I had been drinking Nespresso for 9 years, but I hadn’t investigated what actually inside the capsule is.

One day, I tore the capsule and weighed the content. The capsule consists of about 5 g of coffee. Nespresso suggests using one capsule to brew a shot of 40 mL espresso. The 1:8 ratio is inauthentic to espresso brewing. Increasing the dose to about 1:2 will cost us 4 capsules. This is much more expensive than buying speciality coffee beans. Nevertheless, Nespresso doesn’t mention the origin and roast date of the coffee beans. The capsules sold in markets in Hong Kong are usually stale.

Realising that I was overpaying for relatively stale coffee, I decided to reduce consuming Nespresso and find alternatives. The ultimate goal is, of course, an espresso machine. However, espresso machines are often expensive and huge. I was unsure whether I would invest more in the coffee journey. Whenever I went to a shop selling coffee machines, I stood there, sighed, and walked away. Until I found the best espresso alternative ever – Kompresso.

A tiny yet great brewing tool costs a few hundred HKD.

Kompresso is a small brewing tool made of metal filters, plastic tubes, a bucket and a tamper. It is designed to deliver over 9 bars of pressure by pressing the piston. However, I couldn’t press it with a grind size as fine as espresso.

Here is my recipe:

  1. 15 g of coffee beans with a grind size slightly coarser than the grinding for typical espresso.
  2. After the water is boiled, immediately fill in the whole chamber. Ignore the chamber’s scale because it is incorrect. There should be 70 mL of hot water.
  3. Wait until the water level has dropped 5 cm. Insert the piston. Wait for 5 seconds.
  4. Press the piston straight. Never let the piston bounce back.

A coffee made by Kompresso, which is espresso-like, except there is no crema.

Kompresso often brews sweet coffee with a heavy mouthfeel. I enjoyed drinking it. However, there are two limitations. It is a single-dose coffee brewer. If you have a temperature-controlled kettle, the problem doesn’t trouble you. Since I don’t have a temperature-controlled kettle, it costs me extra time and money to brew 2 kettles of water just for 2 shots of coffee.

Another issue is there is no steam wand. Caffe Latte can’t be made solely by Kompresso, which took me on a new journey – mastering milk frothing using an Ikea milk frother.

… (to be continued)