The Ultimate Portable Espresso Coffee Kit

Making great coffee when on the go or on an adventure in the great outdoors doesn't need to be difficult, pack right, pack light and enjoy a freshly brewed espresso anywhere!

If you’re a traveller, a digital nomad,, or just a coffee lover, portable coffee kits could change your life. Portable coffee makers could help you save hundreds of dollars while you’re on the go, they’re the perfect option if you need your morning coffee no matter where in the world you are.

00:00 The Ultimate Portable Espresso Coffee Kit
1:35 Unboxing the Kit
2:36 Elephant in the room
3:19 Heating water
3:43 Grinding beans
4:52 Brewing Espresso
6:15 Steaming Milk
6:43 Pouring Latte Art
7:21 Taste Test

Basal Travel Bag:

Wacaco Picopresso:

Milk Jug Thermometer:

Rekrow Burner:

Music: YouTube Audio Library | Toe Jam

#alternativebrewing #coffee #espresso

[christianmarth]

I take a similar setup when motorcycle camping and it works well with a compact folding twig stove

[edipisreks]

I travel often to see my partner and take a Flair Pro 2, an Orphan OG or Option-O Remi, and a Bellman with me. I’m not really weight constrained (I travel with my cats!), but it packs down nicely, and the Greensboro North Carolina coffee scene is slightly improved by its presence!

[marssin]

I received my Picopresso in the first week of August and I have been doing these for four months now. Very enjoyable and delicious espresso and flat white.

[Ess_Chalk]

I also have a Picopresso and Nanofoamer in my camping kit and can vouch for their robustness but I use a Timemore Chestnut Slim Plus grinder with the E&B burrs instead. I drilled extra adjustment indents/stops to give it half click adjustments to get the Picopresso and a Kompresso before it _almost_ dialled in.
Regardless of all the fancy gear, the most useful component of my travel kit, without a doubt, has been... Paper napkins 😁

[alliecookswhat]

Love the idea of packing an espresso maker in my luggage and being able to pull a delicious shot when I'm traveling! I can't stand the drip coffee machines provided at hotels so this is definitely on my shopping list!

[GabrielGGabGattringer]

Wait. 13 clicks on 1Zpresso Q2 takes you how long to grind? Under 5 minutes? In my testing 15g of light roasted beans will take up to 30 minutes to finish grinding at 10 to 15 clicks.

[audriusa]

Thank you for excellent video! I'm torned between pico presso and flair pro 2, size and weight difference isnt a concern for me, i m more concerned about longevity, very curious how reliable pico presso will be over the years

[JakobDrok]

What about the Orphan Espresso Fixie grinder? Even less weight.

[Assenayo]

I take my Comandante and AeroPress with me anywhere. If I'm traveling out of town in my car I have the Flair in its own case.
Flying or camping? Just the AeroPress.
But I'm contemplating a Bripe.
Please tell me you plan on stocking the Bripe!

Edit: also my Flair 58 dropped this week, that was speedy delivery!

[Srv]

You definitely got me with the tasting test. :D
I am definitely aiming for an Espresso only setup and I have a K-Plus and will go for the Picopresso as well.
The burner is awesome, a portable stand for the jug would also be nice.
What would you suggest for a portable waterfilter? I don't think it is handy to carry that around.

[aryehh]

How annoying would the pump action and workflow be, as my home main espresso brewer? (aside from the slow hand grind, which I might upgrade to a Comandante. Everybody seems to rave about the pourovers from it, and that with red clix it does a good job at espresso too.)

And, is the espresso from it really better than the Bellman's?

[dzungtran]

Are you sure we can use izpress q2 to make a good espresso with picopress? How long will it take to Grindr the beans? I see people comment it takes like 30 minutes or so not 2 minutes as said? Thanks

[pooggow]

I have 1zpresso Q2 as well and I used 16 clicks. I couldn’t pump the picopresso, it was not pump-able. How did 13 clicks able to pump through?

[gustavobriceno]

Great kit! Quick question. I got my picopresso but every time I preheated with water it leaks making a mini pond. Have you had that experience?

[AliArghavan]

You can find better, cheaper grinders for espresso. But I'm really impressed with the Picopresso.

[Joabjoel]

@alternativebrewing I’m torn! Pico, or flair Pro 2? Jx pro or Kingrinder k6?

[Mina-mxvg]

Are you using 13 clicks (number 4 1/3) for the Q2, or number 13?

[kaldorhaun]

for a moment i thought alt brew lost the plot when the preview showed josh slidding over the ol coles brand like its the main item? im like i gotta see this, good to see i was wrong 😆

[codywclark]

The Q2 has two different burr options, a 5-point and a 7-point - which one are you using here?

[mightymightyironhead]

Great video and very interesting. However that Q2 is not going to really do the job well.

Those 38mm Pentagonal 5 cutting head burrs are very slow at grinding anything lighter than a dark roast, grinding a light roast is a real work out. the Q2 is ok for Pour over, Aeropress and Moka pot at most, at 13 clicks that's pretty much the start of the grind range for those brews, so i can see why you dialed in for that setting, because the grind range is so small and there are no fine adjustments that pretty much anything above or below that is not going to work unless you are so lucky that your beans just happen to be ok for that exact number.

The Q2 works pretty well with a pressurised porta filter, but that none pressurised porta filter that you get with the Picopresso can be pretty difficult to grind for, even though Wacaco designed it to cater for a more course grind size. I noticed that you say that you dosed for 20g in the Picopresso, so i am assuming that was intentional to help with the extraction being to fast? I do agree that dosing can help in some situations, but it can also affect the quality of the taste of the extraction.

When i tested the Q2 with the Picopresso i managed to get between totally blocked and something close to a decent extraction. However this really did depend a lot on the beans that i was using, the roast date of the beans, the type process of the beans and the roast level of the beans (darker roasted beans always got a better extraction and we easier to grind than medium or lighter roasted beans) so the results were very hit and miss.

Saying that, i also tested other basic grinders, including the Hario Mini slim and got about the same quality of extraction using a Hario Mini Slim as i did using the Q2 (obviously the consistency using the Q2 is going to be better than the Hario).