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Staresso Mini Espresso Maker

Jansie Blom
The Staresso espresso maker is an affordable manual espresso machine that makes a lovely espresso. It makes espresso with ground coffee or coffee capsules.

Highlights

Makes great espresso
Very affordable
Mechanical espresso machine
The Staresso is compact
No filters
Quick espresso
Solid PCTG plastic

Product attributes

Staresso assembled

Max width
2.15 inches (54.7mm)
Height
1.07 inches (27.2mm)
Weight
0.14 oz (4g)

Coffee scoop

Max diameter
2.81 inches (71.5mm)
Height
2.72 inches (69.2mm)
Weight
1.94 oz (55g)

Serving cup

Max diameter
2.77 inches (70.45mm)
Height
1.75 inches (44.5mm)
Weight
1.09 oz (31g)

Base

Max diameter
1.9 inches (48.5mm)
Height
1.75 inches (44.4mm)
Weight
.95 oz (27g)

Bottom cap

Max diameter
1.63 inches (41.3mm)
Height
1.22 inches (31mm)
Weight
0.74 oz (21g)

Coffee basket

Max diameter
2.29 inches (58.4mm)
Height
3.97 inches (101mm)
Weight
3.95 oz (112g)

Water chamber

Max diameter
2.36 inches (60mm)
Height (pump button down)
3.58 inches (91mm)
Height (pump button up)
5.01 inches (127.3mm)
Weight
2.47 oz (70g)

Pump

Max diameter
2.81 inches (71.5mm)
Height (with cup holder, pump button up)
9.45 inches (240mm)
Height (without cup holder, pump button down
5.41 inches (137.5mm)
Height (without cup holder)
6.88 inches (175mm)
Weight
15.9 oz (451g)
Material (cups)
High boron silicon tempered glass
Material (plastic parts)
PCTG (Bisphenol A free)
Material (metal parts)
Food grade 304 stainless steel
Working pressure
15 to 20 bar

Galleries

In the box

The Staresso package contains

How to make an espresso

An espresso requires six to ten grams of fine coffee grounds, tamped into a portafilter basket through which you force 30ml to 45ml of water with a temperature of 90 degrees Celsius (194 Fahrenheit) at nine bars of pressure for 30 seconds.

Milk espresso (Milkpresso?)

I tried to make a milkpresso with the Staresso. I did a similar thing with the AeroPress; a coffee made with heated milk only.

Nespresso

You can use Nespresso style capsules in the Staresso.

Cold brew

Can the Staresso make a cold brew?

How to clean

Follow these steps to clean your Staresso. Work over a kitchen sink; the Staresso is messy.

The Staresso is an outstanding portable mini espresso maker. Want to make barista-quality espresso in your kitchen without breaking the bank on an espresso machine? The Staresso’s for you. It lets you make a decent espresso in under five minutes. And it saves you up to $178 per year.

I bought a Staresso espresso machine. I gave it away, but not before testing it well.

It’s an amazing espresso maker. Here’s why…

Makes great espresso

Before we get into anything else, let me tell you that the Staresso makes a lovely espresso.

The AeroPress is my go-to coffee maker (AeroPress review). But the AeroPress, despite claims, cannot make espresso.

The Staresso excels at making espresso.

Now, I’m not a qualified barista. But you don’t need a qualified barista to tell you when coffee is good. This tool makes good coffee. Besides, I’m appealing to the man in the street.

Affordable

For $60 you’ll enjoy cup after cup of excellent espresso.

That’s cheap, considering the Staresso doesn’t use filters. You buy the machine and pump out espressos for months or years to come.

The Staresso comes with parts that’ll wear out, but they’ll last longer.

One of the world’s largest coffee chains—we’ll call them Siriusdollar—sells a single espresso for $1.45.

Your Staresso costs 41.38 Siriusdollar espressos.

That’s a few weeks’ worths of espressos if you drink one a day.

That’s a great deal. For the cost of 41.38 over-the-counter espressos, you can make your own espresso in the comfort of your home, any time of the day, even if there’s NO electricity.

Mechanical

The Staresso is a mechanical espresso machine.

It needs a teeny bit of prep alongside a slice of manpower to produce a cup of espresso.

Electricity gone to pot? No problem. You need hot water, ground coffee, and the Staresso.

Out camping in the middle of nowhere? Again, no problem. Pluck out the Staresso and drown your brain in caffeine.

Compact

The Staresso is small enough to qualify as a camp or travel espresso machine.

If your desire for caffeine overrides common sense, you’ll be happy to learn that the Staresso fits inside a large jacket pocket.

No filters

This is one of the best aspects of the Staresso. It doesn’t need paper filters.

I’m not saying that other espresso makers use paper filters. I don’t know. If there are espresso machines using paper filters, the Staresso is not one of them.

