WACACO Picopresso Portable Coffee Maker Pro-level with Protective Case

I bought this espresso maker to make Americanos with. As everyone says, getting the grind right is the best way to ensure this works correctly. I found a local roaster that has great roasts and will grind all the way to Turkish (dust). I’ve found that espresso grind is just right. I almost returned it before trying a better grind and roast for it. Now I crave its output (is that a good thing?). In comparison to an Aeropress it takes about the same time to prep. However, it’s easily double the work to clean. It does provide a much stronger brew though. I’ve found for what I’m used to a much longer steep time (pump 10x wait ~2 minutes) yields a much stronger Americano and one that is worthy of spending the extra cleaning time over an Aeropress. It’s extremely well built and has a premium look and feel to it. I chose the Picopresso over the less expensive and smaller Minipresso GR2 because of the larger basket. One Aeropress scoop (9g) is perfect for my needs. The basket can hold up to 18g but I find that too much caffeine for the roast I’m using. However I could double the water used to water it down and nurse it for much longer than just breakfast. I find that the additional all metal stand, not included, to be of great help when pulling. The mirror is a nice touch so you can easily see how well the flow is moving. It breaks apart to flatten for travel. I’m not that much of a snob to care about weighing grounds and water. I find that it doesn’t make much of a noticeable difference if you’re used to an Americano. Sacrilege, I know. I wouldn’t call it easy to use. It takes work to put together but it’s nothing that wouldn’t keep you from using it once you’ve tasted how well it makes espresso. It really does provide an amazing quality shot for the price and it takes up almost no room (high partner approval factor).

This is simply an amazing portable espresso maker. Actually, it's just a very good espresso maker, and I use it daily, at home or out (I just don't pack it up at home). It makes very good espresso, it is easy to clean (more to that later), and it takes up very little space. I've long recovered its cost by not drinking Starbucks latte for about a month or so, and I am pulling much better and consistent espresso shots from this machine than take outs. It also makes better espresso than my other manual espresso machine (a Flair Neo Flex), probably because the Picopresso has a full-sized basket. That said, there are a couple small issues: 1. There are a lot of parts to keep track of during the process of making a shot. Far more complicated than a level-style espresso maker, and a bit harder to clean. 2. The funnel and stirring stick is tiny (understandable for portability). I always, 100% spill some coffee grounds every time I use it. I have to use something to catch the grounds to not send them all over my floor. 3. When pouring boiling water into the body, the water line is very close to full, so there's a close call when I almost burned myself because it spilled. I wasn't very sure of how long a pressure vessel made of plastic and is in constant contact of boiling water would hold up in time, but for me it's fine. I've recovered my cost several times over. There's a very occasional dripping leak from the piston when I pressurize it, but it never caused an issue.

For years we have wished for a portable espresso maker that we could use while camping on river trips. So when we discovered the Picopresso we had to try it. We have now used it on two trips totaling 7 days as well as doing many test shots at home. For us this appliance lives up to its promise, producing coffee on a par with our very good Gaggia countertop machine with a practical amount of effort. The Picopresso has many parts and pieces. All of the key parts have excellent fit and finish with a very solid and robust feel that promises long useful life. The exceptions to this are the rubber caps for the bottom of the machine which we find difficult to attach. Fortunately they are not required so we leave them at home along with the brush and stirring tool which we also do not use. The design of the funnel and tamper is very clever and helps to minimize mess while making it easy to load just the right amount of coffee into the basket. It took some experimenting before we found the right fineness of grind to give good results. With the right grind and a modest amount of packing force the Picopresso produces thick brown crema with sublime nutty flavor. One can feel the pressure being developed in the force of the pump strokes. The best results seem to come when the pressure is modest at the moment the first drops emerge and then builds as the grounds wet and (presumably) expand, rising to the point where each pump stroke takes considerable strength. Using the Picopresso in a camp setting is more complicated and messy than making drip coffee. There are a lot of parts to clean up and the machine dribbles left-over coffee after the extraction is complete. With practice we have found ways of minimizing all of that and for us the results are worth the extra effort. We will be taking it on all of our future trips!

