It's a hand-powered espresso maker that uses no electricity. Just pour hot water into the top, push down both levers to drive the piston down, creating up to 10 bars of pressure and resulting in espresso. Available here for $149.
(Posted by Laura)
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Nice find! looks like it might be more trustworthy than http://www.handpresso.com
By the way, if you’re ever looking for an amazing steamer that uses no electricity, I highly recommend this: http://www.1st-line.net/cgi-bin/category.cgi?item=50SS&type=store
It makes a better foam than my uber-fancy home machine. And “frothing” is absolutely not the same as “foaming”. I’ve been using that and making due with a moka pot for our morning cappuccinos since we hit the road. This one’s really tempting.
That steamer is cool! We have one of the original 50’s Atomic stovetop espresso makers (it also foams milk!) made in Italy that we used to use when boondocking in our previous AS, but now that we have so much solar on our new AS we can really do fine with the electric Nespresso maker and milk foamer. (They’re making reproductions of the Atomic now, and it’s super cute. Not cheap, but not near as much as you’d pay today for one of the original ones: http://www.orphanespresso.com/The-ATOMIC-Espresso-Machine_c_301.html).
–Laura
Well, I have been known to pay more for espresso paraphernalia (eyeroll). That is really tempting, and a space-saver since it steams too — and so adorable. How would you compare a pull from your original to a good electric machine’s pull?
OMG I know, it’s SO adorable. When I found the original on ebay I had to tell myself “I’m buying functional art…it’s art…not just coffee” and now it sits on a shelf in our kitchen looking oh-so-stylish. I’d say the pull from the original was very good, but probably with a good clean out and descaling (or whatever you’d call it on a vintage aluminum machine like this) it could have been even better. I know people who swear by these machines and say they make the best coffee ever… But you are the one who controls the amount espresso…when you have what you want in the cup, then it’s time to steam the milk with the rest of the hot/pressured water.
On the original, when you go to do the milk steaming, there is another opening on the part where the coffee grounds go, where steam comes out and it’s a bit tricky to avoid the hot steam while frothing milk…but on these repros it looks like they don’t have that extra steam vent, so it seems the process would actually be better in that regard.
I just found these on youtube. They’ll give you a pretty good idea how the Atomics work:
We have the version with two knobs, like the one he’s using, only with red bakelite handles. 🙂