Flair GO: Portable, Collapsible Lever Espresso Machine with Pod Brewing (Pods Model)

good, portable as said.

Excelente producto

Only makes a small amount of espresso and crème with some learning adjustment necessary, but makes good quality coffee using an excellent manual press design that folds up very compact for traveling.

It does take a little bit to learn it but it makes a great crema shot. It’s simple to setup and use even though there seems to be a lot of components. We do suggest using a good digital scale and finer grind than usual. We compared the shot in cappuccino form and it may beat the $1K machine we use. It will be perfect for travel and maybe even home!

This has been my best travel and camping espresso option found so far.

Cumple con lo indicado en el producto, es práctico y de buena calidad

Anyone who has shown interest in making espresso at home has no doubt heard of Flair as one of the many brands associated with manual espresso machines. Their newest product iterate on their popular line of manual lever espresso machines by making an ultra-portable machine capable of brewing authentic espresso with the same pressure found in commercial machines. You get the whole kit in a nice carrying case which comes with custom molded inserts for storing every component easily. The machine itself consist of the frame as well as the brew head, consisting of a removeable brew funnel, the brew head and basket, a water chamber, and the piston with pressure gauge. The components all come together and stay together using a variety of o-rings fitted along the pieces and this in conjunction with the fine espresso grind forms a seal that can be pushed down with the lever. With the appropriate grind and dose, you can push down with consistent pressure, maintaining 6-9 bars of pressure, to brew authentic espresso, yielding a shot from about fifteen grams of coffee. The espresso will have a rich crema with a full bodied flavor and an appealing flavor that coats the mouth and lasts for minutes. Afterwards, you can easily clean the machine by taking apart the brew mechanism and disposing of the used grounds. Rinse and scrub in water, avoiding soap when you can to prevent off tastes. Overall, I was super impressed with the sort of quality you can achieve even without a machine. Although it does take more work, the ultra-portable design is appealing for the most discerning coffee enthusiast looking to get quality coffee wherever they can. At only 200, it offers a competitive value compared to cheaper semi-automatic machines which can fail to achieve the same sort of pressure good old elbow grease can get you.

Being the owner of a Neo Flex I was pretty excited to see another portable Flair but at roughly half the footprint of the Neo Flex. The frame of the Go is solid and folds away easily. It comes with the same cylinder and bottomless basket that the Neo Flex has and though it isnt listed on their own website aa of this moment, makes it compatible with their stainless steel pressure gauge kit. I used the included plastic plunger and while they hqve made it significantly thicker, I would suggest just getting the stainless steel replacement. They replaced the SS dispersion screen with the etched dispersion screens which sits like a puck screen would in your espresso basket. The SS dispersion screen is easier to clean while ive gotten individual grinds stuck in the etched screen. I had zero issues with removing the etched screen from the basket despite reading at least one review of that happening. There are a lot of extras missing from the Go: no extra flow control basket, no dosing cup, no pre heat cap. It does come with a small stainless steel tamp that works good enough. Despite these lack of features, the Go is more expensive than the Neo Flex. Keep in mind the folding frame isnt cheap plastic, it is solid sturdy metal and you are paying for that and the improved compactness of the unit and most of the complaints I have about the Go can be solved by just spending some more money at the Flair store (lol, lmao even). Shots pulled on the Go are no different than on the Neo Flex except with maybe a bit more force required though I only used the included plastic plunger once. Your first 2 shots might require a bit of elbow grease due the change of angle this press has versus the Neo Flex. By the 3rd-5th shot I was making tasty bean juice just fine and dandy. I am unsure if I would have purchased the Go at full retail price but on sale it was a worthwhile upgrade to the Neo Flex. Having the basket, plunger and cylinder fully backwards compatible with the Neo Flex was awesome, my grinder didnt need to be redialed. Tl;dr if you own the Neo Flex you know how to pull shots on the Go. Grinder used with the Go: Kingrinder K2 @ 42 clicks