​I was honestly amazed by the extraction quality of the Picopresso! When paired with fresh beans and properly frothed milk (I even used fresh farm milk in the video), it pulls a shot that easily rivals commercial espresso machines. ​The body, crema, and clarity of the espresso are top-tier. Extremely portable, durable, and yields incredible results if you get your grind size right. ​Check out the short video below to see the extraction and the final Flat White in action! Highly recommended for any home barista or traveler.

PURPOSE: This product serves a niche but growing market: the espresso aficionado (such as myself) who doesn't want to give up life's simple luxuries while on the trail (I am an avid backpacker who doesn't mind the extra weight of a portable espresso machine+grinder+beans) or back home visiting the folks in a town where the "espresso" most coffee shops serve is either burnt-tasting, sour, or otherwise completely over-/under-extracted. Note: YOU WILL NEED PRACTICE AND PATIENCE TO DIAL IN YOUR SHOT. FLAVOR: This handy little gadget will absolutely NOT be replacing my Breville Barista Express (plus associated accessories) anytime soon, however it definitely (as mentioned above) can make much better espresso than is available when I am away from home. I prefer a ristretto (1:1 ratio) that comes out in 25-27s on my Barista Express but that is not possible with this considering the pressure/piston limitations on this device, so I have to settle for a slightly coarser grind setting and longer shot. GRIND SETTING: I used it in conjunction with the 1Z-Presso K-Max manual grinder. If anyone else has this combo I recommend a grind setting of between 2.75-3.00 for an input of 18g medium-dark roasted beans (you're welcome - this took me many frustrating attempts to figure out). BUILD QUALITY/USABILITY: This thing seems to be built with very high quality materials - not as good as those of a $500+ home espresso machine but pretty close. Love that it comes with a case as well. Certain things are mildly-moderately frustrating but overall this thing is pretty well built: - Piston mechanism digs into the hand a bit and is slightly difficult to balance the device over a cup while pressing as it requires quite a push once pressure has built up. - O ring on the water reservoir side is a bit difficult to get back into place after removing. - I cannot stress enough the two things that gave me the biggest headache while dialing in: DO NOT TAMP HARD OR GRIND TOO FINE. (Yes I know...hard to define what this really means..) More on this below.. TROUBLESHOOTING: This is where I felt the need to dock a star (and if it weren't for the fact that there is no other device this portable that produces this level of espresso quality, I would probably have docked two). If you tamp too hard or grind too fine, the pressure required to extract will be too high and it will become near impossible to obtain your shot. The device will subsequently seize up, and you will have to wait 10-30 minutes for it to slowly release before you can unscrew the portafilter. This is NOT your typical home espresso machine, and the tamping should feel relatively very gentle (you may barely start to see the imprint of the rings in the puck). As they note in the manual, you keep the dosing funnel on while tamping. Even with the funnel in place while tamping however, if you grind too fine you will still have these issues. My advice is to dial in before you're stuck on the trail not knowing what to do, and just be patient and allow it to depressurize if this happens. The most annoying part here is that they don't say ANYTHING about this in the manual other than mentioning the automatic depressurizing valve in the water reservoir. When the device seized up, I tried opening this valve further using the distributor tool and I believe this hastened the process slightly, but it still took a long time before I could unscrew the portafilter. SUMMARY: Sorry this is so long but I felt it was important to mention these things. Definitely a step up from the Nanopresso and recommend purchasing this if you want a portable espresso machine, as long as you are willing to put up with the initial frustration of figuring out how to use it properly.

