Some people get their caffeine fix in the outdoors with instant coffee. Others, however, are willing to carry portable coffee makers just to enjoy more tasty brews. For discerning caffeine addicts who swear by levers over pump-driven espresso machines, we have a feeling the Flair 2GO will be the portable coffee maker of choice.
Touted as “the world’s most compact lever espresso machine,” the device gives you full control over pressure and flow much like standard lever machines, allowing you to crank out those great-tasting espressos that no pump-driven machine could ever match. Unlike other lever machines, though, this one collapses into a portable size, making it easy to squeeze into your backpack when hiking, camping, or doing any activity outdoors.
The Flair 2GO is a lever espresso machine that works much like other similar espresso makers in the category. There’s a fully manual lever tat lets you dial in the amount of elbow grease you want to put in and an analog pressure gauge that lets you see how much pressure you’re producing to extract all those hidden flavors in your ground. According to the outfit, the machine can brew in six to nine bars of pressure, which you can easily monitor from the gauge, so you can cook the coffee to your exact liking.
Of course, the big selling point here is the portability. The machine itself is noticeably smaller than your typical lever espresso maker, measuring just 12 x 10.5 x 5 inches (height x depth x width) making it ideal for setting up on top of your cooler, the small camp table you brought along, or even on the bed of your pickup truck. Do note, it needs a flat surface to maintain stability, so make sure you have one in your camp. More importantly, it collapses into a similar size to a folded drone, making it extremely portable, so you can stash it in a bag for easily taking to any outdoor adventure.
The Flair 2GO can take any ground coffee directly into its coffee chamber, making it ideal for folks who like brewing directly from fresh ground. However, the same coffee compartment also fits a standard-sized coffee pods, so you can just bring your favorite ones along if you don’t want to carry a bag of ground coffee or, worse, beans that you will have to grind on the go. You can, of course, do that if you want to cosplay being a barista in the backcountry, which is probably kind of fun. It can fit around 12 to 18 grams of coffee and 60 ml of steaming hot water, with each batch yielding around 45ml of rich, delicious espresso.
The lever machine comes with everything you need to make coffee on the go, including a stainless steel tamper, a stainless steel dispersion screen, a dosing funnel, and a bottomless 2-in-1 portafilter. It also includes a carrying case, so you can keep the whole kit in one place. The case, by the way, measures just 9.5 x 5.25 x 4 inches (length x width x thickness), so you should be able to squeeze it along with other gear on your pack.
The Flair 2GO is available now, priced at $169.
