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today we're going to review this
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it's the Arum espresso maker it's a
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manual espresso maker from Brazil and I
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know what you're thinking it looks like
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a grinder and it does but it's not it
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doesn't grind coffee this is just for
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making espresso and it's quite
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interesting now this is a highly highly
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requested review lots of you want to
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know what I think about this and I can
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see why now this is expensive it's four
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hundred and ninety five US dollars
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before shipping and what you get is what
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you see here you get the espresso maker
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in the middle you get the base and sort
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of stand piece here you get a little
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glass that's actually quite clever a
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little dosing funnel and a tamper to go
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with it let me show you how it works so
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this here is the basket piece of the
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whole puzzle and it's just a standard 53
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ml basket I think this one has less bat
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cially on the side and it sits inside
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this piece that helps it screw into the
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body of the machine like so and this is
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where things get interesting you put
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your hot water in the top here and
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what's inside is a piston head attached
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to this central threaded piece so what
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happens is when you unscrew the central
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piece this is causing that piston head
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to lift up and the water is pulled
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through it through our one-way valve so
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that when you fully unwound it what you
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should have is your bed of coffee your
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hot water and then your piston head all
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we're gonna do is twist the handle to
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build the pressure to push the water
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through the bed of coffee now I don't
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know what pressure you can get up to
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with this thing you can get pretty high
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but I'm not sure how high now if you are
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out and about you can just clip the
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little glass that comes with in here and
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it stays which is a nice little thing
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but if you bring it home what you'd want
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to do is use the stand that it comes
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with now this is a hefty and well-made
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thing there's a base piece that has a
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drip tray in it which is very nice and
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then the clamp here
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holds it in place put it in you do have
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to remove the basket sit on top tighten
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up
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but can it make good coffee that that's
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really the question before we even get
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to is it worth five hundred dollars and
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the answer is yes yes it can with a few
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caveats I don't think it's the most
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versatile espresso brewer but I think
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you can get some really delicious
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espresso out of it and that's what we
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should do right now
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we should make some espresso with it and
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what I would strongly recommend when
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using this is that you run a preheat
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cycle at least one preheat cycle so I'm
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gonna put some hot water in this I'm
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gonna prep my ground coffee get it
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packed and tamped rinse it through and
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then we'll make some coffee so we're
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just gonna pour until it's full and then
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we're gonna leave it what I've got here
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actually is a thermometer I've just put
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a a thermocouple into the body of the
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brewer to see what's happening to the
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temperature and generally I've found
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that if you put in ninety five Celsius
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water into a totally cold brewer it
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dropped to the mid-60s this thing soaks
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up a lot of heat it's solid it's heavy
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it's a big heat sink and thermal
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management with this brewer is
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definitely an issue we want to leave
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this a couple of minutes but at some
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point it won't get hotter than sixty
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five and we need to potentially for
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using a pretty light roast coffee do a
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second round of preheating if you if you
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want to use something a little bit more
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developed a little bit darker you're
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probably fine to brew straight away but
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I have so far struggled really to get
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this thing brewing in the 90s in terms
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of degrees Celsius not anywhere near
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close to hundred Fahrenheit for those of
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you with the ancient money of
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temperature so we're just going to use
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something to dump this water into and as
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I lift this up water will flow through
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and all the way back down again
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now to dose our coffee that's pretty
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simple you get a little funnel just put
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it in they recommend a pretty heavy dose
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and from my experience I think that's a
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pretty good idea and so this is 19 grams
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of coffee in
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you got a new little tamper with it if
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you already had say us Patsy Ally you
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probably use whatever tamper you like
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now occasionally I would get a bit
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frustrated because the action of
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screwing this in can be a little bit of
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finicky just to find the start of the
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thread it's great nice and tight we are
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good to go now I'm going to need a
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little weighing scale to put under here
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and then some hot water in the top and
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then we can go now as I start to lift up
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that will effectively start a
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pre-infusion phase water will be going
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through the piston head and starting to
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soak into the coffee below and again if
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I wanted to I could only go a certain
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number of turns up before pushing down
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again by going all the way to the top I
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will end up with more water in the
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brewer than I may want to use for an
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espresso but counting turns is not
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really a viable thing for me so we're at
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the top and then we're going to go
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pretty quickly to build up some pressure
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and suddenly it should get hard to brew
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now at this point we'll probably have a
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reasonably high pressures and that's a
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good thing we're just going to keep the
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pressure there now because I've got more
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liquid above the coffee that I actually
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want to push through it I'm bringing a
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scale and I'm essentially gonna pull it
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out of the way when I get to my desired
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beverage weight which is about 38 to 40
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grams out and there's our espresso
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smells pretty good we should obviously
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give it a stone I've had some pretty
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tasty shots that's why it's got a nice
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texture it's one extracted it tastes
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like it was brewed at a slightly lower
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pressure than nine bars I will struggle
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to verbalize to you how I know that or
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what that tastes like but it's slightly
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a textural thing coupled with an
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extraction thing I would want that extra
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temperature just to round it out Sweden
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up a little bit more get rid of some of
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that slightly unpleasant acidity that is
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that it is in that espresso if you like
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darker roasts I think you wouldn't
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really have a temperature problem but I
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think if you like pretty light roasts
