Oh! So now you’ve gotten yourself a Handpresso? Nicely done!
After many many failures, miss-shots, and hyper-caffeinated afternoons (it is SO difficult to dump failures down the sink), I finally came up with the proper way to use this handy little device.
- If you have a proper setting for espresso on your grinder, use that number/setting. Or experiment and get a righteous buzz till you’re sure! Should be like fine sand, but not coarse or like powdered sugar.
- Once you have found the proper grind, fill up the tiny filter basket most of the way to the top.
- Use the handle-end of the Handpresso to tamp the coffee down. If this was a deliberate design, I am delighted and surprised at such ingenuity.
- Now that the basket is tamped, fill it to the top with a more coffee so it has a rounded mound on top.
- Tamp this down lightly with your finger so it forms a “puck”, is level with the rim, and is firm to the touch.
- Pump up the Handpresso (if done in public this WILL cause some stares and you might have to answer questions). There is a gauge on the top side that registers how much pressure you are producing. When it gets into the green area, you are ready to go! Pump too much into the “danger-zone” red indicator? Just gently press the pressure release button. Back in the green. Ready to go! This SAME pressure release button is the one you press to produce the liquidy-goodness of all your previous labor.
- Boil some water, then pour into the Handpresso reservoir (holds enough for one shot), then insert your filled up filter basket.
- There is a metal lid to then screw hand-tight onto this reservoir, with a little icon of a padlock locked and unlocked. Twist the lid till it gets to the “locked” icon, and you should also feel a bit of resistance.
- Place the Handpresso over your mug and press the release button!
- If your filter basket fill level & tamp were done correctly there should be around 15 seconds of espresso coming out of the bottom of the device. Shorter than 15 seconds indicates needing to tamp harder and add more coffee next round.
- Done! Smile about a job well done and drink it!
Happy Handpresso-ing!
In case you haven’t yet gotten a Handpresso, but are inspired to do so after reading these instructions, get one here.