Clearly made for people who want more than just ‘coffee from a pod’.
Created to let you manually brew your own coffee, the Flair 58 is an espresso maker that requires a bit of elbow grease. A lever-operated design lets you physically ‘pump’ your espresso, while a pressure gauge lets you know whether you’re hitting the exact 9 bars needed to make a delightfully brewed cup. The Flair 58, as its name suggests, comes outfitted with an industry-standard 58mm portafilter, allowing you to use existing filters/tampers with your device. If you’re the kind of person to obsess over the coffee they drink (as are a lot of people), the Flair 58 is the perfect addition to your coffee-making ritual, giving you the ability to make a cup that’s as artisanal and fresh as it gets!
Designer: Flair Espresso
The beauty of the Flair 58 lies in its exquisite form. Given that the espresso-maker operates manually, its form is entirely informed by its function (unlike coffee makers that can look like monolithic blocks that just magically churn out your brew). The overall design of the Flair 58 is achieved by die-casting aluminum. It bestows what I can only describe is a wonderfully retro aesthetic to the device, which, coupled with wooden accents on the basket handle and lever, looks absolutely stunning. The aluminum, complete with a black anodized finish, withstands years upon years of constant and consistent use, so your coffee tastes stunning even a decade from when you buy the Flair 58.
Even though the Flair 58 is, for the most part, a manual device… it does come with a cable that plugs into a power outlet. This helps preheat your brewing chamber to the right temperature, because since metal is inherently conductive, pouring hot water into your brewing chamber can cause its temperature to instantly drop as the room-temperature stainless steel chamber ends up ‘leeching’ some of that heat away. The Flair 58 offers 3 temperature settings to choose from. Once the brewing chamber heats up to your desired temperature, you can pour hot water into it and be sure that your brew is exactly how you want it, and consistent every time.
Using the Flair 58 is intuitive, whether you’re a novice or an expert. Once you figure out how to pack your coffee in the portafilter basket, it’s just about lowering the Flair 58’s lever and watching the brewed coffee bubble through the filter and into your espresso cup. A pressure gauge lets you know how much force you’re exerting, and the gauge even lets you know what range you need to hit for just the right espresso. The Flair 58 lets you use any standard 58mm portafilter basket, tamping & distribution tools (especially effective if you already own a few), and cleaning up after brewing your espresso is just about the same as with any other espresso machine – just empty the coffee grounds out and rinse the basket and portafilter like you normally would!
