You have to re-think how you grind for espresso with this machine because of the vertical thickness of the coffee “puck” when brewing a double shot. This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have other rights which may vary from state to state and country to country. While many people think that an espresso maker is the only piece of specialty equipment needed for espresso, we cannot stress enough how important a high-quality, espresso-capable burr grinder is to your workflow.

With Flair you have a bit of work to do before pulling your shot, this is mainly the compromise you have to make to get the increased portability.This isn't a put down of Flair (or Rok), as I'm comparing non-powered manual coffee makers to an electric machine costing four or five times as much, so that's really not a fair comparison.

Having said that, I do think, judging from other reviews I've read such as the Flair Espresso Review on Home Barista, that this kind of quality is possible. I think either Rok or Flair is a great coffee maker to have either for home (as long as you're happy heating and frothing your milk via other methods, or if you don't drink milkies), and/or for making espresso while travelling.

As mentioned in our previous section, assembling the Flair Espresso Make is stupid easy, at least to begin with. Also make sure you’re pre-heating everything, that really seems to make a difference with the Flair.

As it stands now, I’d probably wrap something protective (but thin) around the extra brew group so it doesn’t flop around too much while travelling. Yet recently, I have found on the same variety of beans and other varieties (dark to medium roast), I normally grind below 1-5, sometimes lower than 1-3.We are here for the espresso, for the mornings that linger a bit longer, no matter where you find yourself. If I'm pushed to pick a winner, then from my side by side testing, the Rok just wins this one, not so much in terms of Espresso quality potential, but in terms of how quickly and easily I was able to pull great tasting shots of Espresso with both Espresso makers.

Including everything in the base model Flair 58, the Flair 58+ shines with walnut accents on the portafilter, t-grip and palm tamper. This is especially interesting to me because I can use a grind in the ROK that is much closer to my traditional espresso machines (without it stalling during the shot pull), whereas I have to use a coarser grind (and therefore less overall surface extraction contact) with the Flair, when pulling double shots. Where the Flair is a bit of a challenge to set up, especially if you’re used to a semi automatic, pump driven espresso machine, is the grind.Flair is packed in the travel case in bits, to make it super compact, so you need to assemble it first. If you only want Espresso, you're not concerned about steaming milk (or if you're happy to froth and heat milk via alternative means), and if you're wanting an Espresso maker which is portable and compact, and which is capable of making nice Espresso, and won't break the bank – then Flair may be your perfect Espresso maker.