I went wild for a surprisingly large espresso

As summer returns, I am once again reminded of my limits when venturing out into the great outdoors: I can handle a heavy, uncomfortable bag, insect bites, mud, and even dehydrated food, but I will not give up my morning beer.

I’ve tried every coffee maker imaginable in my camping years. This comes from easy ways to jump while ultralight backpacking, an AeroPress don’t weigh every gram, French press plunger when with the help of a bicycleand small countertop coffee makers while travel by van. However I return to manual espresso makers whenever possible for reasons of taste, convenience, and – let’s face it – the appeal of the tool. This portable, full-sized thermos machine offers the perfect shot of real, full-bodied espresso without the barista miles away.

There are two ways to go here. The affordable, fast, and easy-to-clean range is built around Nespresso coffee capsules – you pour in cold water, press a button, and voila, liquid gold. More expensive brands use ground coffee and refer to people who argue about things like blades and burr grinders. Or you can get the best of both worlds with a hybrid machine that works with coffee and capsules. It doesn’t matter which logo you buy because they all seem to share a common factory somewhere in China. Cera+ and OutIn they’re popular, but you’ll probably be choosing cheaper, generic names too available on Amazon.

I recently tried it Ikape Kapo K2 Pro (58mm) portable espresso machine from Cera+. Listed at $239 but sold out Amazon for $200. It only works with ground coffee, but it allows you to dial in your favorite settings through the temperature control, the speed, and the length of time you want the place to enter, stop, and remove. It has a 20-bar power pump and a 13,500mAh battery that also charges via USB-C. In my testing, it’s good for about five 18-to-20-gram servings starting with cold water. You will get more if you heat the water or use less. Each extraction takes about three minutes, give or take, depending on how much water you add to the 80ml (2.7oz) water.

In a blind taste test against La Marzocco’s more expensive espresso machine, the Ikape performed surprisingly well. Two of us plebes couldn’t taste any difference, but the owner of the high-end machine was able to with confidence, citing a very bitter and lack-of-body effect from Ikape. You know, we’re talking $199 versus $5,000, and even he had to admit that the Italian hand-made machine didn’t make an espresso that was 25 times better!

On the other hand, when testing the Ikape with a coffee shop, it produced a rare espresso that was no better than what you would get from a Nespresso capsule. To get the most out of Ikape you need to carry a grinder, which limits its movement.

If, like me, you enjoy coffee but don’t get carried away with it, then the cleanliness and beauty of Ikape is not ideal for travel. Ikape is for anyone who enjoys the slow anticipation of the best espresso brewed in a place they don’t have the right to be.

When the choice is between coffee or no coffee, it’s hard to beat the “good enough” made by unnamed, “espresso makers” that work with Nespresso-compatible capsules – especially if generic machines can be had. about $50. And when you pay a few cents more for certified capsules, Nespresso makes it easy to collect and carefully recycle aluminum particles for recycling.

Thoreau encouraged us to “simplify, simplify.” And really, what better way to twist that message to help your smoker than toss some coffee into a battery-powered thermos and let modern engineering do the rest? You can still go into the unknown and soak up all the bones of life this summer; just make sure you’re properly caffeinated while doing it.

Photography by Thomas Ricker/The Verge