This machine is awesome! Totally blown away. I mentioned in the catch line that it isn’t stand alone. Why? Well-Opinion commentary here: To do this correctly you will need a scale, a great mill, and (obviously) a kettle. Whole beans-dark roast. So, that cuts down on portability for me. Although, of itself, the machine is small and portable. What else? So… There are MANY parts. All well machined and finished. Perfectly so, in fact. But, all the same, there are many parts that all interrelate. If my littles were to find this, I can see it losing some vital parts quickly, such as the distribution tool, the funnel ring, or any of the protective rubber caps. Even the tamper. All of the parts interrelate, as I mentioned. You could use non proprietary tools to get the job done, but the supplied ones were designed to fit. Why did I buy this? I bought this to keep at home in the kitchen for me time/self-care time/art of making a good shot totally manually (along with all my other ways to make coffee in small batches). I bought this as a person who has reduced caffeine intake to the bare minimum of enjoying the making of/brewing of/taste over quantity experiences. I won’t be making me and the missus each a shot to have at the same time. I won’t be using it more than two times in one setting. It’s just to make for me because anything else would be impractical from a time perspective. Why? It takes a while to get it working. Prep. Timing. Pre-warming. Clean up. I bought this for the ritual of making a double shot with great crema. A task that it performs perfectly. The machine does it beautifully. I can’t believe the thought that went into this design and the care with which it is produced. First rate. If you are thinking you are trotting off on the PCT with this and will have great espresso every morning…doable. Maybe. Brave. Cleanup will be…no. Wait. You could do it. It’s durable. Cleanable. Mostly completely breaks down (except for pump internals). Would just need to have some extra components. But would you? I think Illy would work…the grounds are fine enough. Recommend experimenting a bit. You could maybe get away without the grinder and scale. But for me. 7 minutes of prep (going slow-weighing/grinding). 3-4 minutes of action during brewing (pour, prime, empty, fill, pre-extract, extract), and 10 minutes of cleanup for a total of 20 minutes-TOTALLY WORTH IT! Just not on the road or trail (surely, this says more about me than the picopresso). Love this machine. Yes, it performs and feels just like what I expected for the cost. The manufacturer didn’t cut corners. Use premium, well roasted whole beans. Grind them ultra fine (don’t go as far as Turkish coffee fine, though). Weigh it out. Use filtered water. Pump at the right interval and YOU WIN. Payton

I have been a loyal Wacaco Nanopresso user for years and always loved it. But the Picopresso is an ABSOLUTE game-changer. It is night and day compared to its predecessor — the Nanopresso feels like a toy now! First of all, the unboxing experience is incredible. It arrives packed like a luxury watch, and every single part feels solid, premium, and extremely well-made. As for the coffee — WOW! Even using average, store-bought beans on my first couple of tries, the espresso came out incredibly rich, dense, and complex. The flavor profile is so clean and vivid, it easily beats most local coffee shops. If you are a true espresso lover who travels, don't hesitate. This device is worth every single penny. HIGHLY recommended!

To give this thing a fair shake - its fine. It makes decent coffee. Nice unboxing experience. All the metal pieces are well machined and the plastic ones are high quality with tight tolerances. It is easy enough to use but maybe finicky (more on that in a moment). It fits together well and packs up great for travel. The problem is that its in the sphere of espresso, and in particular marketed (Especially on places like YouTube) to specialty coffee enthusiast. It makes good coffee, but I struggle with the idea of calling it espresso. I know that by all technical definitions it is espresso, but it lacks a lot of the texture and taste of espresso. Over a day of messing around with it, shots consistently had a mouthfeel between an AeroPress and a moka pot. in truth i prefer the moka pot. Despite dialing in grind and distribution on my mignon silenzio shots were consistently weak compared to a gcp. There was no crema to speak of either. While the coffee was good (good coffee in= good coffee out) it did not deliver what I was after. I bought this looking for a good travel espresso machine. Its okay, and in truth if i had spend $50 less on it I might have been happy. But real human I-worked-for-this-money dollars, I would have rathered a $20 moka pot. Additionally, its small size means that while you can fit 18g into the portafilter basket, you can only barely fit that much water into it making the end of the shot constantly a mess. This device lives in a no-mans-land between an AeroPress and Flair. Slightly richer and deeper than an AeroPress, and about halfway to a Flair. But at 3-4x the cost of an AeroPress (which I was intending it to replace), you are not getting a 3-4x closer to quality espresso. The biggest problem here is the expectation. If it was marketed as a high quality robust premium AeroPress competitor, I could see it having a logical value. If it is marketed as a cheaper more portable espresso maker like the flair, it falls very very far short. In the end if you are looking for the second it is not worth it. If you are looking for the first it may be worth it. ---Also entirely a side note, all the silicon (and there is a lot in this thing) smells so new that the chemically smell is overwhelming and I spent a lot of time just trying to clean it off without really succeeding. id recommend the company try to air it out a bit before they sell it.

