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today we're going to review this

it's the Arum espresso maker it's a

manual espresso maker from Brazil and I

know what you're thinking it looks like

a grinder and it does but it's not it

doesn't grind coffee this is just for

making espresso and it's quite

interesting now this is a highly highly

requested review lots of you want to

know what I think about this and I can

see why now this is expensive it's four

hundred and ninety five US dollars

before shipping and what you get is what

you see here you get the espresso maker

in the middle you get the base and sort

of stand piece here you get a little

glass that's actually quite clever a

little dosing funnel and a tamper to go

with it let me show you how it works so

this here is the basket piece of the

whole puzzle and it's just a standard 53

ml basket I think this one has less bat

cially on the side and it sits inside

this piece that helps it screw into the

body of the machine like so and this is

where things get interesting you put

your hot water in the top here and

what's inside is a piston head attached

to this central threaded piece so what

happens is when you unscrew the central

piece this is causing that piston head

to lift up and the water is pulled

through it through our one-way valve so

that when you fully unwound it what you

should have is your bed of coffee your

hot water and then your piston head all

we're gonna do is twist the handle to

build the pressure to push the water

through the bed of coffee now I don't

know what pressure you can get up to

with this thing you can get pretty high

but I'm not sure how high now if you are

out and about you can just clip the

little glass that comes with in here and

it stays which is a nice little thing

but if you bring it home what you'd want

to do is use the stand that it comes

with now this is a hefty and well-made

thing there's a base piece that has a

drip tray in it which is very nice and

then the clamp here

holds it in place put it in you do have

to remove the basket sit on top tighten

up

but can it make good coffee that that's

really the question before we even get

to is it worth five hundred dollars and

the answer is yes yes it can with a few

caveats I don't think it's the most

versatile espresso brewer but I think

you can get some really delicious

espresso out of it and that's what we

should do right now

we should make some espresso with it and

what I would strongly recommend when

using this is that you run a preheat

cycle at least one preheat cycle so I'm

gonna put some hot water in this I'm

gonna prep my ground coffee get it

packed and tamped rinse it through and

then we'll make some coffee so we're

just gonna pour until it's full and then

we're gonna leave it what I've got here

actually is a thermometer I've just put

a a thermocouple into the body of the

brewer to see what's happening to the

temperature and generally I've found

that if you put in ninety five Celsius

water into a totally cold brewer it

dropped to the mid-60s this thing soaks

up a lot of heat it's solid it's heavy

it's a big heat sink and thermal

management with this brewer is

definitely an issue we want to leave

this a couple of minutes but at some

point it won't get hotter than sixty

five and we need to potentially for

using a pretty light roast coffee do a

second round of preheating if you if you

want to use something a little bit more

developed a little bit darker you're

probably fine to brew straight away but

I have so far struggled really to get

this thing brewing in the 90s in terms

of degrees Celsius not anywhere near

close to hundred Fahrenheit for those of

you with the ancient money of

temperature so we're just going to use

something to dump this water into and as

I lift this up water will flow through

and all the way back down again

now to dose our coffee that's pretty

simple you get a little funnel just put

it in they recommend a pretty heavy dose

and from my experience I think that's a

pretty good idea and so this is 19 grams

of coffee in

you got a new little tamper with it if

you already had say us Patsy Ally you

probably use whatever tamper you like

now occasionally I would get a bit

frustrated because the action of

screwing this in can be a little bit of

finicky just to find the start of the

thread it's great nice and tight we are

good to go now I'm going to need a

little weighing scale to put under here

and then some hot water in the top and

then we can go now as I start to lift up

that will effectively start a

pre-infusion phase water will be going

through the piston head and starting to

soak into the coffee below and again if

I wanted to I could only go a certain

number of turns up before pushing down

again by going all the way to the top I

will end up with more water in the

brewer than I may want to use for an

espresso but counting turns is not

really a viable thing for me so we're at

the top and then we're going to go

pretty quickly to build up some pressure

and suddenly it should get hard to brew

now at this point we'll probably have a

reasonably high pressures and that's a

good thing we're just going to keep the

pressure there now because I've got more

liquid above the coffee that I actually

want to push through it I'm bringing a

scale and I'm essentially gonna pull it

out of the way when I get to my desired

beverage weight which is about 38 to 40

grams out and there's our espresso

smells pretty good we should obviously

give it a stone I've had some pretty

tasty shots that's why it's got a nice

texture it's one extracted it tastes

like it was brewed at a slightly lower

pressure than nine bars I will struggle

to verbalize to you how I know that or

what that tastes like but it's slightly

a textural thing coupled with an

extraction thing I would want that extra

temperature just to round it out Sweden

up a little bit more get rid of some of

that slightly unpleasant acidity that is

that it is in that espresso if you like

darker roasts I think you wouldn't

really have a temperature problem but I

think if you like pretty light roasts

