Making espresso at home doesn’t have to be a luxury. Whether you’re a student on a budget, short on space for a coffee machine, or just keeping a close eye on your outgoings, there are many reasons to look for more budget-friendly options.
So, if you’ve ever wanted to sip on a barista-worthy brew without leaving the house (or splashing out on expensive equipment), let us teach you the way.
Before we get started, we want to clarify that none of these methods creates an actual espresso (it would be almost sacrilegious to say so!) but they’re as close as you’ll get to the real thing without a machine.
How to make espresso without a machine
Great coffee isn’t dependent on having the most expensive machine or brewing expertise. In fact, you can get started for as little as £15. There are plenty of affordable pieces of kit that make outstanding cups of the good stuff, but which one is right for you?
Best for brewing 2+ cups at once
The cafetière or Clever Dripper are your best options. Both are larger, reliable brewers that can produce several cups of delicious coffee with espresso-like strength in one go.
Best for on-the-go brewing
The AeroPress or V60 are both lightweight, packable pieces of kit – and they deliver immaculately extracted coffee every time.
Best for espresso-like coffee
The stovetop brewer is heated so that steam forces hot water up through the coffee grounds. The result is a strong tasting coffee that’s as close as you’ll get to the Italian classic without a full set-up.
Take a glance at our Brew Guides for many different brewing methods and our top tips on how to master them.
Get started with making espresso at home
Whichever brewer suits your needs, we’ve got the lowdown on how to achieve espresso perfection at home.
Cafetiéres
A classic and easy to use piece of equipment. Use three tablespoons of coffee for every 250ml of water to get good, strong flavour. Leave to immerse for at least four minutes before slowly pushing the plunger down. Measure out your espresso-like shots and enjoy!
The cafetiére brew guide video.
Hario V60
To make espresso-like coffee with this pour-over brewer, you’ll need to reduce your water to coffee ratio. After you’ve prepped the V60 with a filter and scoop of coffee, pour a small amount of hot water over the coffee and let it drip through. Repeat till you have approximately 30ml for a single shot.
Clever Dripper
This immersion brewer falls somewhere between the cafetiére and V60. The coffee grounds are fully saturated for three minutes, before being filtered through for a cleanly extracted result. Once again, you can reduce the water to coffee ratio for a stronger flavour.
The Clever Dripper brew guide video.
AeroPress
It’s a very handy size for travel, and it also guarantees a superb coffee. We prefer the inverted method for the best results. Prepare with a filter, then use the handy measuring scoop and numbering system on its chamber as a guide - for espresso, it will be one scoop and the number one. Nice and simple!
The AeroPress brew guide video.
Stovetop
This beloved Italian favourite is designed to make coffee that’s very close to the espresso you get from a machine. Choose a medium-fine ground coffee and follow the step-by-step instructions in our brew guide for an outstanding shot.
Discover all of our top-notch brewing equipment.
What’s the best coffee to make espresso at home?
This is the most important part, and we always have espresso coffees on our menu, all of which will work great with these brew methods. Two of our most popular mainstays are our chocolatey Bourbon Cream and rich Fruit & Nut blends.
If you’re after decaf, you can’t beat the freshness of Buenos Aires.
Next, you need to get the grind right. When you purchase any of our coffee, we’ll ask you which brew method you’re going to use, then advise the correct grind according to your answer. Here’s a quick summary of the optimum grind for the brew methods above:
Coarse: cafetiére and Clever Dripper
Medium: V60
Medium-fine: AeroPress and stovetop
Ready to brew?
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