Ich schreibe normalerweise kaum Produktbewertungen, aber die Picopresso hat mich so überzeugt, dass ich meine Erfahrungen teilen möchte – gerade für alle, die (so wie ich) mit teuren „Profi-Espressomaschinen“ enttäuscht wurden. Zuerst kurz zu meinem Hintergrund: Ich bin neu in der Barista-Welt, habe mich aber intensiv eingelesen, um „die beste Espressomaschine zum kleinsten Preis“ zu finden. Nach viel Recherche habe ich mir die Gaggia Classic E24 (neue Version) gekauft, zusammen mit einer MiiCoffee DF54 Mühle, einem 9bar-OPV-Federkit, einem hochwertigen Tamper, IMS-Duschsieb und dem nötigen Wissen zu Extraktionsraten, Mahlgraden und Temperatursurfen. Mit Spitzenbohnen aus einer lokalen Rösterei (2/3 Arabica, 1/3 Robusta) dachte ich: das perfekte Setup! Die Realität: Nach einer Woche voller Versuche, 1 kg edelster Bohnen und jeder Menge Chaos in der Küche (meine Frau war kurz vorm Ausflippen) hatte ich nicht ein einziges Mal einen „Sweet Spot“. Entweder zu bitter (überextrahiert) oder sauer (unterextrahiert). Selbst Tipps von Profi-Baristas halfen nichts. Frustriert habe ich schließlich alles zurückgeschickt. Eigentlich wollte ich das Thema Espresso abhaken – aber der Wunsch nach gutem Kaffee ließ mich nicht los. Bei meinen weiteren Recherchen stieß ich auf die Picopresso – „die kleinste Espressomaschine der Welt“. Nach vielen Videos und Erfahrungsberichten habe ich es gewagt und folgendes Setup bestellt: • TIMECORE Chestnut C3 ESP Pro Mühle • Wacaco Picopresso mit Sleeves • Maestri House Mini-Waage Mit denselben Bohnen wie zuvor, gemahlen auf 0.9, die Picopresso wie empfohlen mit heißem Wasser vorgewärmt und 17g in/36g out – und siehe da: Schon beim zweiten Versuch ein perfekter Espresso! Viel Crema, tolle Balance, keinerlei Bitterkeit, sondern einfach ein starker, runder Espresso, den man dieser winzigen Maschine niemals zutrauen würde. Fazit: Die Picopresso hat mich begeistert. Sie ist unkomplizierter, zuverlässiger und liefert ein besseres Ergebnis als mein deutlich teureres Gaggia-Setup. Für alle, die zu Hause oder unterwegs wirklich ausgezeichneten und hammer -starken Espresso möchten, ohne in ein und teures System einzusteigen: Unbedingt ausprobieren! Ihr werdet es bestimmt nicht bereuen!

以前似たようなポンプ式のものを使っていましたが、入れる粉の量やタンピングの圧等探りながら作る必要があり上手くいきませんでした。 この商品では、粉の量(16~18g)さえ測って入れれば、タンピング(付属されています）もちょうど良い圧にできるようになっていて、すでに10回以上使いましたが失敗したことがありません。 良い買い物をしました。

I have been using picopresso for some months, it works great! It is important to have the ground coffee fine enough and using a scale to measure the espresso weight. I also use the picopresso gauge to measure the pressure. It helped me significantly to correct myself.