whatever you define as light roast but

it certainly something that's not near

second crack then you're going to

struggle a little bit to hit the

temperatures that you want now in terms

of grind size grant fussiness you're

definitely gonna need a good grinder for

this I was going just slightly coarser

than I would have done for say 19 grams

going into a pump powered electric

espresso machine so again it suggests

maybe we're not working at pressures of

nine bars were close to it you know you

want a grinder where you've got a good

amount of control of your grind setting

and you would be essentially at an

espresso grind setting so that's how it

works you've seen how you make coffee

with it what I'll do now is clean up a

little bit and give you a kind of

summary of my thoughts about the build

the machine and the user experience so

let's start with the build because this

thing is four hundred and ninety five US

dollars the build must have something to

do with it and it certainly does

everything is really beautifully made

here no corners have been cut the wood

on the outside of this is local in

Brazil and stunning the the way the

metal is machined is very good the base

is extremely solid it is a very well

made thing in terms of longevity

it does have some seals inside it where

the piston will be moving around the

chamber and any seal will degrade over

time but I think there's only a couple

of seals in it I think two or three

they're not particularly complicated to

change I don't think and they're not

expensive to change either so most of it

it's designed I think to be a

long-lasting product not something that

you would consider a disposable purchase

in terms of user experience it's it's

okay the need to do substantial

preheating is a bit frustrating for me

that's a downside

I think the locking in and out of the

the brew basket can be a little bit

fiddly and frustrating and that's a

small downside for me an upside for sure

is how portable this thing is of all of

the manual espresso makers that I've

used this is by far the most portable

the fact that it comes out of the stand

that the glass clicks into the bottom I

think is is really nice and really

thoughtful and one it is portable it is

heavy it's a solid solid thing so if you

think it just casually throw it in some

luggage and not worry about the weight

you're gonna notice it it's definitely

heavy the biggest question on ui/ux kind

of stuff is is it better to spin a

handle around run around or to pull a

lever down is one better than the other

and I will say that it feels easier to

spin the handle even when it gets pretty

hard work it doesn't feel quite as

muscular almost as there's the pressing

action at the peak of pressing on a

lever machine but I'm also not sure I'm

generating the same kinds of pressures

doing it that way the one upside of a

lever machine is that feeling of a very

direct feedback right you pull and you

feel that the puck push back almost

against you it's quite a tactile

experience it's quite pleasant that's a

little bit more disconnected here

certainly the way that you spin you can

feel some level of feedback from the

pressure inside the unit but but it's a

very indirect kind of feeling compared

to the directness of a lever I'm not

sure I would say one is better or worse

but I could certainly see people having

strong preferences one way or the other

I do wish I had some sort of pressure

gauge or the ability to be modified to

have a pressure gauge but the nature of

this kind of a brewer means that you

could never really have that in an easy

or simple way so you'll always be a

little bit blind in that regard now to

clean it it's pretty easy you take out

your Brita basket and then you would

knock it out you could knock it out

against a knock box you could knock it

into a bend it's literally just a basket

sat in a holder so it's incredibly easy

to clean and then this here you can see

one of the gaskets here on the outside

and then your dispersion screen here

keeping this plain has been really

pretty easy again there's no back flush

needed on this because there's no

pressure release back through the

dispersion screen the way that there is

in a commercial espresso machine pretty

easy to clean which leaves as the last

question

can it make great coffee I think the

answer is it can make a very good coffee

for a good number of people but I think

it doesn't quite have the flexibility

and the range of brewing of something

like the Flair or the robot or the rock

those all had issues with preheating but

this one I think has a bigger issue with

preheating and just think it's a much

bigger mass that you're trying to

preheat the nature of this chamber is

kind of different and also that there's

sort of timings it feels a little bit

slower and you worry about heat loss

from that perspective

- if high temperatures aren't essential

to you then

may really enjoy owning this espresso

machine and it is an enjoyable thing to

use

I've really enjoyed making coffee making

espresso in more manual ways recently

and this is certainly not the end of my

journey in that regard now this machine

I don't get to keep as beautiful as is

because this review is powered by my

patreon

I have supporters on patreon who give me

a budget to go out and buy these things

and so I'm not reliant on manufacturers

giving them to me I don't have to do

biased reviews I can be honest about

what I think and tell you my truth and

that's what I've done here I'd love to

know your thoughts though do you have

one of these have you found something

very different to what I found have you

had a very different experience in terms

of brewing espresso with it have you had

a very different experience cleaning it

maintaining it traveling with it

did you want one of these let me know

your thoughts I'd love to hear from all

of you in the comments down below but

I'm going to say thank you so much for

watching and I hope you have a great day

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you

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