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whatever you define as light roast but
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it certainly something that's not near
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second crack then you're going to
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struggle a little bit to hit the
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temperatures that you want now in terms
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of grind size grant fussiness you're
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definitely gonna need a good grinder for
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this I was going just slightly coarser
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than I would have done for say 19 grams
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going into a pump powered electric
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espresso machine so again it suggests
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maybe we're not working at pressures of
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nine bars were close to it you know you
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want a grinder where you've got a good
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amount of control of your grind setting
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and you would be essentially at an
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espresso grind setting so that's how it
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works you've seen how you make coffee
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with it what I'll do now is clean up a
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little bit and give you a kind of
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summary of my thoughts about the build
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the machine and the user experience so
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let's start with the build because this
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thing is four hundred and ninety five US
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dollars the build must have something to
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do with it and it certainly does
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everything is really beautifully made
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here no corners have been cut the wood
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on the outside of this is local in
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Brazil and stunning the the way the
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metal is machined is very good the base
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is extremely solid it is a very well
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made thing in terms of longevity
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it does have some seals inside it where
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the piston will be moving around the
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chamber and any seal will degrade over
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time but I think there's only a couple
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of seals in it I think two or three
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they're not particularly complicated to
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change I don't think and they're not
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expensive to change either so most of it
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it's designed I think to be a
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long-lasting product not something that
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you would consider a disposable purchase
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in terms of user experience it's it's
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okay the need to do substantial
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preheating is a bit frustrating for me
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that's a downside
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I think the locking in and out of the
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the brew basket can be a little bit
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fiddly and frustrating and that's a
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small downside for me an upside for sure
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is how portable this thing is of all of
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the manual espresso makers that I've
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used this is by far the most portable
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the fact that it comes out of the stand
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that the glass clicks into the bottom I
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think is is really nice and really
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thoughtful and one it is portable it is
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heavy it's a solid solid thing so if you
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think it just casually throw it in some
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luggage and not worry about the weight
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you're gonna notice it it's definitely
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heavy the biggest question on ui/ux kind
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of stuff is is it better to spin a
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handle around run around or to pull a
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lever down is one better than the other
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and I will say that it feels easier to
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spin the handle even when it gets pretty
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hard work it doesn't feel quite as
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muscular almost as there's the pressing
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action at the peak of pressing on a
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lever machine but I'm also not sure I'm
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generating the same kinds of pressures
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doing it that way the one upside of a
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lever machine is that feeling of a very
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direct feedback right you pull and you
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feel that the puck push back almost
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against you it's quite a tactile
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experience it's quite pleasant that's a
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little bit more disconnected here
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certainly the way that you spin you can
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feel some level of feedback from the
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pressure inside the unit but but it's a
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very indirect kind of feeling compared
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to the directness of a lever I'm not
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sure I would say one is better or worse
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but I could certainly see people having
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strong preferences one way or the other
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I do wish I had some sort of pressure
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gauge or the ability to be modified to
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have a pressure gauge but the nature of
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this kind of a brewer means that you
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could never really have that in an easy
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or simple way so you'll always be a
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little bit blind in that regard now to
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clean it it's pretty easy you take out
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your Brita basket and then you would
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knock it out you could knock it out
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against a knock box you could knock it
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into a bend it's literally just a basket
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sat in a holder so it's incredibly easy
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to clean and then this here you can see
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one of the gaskets here on the outside
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and then your dispersion screen here
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keeping this plain has been really
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pretty easy again there's no back flush
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needed on this because there's no
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pressure release back through the
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dispersion screen the way that there is
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in a commercial espresso machine pretty
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easy to clean which leaves as the last
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question
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can it make great coffee I think the
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answer is it can make a very good coffee
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for a good number of people but I think
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it doesn't quite have the flexibility
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and the range of brewing of something
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like the Flair or the robot or the rock
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those all had issues with preheating but
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this one I think has a bigger issue with
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preheating and just think it's a much
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bigger mass that you're trying to
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preheat the nature of this chamber is
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kind of different and also that there's
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sort of timings it feels a little bit
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slower and you worry about heat loss
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from that perspective
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- if high temperatures aren't essential
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to you then
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may really enjoy owning this espresso
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machine and it is an enjoyable thing to
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use
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I've really enjoyed making coffee making
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espresso in more manual ways recently
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and this is certainly not the end of my
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journey in that regard now this machine
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I don't get to keep as beautiful as is
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because this review is powered by my
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patreon
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I have supporters on patreon who give me
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a budget to go out and buy these things
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and so I'm not reliant on manufacturers
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giving them to me I don't have to do
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biased reviews I can be honest about
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what I think and tell you my truth and
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that's what I've done here I'd love to
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know your thoughts though do you have
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one of these have you found something
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very different to what I found have you
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had a very different experience in terms
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of brewing espresso with it have you had
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a very different experience cleaning it
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maintaining it traveling with it
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did you want one of these let me know
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your thoughts I'd love to hear from all
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of you in the comments down below but
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I'm going to say thank you so much for
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watching and I hope you have a great day
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[Music]
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you
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[Music]