Petite machine étonnante, surtout pour un débutant dans le domaine du café 'manuel'. Après une AeroPress qui tient toutes ses promesses, le Picopresso me faisait peur au départ. Mais il s'avère que c'est assez facile d'obtenir un café avec beaucoup d'arome, même avec de la Lavazza Barista pré-moulue. Avec un moulin à café Timemore C3, on peut varier le résultat en fonction du réglage (5 à 7 clics pour plus ou moins de mousse). Enfin - on peut obtenir un maximum de 45 ml de café, ça reste assez serré. J'utilise le protocole simple du manuel avec 8-10 pressions au départ, 10-15 secondes d'attente et ensuite des préssions régulieres pour environ 30-40 secondes. 16g de café est optimal pour mon gout. Je pré-chauffe le corps en laissant baigner dans de l'eau bouillante pour 2 minutes. Pour conclure, on n'est pas obligé d'être des experts pour obtenir du bon café, mais le petit volume obtenu peut être surprenant. Mise à jour après quelques semaines d'utilisation: le pré-chauffage du corps de Picopresso est essentiel pour éviter d'avoir un café mal extrait et acide. J'ai aussi remplacé le panier d'origine avec un à double paroi, pressurisé, qui est très efficace avec un café qu'on achète déjà moulu. Le seul problème c'est que le panier pressurisé de 51 mm demande aussi un petit entonnoir spécifique car celui d'origine n'est pas compatible. Enfin, j'ai aussi acheté un outil pour mélanger le café avec des aiguilles plus fine que le simple dispositif du Picopresso, mais ça ne vaut pas le coup. Mise à jour 2: Attention - seulement un panier pressurisé sur trois a été compatible avec le picopresso - par exemple le modèle qui a une base en plastique à trois vis ne rentre pas correctement dans le porte-filtre. Un autre panier était trop large en haut... Mise à jour 3: après plusieurs mois d'utilisation, une fois par jour tous les jours, quelques constats. Finalement, j'utilise la machine avec le panier d'origine et j'en suis très content. La forme du panier permet d'enlever très facilement le marc du café. La seule petite difficulté que je trouve est de savoir quel réglage utiliser pour la finesse de la poudre moulue quand on change de café. On arrive avec le temps à sentir si c'est trop fin (difficile ou impossible à pomper) ou trop grossier (pompage sans opposition, trop rapide). Si on ne change pas de marque de café, cette difficulté n'existe pas. Je chauffe aussi la piece intermediaire (douchette) en la plongeant dans l'eau bouillante. Je n'utilise plus le couvercle supérieur du réservoir d'eau - son filetage n'est pas bien fait, mais ce couvercle ne sert que pour éviter une projection d'eau brulante si la pression est excessive. Avec l'expérience, j'obtiens à chaque fois un excellent café, qui dépend essentiellement de la qualité de la matière première.

Macchina per espresso bellissima e ben fatta, difficile da usare, non adatta per fare un caffè “al volo” perchè serve tempo, a differenza della sorella minore Nanopresso. Quì bisogna essere minuziosi in ogni passaggio, azzeccare il tipo di caffè, la quantità, la giusta macinatura, la temperatura dell’acqua adatta e la pressione per effettuare la giusta estrazione. Per fare un espresso come si deve, cioè con tanto di crema, ho impiegato 2 settimane di prove e 200 grammi di caffè. È vero si che per un caffè perfetto e cremoso bisogna usare caffè di qualità alta e macinati ovviamente da espresso. Non è vero invece che è bisogna per forza usare un grinder. Ovviamente se lo si usa è meglio, ma dalle mie prove effettuate basta farsi macinare del caffè (preferibilmente a tostatura media) dalla torrefazione per poi usarlo al al bisogno. Inutile dire che il caffè deve essere fresco. P.s. Il portafiltro da 18 gr. in dotazione fa un caffè ristretto doppio, ho dovuto optare per il portafiltro da 12 gr. Che è più semplice da gestire, si puó fare sia un caffè singolo che un caffè lungo, e la quantità di caffeina è meglio tollerata da me.