is that a classic espresso uses 7–10 g of coffee for 25–35 ml of water. A lungo uses the same amount of coffee but about 70 ml of water, which is what we got in the calculations above.

So I think it would be more accurate to call this a lungo coffee maker rather than an espresso coffee maker. Although a lungo (on the right) should have less crema, while in my case it was closer to espresso (on the left).


I made a short video of the brewing process, although basically everything you need to know is described above.

By the way, I tried two types of coffee, shown above: Jacobs Monarch Espresso and SL 100% Arabica. The first produces better crema and has a stronger aroma; the second tastes better, but produces less crema. Also, when tamped, the Jacobs coffee comes through the holes (which is why I tamp it over the package in the video; that doesn’t happen with the other one).



That’s all. Here are my impressions.
I’ve been using the coffee maker for a while now. I even made about 6 cups while preparing this review and getting the hang of it, with no problems.
I’d especially like to point out the high build quality. I couldn’t find a single defect, molding residue, or scratch anywhere. A solid 5 out of 5 in that respect. I’d even believe it if someone told me this coffee maker was made in Germany rather than China.
There are no odors at all, which indirectly speaks to the good build quality. As I mentioned above, all the parts are marked as suitable for food contact.

I could say the coffee tastes good, but that wouldn’t be entirely fair, since the coffee maker isn’t the only thing responsible for that. Still, I personally liked the result.

As for where it’s useful, I’d say its main use is on the road, at a job site, or simply outdoors. Of course, you can use it at home too, but I’d prefer a coffee maker that at least heats the water itself and, ideally, also grinds the beans. It’s simply more convenient.
Cleaning after use is extremely easy: just wash the cup, filter, and outlet head. Everything else stays clean on its own.

If you think I’m only going to praise it, you’re mistaken. I did find some drawbacks, though they’re not major ones.
For example, the cup for the finished drink attaches to the body with tabs, rather than a screw thread like the water cup. If I were the manufacturer, I’d make the design symmetrical. That would make it more reliable and reduce the cost, since they wouldn’t need to make another mold.
It’s also worth noting that the coffee isn’t very hot, around 60–70 degrees. Personally, I see that as a plus, partly because I like coffee with milk. But some people prefer their coffee piping hot. The temperature isn’t very high because some of the heat goes into warming the coffee maker and the cups themselves. The second “shot” will definitely be hotter; one option is to warm up the coffee maker first by running it empty. And since it’s marketed for use not only at home but also outdoors, you’re unlikely to get a hot drink in below-freezing temperatures.

To sum it all up in one sentence: fairly expensive, quite well made, tasty, and convenient, though not without its drawbacks.