I’ve been eyeing this machine for a while since my goal is to really control my press just like I have with the Aero Press. Still haven’t decided if this is a worthwhile investment.
I love my Flair because each pull is unique and when the pull is great it’s some of the best ever. If you prefer consistency, may not be for you.
My personality gives me a lot of pleasure in tinkering and control so I love being completely hands on with the Flair. You will pull some of the best shots you’ve ever had when you get it dialed in. You will also have many fails. Although once you get the basic techniques down the fails are not undrinkable.
But because I enjoy this totally hand-crafted approach I even enjoy my fails. It’s like jazz improvisation.
I apologize, as I’ve wandered in from the wider web… but could someone provide some documentation on these things? Based on your comments, I’m intrigued but I can’t find an indepth description of its function and features beyond the blurbs I’ve found on Google.
Flair is a company that makes manual espresso machines, like the one in this post. In a regular or “semi-automatic” espresso machine like you’d find in a nice cafe, the machine heats the water and pushes the water through the coffee at high pressures. In manual espresso machines, you add the hot water yourself then use the lever to generate the pressure manually. This gives you lots of control over how the espresso is brewed at the cost of more work/effort to make your morning coffee. Some semi automatic machines do also have features to vary temp and pressure, but usually these are much more expensive ~2-3k vs ~$100-500. Another important difference is almost all semi automatic machines have the ability to steam milk, which is important if you plan to make lattes etc
EDIT
I also have a robot and can’t vouch for it highly enough.
Came from aeropress like OP, and I’ve found it very similar to the aeropress in terms of flexibility.
The only downside for me is the effort required in temp management to do really light roasts. But I assume this would be the same with the original flair.
I had the flair signature that i later upgraded to flair pro2 (with extra “stuff” to minimize how long it would take to make 2 espressos) and I sold it…
…to buy a flair 58.
All the flair machines are great. The 58 with the electrical heating element and pressure gauge is the best, of course. It’s also the priciest. The rest are definitely usable.
Other than using a relatively standard size portafilter and more traditional setup with a handle, the 58 with the electrical heating element also had an easier (and thus more reproducible) workflow. Can go “from zero to espresso” in 8-10 minutes.
You’re generally going to have to get a capable grinder (read: half decent burr grinder with sufficiently fine adjustments… plan on around $200 for electrical. Less for a manual.)… one of the flair models with a pressurized or flow control basket can probably produce decent results with a lower end burr grinder or even a blade grinder, but it’s not gonna be as good as what you get from a good grinder and non pressurized/straight wall basket.
You’re also going to need a source of hot water. I assume if you’re currently making aeropress, you have one. Depending on which flair model you’re considering, you may want to preheat the basket… which means immersing it in your hot water source or putting it somehow over top of the hot water to heat up by steam.
Other than that, the flair comes with usable tools (tamper) but you may eventually want nicer ones. Super recommend getting the pressure gauge for the flair too. It helps a lot in having a repeatable method of pulling a shot.
As for how good the espresso is? It’s really good. Once you really know what you’re doing, you can absolutely be making the best espresso you’ve ever had with it. The full control over pressure profile, temperature, dose size, basically every variable is make it great. These are the same things that make the aeropress great… except the aeropress can’t hit as high pressures and so can’t actually make espresso.
Fully recommend, but also fully recommend that you get the most expensive one that fits your budget.
Awesome. Yeah what I really like is the portable aspects of it. Since I’m so used to aero press this felt like the next step forward. Does the grind consistency have to be fine grain everytime? I have a grinder that makes it pretty fine but I’m curious if a more expensive grinder have better results.
It’ll depend on your coffee beans nearly entirely. Espresso is way harder to dial in than other types of coffee so having a consistent grinder capable of making very small changes in the grind size makes the process much much easier.
Try the one you have now, but consider getting something with tiny steps like the 1Zpresso J-Max. I use that with my flair all the time. The learning curve is steep, but worth it.
Really interested in a flair 58 so I’m glad to hear the experience is so good, thank you!
Glad I could help!
I would add one thing to my write up though. It’s not nearly as portable as the pro2, signature, classic, neo, etc.
Aside from the size, preheating the chamber with hot water doesn’t really work well at all. It’s still possible to pull shots but they come out pretty under extracted.
