The Best Manual Espresso and Coffee Makers

We were able to pull consistently well-balanced and full-bodied shots of espresso with this sturdy and straightforward manual espresso maker. Its extra-heavy base remained stationary regardless of the force we applied on its levers. Although the general process for brewing espresso is straightforward, there were two design features that posed a little difficulty as we were getting used to it. Unlike with most other models, you add hot water directly to the portafilter and then lock it into place in a groove on the underside of the machine; the groove is a bit hard to see. You must also hold the espresso maker’s arms up with one hand as you position the portafilter. Once we familiarized ourselves with the process, it wasn’t an issue, and we were impressed by the quality of the resulting espresso.

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In a nice upgrade from the original AeroPress, this model is transparent, allowing you to see the coffee grinds interacting with the hot water. It’s easy to use. You simply attach the filter cap with a paper filter inserted, add ground coffee and then hot water, stir, and push down the plunger. Made of a type of plastic called Tritan, it’s 1.8 ounces heavier than its predecessor; it felt sturdy as we assembled, used, and cleaned it. Because its brew chamber has the same dimensions as that of the original AeroPress, it uses the same paper filters. It brewed full-bodied and flavorful coffee consistently. It brews up to 10 ounces of American coffee or up to 3 shots of espresso-style coffee (2 ounces each).

This was an easy-to-use, no-frills coffee maker that allowed us to make smooth, strong, and clean-tasting coffee. It was straightforward to set up, even for those who had never used an AeroPress before. You attach the filter cap to the bottom of the brew chamber, add coffee and hot water, stir, and push down the plunger. To clean, you unscrew the filter cap and push out the spent coffee grounds. It’s the first AeroPress that came to the market, and it has had a cult-like following ever since. It can brew a 10-ounce cup, which is one serving of robust coffee. This model is a bit larger than the travel-size version and smaller than the large AeroPress, which brews twice the amount of coffee.

We liked this model because it was easy to brew bright, clean-tasting coffee with nuanced flavors and it was a breeze to clean. In addition to the syringe-like brew chamber and plunger, it came with a small scoop and a stirrer, which can all be packed into one compact canister that doubles as a brewing vessel. It uses the same filters as the original Aeropress. It also holds the same amount of ground coffee as the original AeroPress and functions in the same way, but its maximum water capacity is 8 ounces instead of 10 ounces, which means that its maximum yield is slightly smaller.

This model brewed twice as much coffee as the original AeroPress, for a total of about 20 ounces of strong coffee. Unlike smaller models that are meant to brew directly into a single-serving mug, this model comes with a large shatterproof carafe. The larger volume aside, it employs the same mechanism to extract coffee, where you assemble the parts, add coffee and hot water to the brew chamber, stir, and press down the plunger. When you position the brew basket and plunger on top of the carafe, the top of the model is about 24 inches above the counter. For shorter testers, it was challenging to create enough leverage when pressing straight down on the plunger. The edges of its irregularly shaped carafe were a bit difficult to clean. It’s a good option for those who want to make more than one serving of Aeropress coffee at a time.

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This little pump-style espresso maker brewed full-bodied, rich espresso with a thin crema that we loved. Unfortunately, we didn’t like using it. Strangely, it wasn't easy to rest on a mug, as its user manual had suggested. The pump was located on the side, and we had to hold the device up in the air with one hand while pumping with the other hand to produce pressure. It was hard to aim the espresso into the mug, and it often splashed onto the countertop around our mug. It’s cleverly designed for compact storage: All the pieces fit inside the device for storage, so it’s no bigger than a small mug when not in use. Its accessories were well-made and useful, especially the sturdy metal tamper.

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We managed to make rich, dense, and full-bodied espresso with this model after adjusting the weight of the ground coffee from the amount recommended in the instruction manual. It was then straightforward to use. To pull a shot, you insert the portafilter into the device, add hot water, secure the piston on top of it, and press down the lever. A pressure gauge helpfully indicated how much pressure we were generating; we were impressed to see that we reached the 9 bars of pressure required to brew genuine espresso. Although the brew basket is narrow, the enclosed dosing cup helped us add coffee grinds without making a mess. The sturdy metal tamper made it easy to pack the finely ground coffee into an even layer. The espresso was strong and rich, with a classic, espresso-style velvety texture, but it took trial and error to achieve those results. This model has just one lever, which attaches at the back and arcs over the top. When we pressed down on the lever, the model felt off-balance and unstable. There were too many small parts, including the tiny disk that functioned as a basket filter, which was easy to lose

This model was relatively easy to use and brewed smooth but thinly textured espresso after a few rounds of trial and error. The espresso had a thin layer of crema. After inserting the portafilter, we lifted the two levers slowly and then pressed them down by applying equal amounts of pressure. We faced some resistance when handling the levers, which was expected. However, the narrow, lightweight base made maneuvering more precarious. We noticed that a large amount of water remained in the portafilter after we pulled the shot of espresso, resulting in a slightly lower yield than we anticipated. The remaining water splashed and became a mess to clean once we unscrewed the portafilter from the base.

This lightweight manual lever-style espresso maker made roasty and dark espresso that was viscous. It came with two portafilters, one bottomless and the other a flow-control portafilter. The latter has a valve at the bottom that allows users to manually adjust the pressure needed, which helps novices kick-start the learning process. The flow-control portafilter helped pull shots more easily, but it was hard to clean the valve because we had to take every small piece apart and clean each piece individually to make sure no residual coffee remained. The bottomless portafilter took a little more finagling to dial in the coffee but, once we figured out the right amount and correct grind size, it was easy to use. Though the two-legged base of the lever can be attached to a circular plastic base, it wobbled off base and felt unstable when we exerted a lot of force on it. The tamper was plastic, requiring us to tamp more than twice as hard as some other models to make the coffee as compact as possible.

This portable espresso maker was compact. It had the smallest brew basket in the lineup, so it was nearly impossible to load the grinds without spilling. There’s a pressure valve underneath the brew basket that we could tighten or loosen to build up or decrease the pressure to brew the espresso. Then, we repeatedly pushed down the pump on the top of the model until we couldn’t feel the resistance anymore. Though the espresso had a bit of crema, the espresso was harsh-tasting and had noticeable grinds. The device’s plastic scoop, which also doubled as a tamper, was tiny and reminded us of something from a dollhouse; transferring coffee grinds and using it as a tamper were incredibly difficult. Cleaning this model was a hassle because there were too many tiny pieces, including the metal filter, the brew basket, and the pressure valve. Each time we took apart the model to clean it, we were afraid of losing its components.