Quick

It takes under five minutes to make an Espresso with the Staresso. That’s from bringing cold water to a boil to putting your lips to the cup.

Solid

They make Staresso’s plastic parts from hard PCTG plastic. They make metal parts from food-grade stainless steel.

When you push down on the Staresso, it feels solid. It doesn’t wobble around.

The cup holder has a rubber layer at the bottom which stabilizes the Staresso when you use it.

Dislikes

The Staresso, like most products, comes with drawbacks, albeit negligible.

Small parts

The Staresso contains plenty of small parts, including o-rings.

If you lose one of those parts, the Staresso is useless.

Plastic and glass

I wouldn’t want to drop the Staresso. On one hand, you have hard plastic parts, on the other, two glass cups.

The Staresso will give you years of delicious espresso, provided you look after it.

When you pack the Staresso, don’t put it under pressure. If you take it along when you go camping, pack it in the kitchen box on top of other items.

They can’t use tougher plastic for the Staresso. The system’s working requires a rigid design. A tougher plastic might be flexible, but it would ruin the manual pump action.

Interrupted pressure

Unlike a standard electrical espresso maker, the Staresso doesn’t provide constant pressure.

Baristas will say that you must force water through the coffee at a constant pressure of nine bars for 30 seconds.

It’s hard to get the pressure consistent with a hand pump.

This would only bother true coffee snobs. The taste of  Staresso’s espresso more than makes up for the lack of consistent pressure.

Price

You can buy the Staresso online for ~$60.

Cost of espresso

Let’s calculate the cost of an espresso made with the Staresso.

We’ll work on 365 espressos, one per day for a year.

We’ll cost water and electricity at $0.40 per cup.

You buy Death Wish coffee. It costs $1.25 per ounce ($0.04 per gram).

The Staresso makes a single espresso since the coffee basket takes ten grams of ground coffee.

You don’t add sugar or milk.

Cost of a Staresso espresso:

Water & Electricity (per cup): $0.40.
10 grams of Death Wish coffee: $0.40.
Staresso device (per cup, if it lasts only a year): $0.16.
Total: $0.96.

It costs $0.96 for a Staresso espresso. Remember, it’s Death Wish coffee. It’s an expensive brand.

365 cups of Siriusdollar espressos put you back $529.25.

365 cups of Staresso Death Wish espressos put you back $350.40.

Using the Staresso saves you $178.85 per year.

Availability

The Staresso ships to various countries.

If the online store you buy from doesn’t ship the Staresso to your location, check out Aramex Global Shopper.

Warranty

I emailed Staresso from the email address I found on their site.

At first, the email address, info@staresso.com, didn’t work. A second message to that same address—from another email address—went through, and Amy from Staresso responded with…

We have 12 months warranty.  In some case we will offer FOC parts to send you from China, but some case you need to pay for the freight, we can offer you part.

In the box

The Staresso package contains:

  • Pump.
  • Water chamber.
  • Coffee basket.
  • Bottom cap.
  • Base.
  • Serving cups (2 of).
    • They look like large tot glasses.
  • Serving cup holder.
  • Coffee scoop.
  • Cleaning tool.
  • Spare o-ring.
  • User manual.

How to make an espresso

An espresso requires six to ten grams of fine coffee grounds, tamped into a portafilter basket through which you force 30ml to 45ml of water with a temperature of 90 degrees Celsius (194 Fahrenheit) at nine bars of pressure for 30 seconds.

The Staresso takes up to 80ml of water. It has two marks on the inside of the water chamber, one for a single shot of espresso, and one for a double shot. Can it make a double shot? I share that info further down below.

Follow these 15 steps to a delicious single espresso:

  1. Place the Staresso cup into the cup holder.
  2. Screw the base onto the cup holder.
  3. Fill the scoop with coffee.
  4. Pour the coffee from the scoop into the coffee basket.
  5. Tamp the coffee with the coffee scoop.
    • There should be ten grams of coffee inside the basket.
  6. Drop the coffee basket into the bottom cap.
  7. Screw the water chamber onto the bottom cap.
  8. Place the water chamber and bottom cap onto the cup holder.
  9. Heat water to 90 degrees Celsius in a kettle.
    • If you don’t have a variable temperature kettle, boil as usual.
  10. Fill the water chamber with 50 ml (up to the “One” mark).
  11. Screw the pump onto the water chamber.
  12. Pump the Staresso until all water is transferred from the water chamber into the cup.
  13. Remove the top section from the cup holder.
  14. Unscrew the Base from the cup holder.
  15. Remove the cup and enjoy your espresso.

Double espresso

A double espresso requires 15 grams of fine coffee grounds, tamped into a portafilter basket through which you force 60ml to 90ml of water with a temperature of 90 degrees Celsius (194 Fahrenheit) at nine bars of pressure for 30 seconds.

The Staresso’s water chamber allows for enough water to make a double espresso, however…

The coffee basket takes only ten grams of coffee.

The Staresso can’t make a double espresso.

Grind level

The Staresso uses an espresso grind.

We buy a house blend from Infood Coffee Society in Jeffrey’s Bay. I always ask for an AeroPress grind.

When I asked the baristas at Coffee Society to grind some of the coffee for an espresso machine, they said there’s no difference between an espresso grind and an AeroPress grind.

So if you own an AeroPress, you’re sorted for coffee grounds.

How long it takes

It takes me four minutes and 55 seconds to conjure an espresso with the Staresso.

That’s from boiling a cold kettle to taking the first sip.

I boiled 50,721fl oz (1.5l) of water for the experiment. It’s a full kettle of water.

It’s quicker to make an espresso with the Staresso than it is to make a coffee with the AeroPress.

Milk espresso (Milkpresso?)

I tried to make a milkpresso with the Staresso. I did a similar thing with AeroPress; a coffee made with heated milk only.

For this test, I heated full cream milk to 70 degrees Celsius (158 Fahrenheit) in a stainless steel jug and used it in the Staresso, instead of water.

It didn’t work well. It tasted horrible. If you water it down it’ll taste better, but then you might as well make a normal espresso and add milk afterward.

The Staresso struggled to get the milk through. The pressure was too much. This happened with the AeroPress too, when I made milk coffee with it.

Stick to using the Staresso for standard espressos.

Nespresso

You can use Nespresso-style capsules in the Staresso.

One of our favorite coffee roasters, Mastertons Coffee, makes a Nespresso-style coffee capsule. We bought some of them to test in the Staresso.

Follow these steps to make Nespresso-style coffee with the Staresso.

  1. Place the Staresso cup into the cup holder.
  2. Screw the base onto the cup holder.
  3. Place a capsule into the coffee basket.
  4. Drop the coffee basket into the bottom cap.
  5. Stab three holes into the bottom of the capsule.
    1. Use the back of the Staresso cleaning brush or a pocket knife.
  6. Screw the water chamber onto the bottom cap.
  7. Place the water chamber and bottom cap onto the cup holder.
  8. Heat water to 90 degrees Celsius in a kettle.
    • If you don’t have a variable temperature kettle, boil as usual.
  9. Fill the water chamber with 50 ml (up to the “One” mark).
  10. Screw the pump onto the water chamber.
  11. Pump the Staresso until all water is transferred from the water chamber into the cup.
  12. Remove the top section from the cup holder.
  13. Unscrew the Base from the cup holder.
  14. Remove the cup and enjoy your espresso.

So what’s it taste like?

Not bad, but I prefer using coffee grounds.

Cold brew

Can the Staresso make a cold brew?

No, it can’t. Not a decent one, in any case.

A cold brew needs time. It doesn’t happen in minutes. Part of the magic of a cold brew is the time involved in making it.

For this test, I used the Staresso as advised, but instead of using boiled water, I used water with a temperature of 23 degrees Celsius.

It tasted weak. It’s far from a proper cold brew.

How to clean

Follow these steps to clean your Staresso. Work over a kitchen sink; the Staresso is messy.

  1. Unscrew the pump from the water chamber.
  2. Unscrew the bottom cap from the water chamber.
  3. Remove the coffee basket from the bottom cap.
  4. Chuck the used coffee into the bin.
    • Make sure you don’t throw away the o-ring or loose plastic part inside the coffee basket.
  5. Rinse everything under hot or cold running water.
  6. Use the tiny Staresso brush to loosen coffee that’s stuck inside any of the parts.

Dishwasher safe?

I wouldn’t wash the Staresso in a dishwasher. There are too many small parts that might come loose.

Sources

Final thoughts

If you’re looking for a premium portable espresso maker at a great price, you need the Staresso.

It makes a delicious espresso. The fact that a friend wanted to buy my Staresso after having tasted an espresso made with it (despite him owning a grand electric espresso machine), testifies that this is the real deal.

It was cheap. Consider for a moment what an electric espresso maker puts you back. And once you have one, I wish you the best in sorting out technical issues.

It’s small. The Staresso is small enough to take along when you travel or go camping. Start your morning with a caffeine kick to the head, no matter where you are.

It’s mechanical. No electricity is needed. If you have hot water, coffee grounds, and the Staresso, you have an espresso.

It’s solid. The Staresso’s low price tag might have you believe it’s a low-quality product. That’s not the case. The Staresso’s parts are made from high-quality materials. It’s sturdy while you use it, and the rubber base makes it stand firm on a countertop.

It’s quick. In under five minutes, you have a delicious espresso.

The Staresso is a winner. I recommend it.

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