C
Clayton Rhodes
June 12, 2025
Pocket rocket espresso machine
This thing is awesome. If you’re into space and rockets this sits there looking cool and is fully functional. Works best with nespresso pods due to the small 70ml max water chamber. It takes a long time to heat water from tap temperature, and uses lots of battery. I run water through the keurig or in the milk frother to have hot water to start with. This makes the brewing time half as long and you get 5-6 brews 3-4 minutes each instead of 2 brews in 10 minutes each on a fully charged battery. Straight hot water with no heat mode does not seem to extract the same flavor as using hotter water and letting it heat it more. More grounds can be packed into the filter cup adapter for more cups. Here I do add additional hot water while the unit is brewing to make enough espresso for 2 drinks or a larger one. Not sure what a couple of the adapters are for and the instructions are sparse. Recharging works much faster with a C to C cord instead of the supplied A to C cord, but I use a smart socket so as not to throw too much juice at it. The portability makes it go anywhere. Take it to a party and make espresso for martinis! The look is neat and it functions very well for how small it is. I hope it lasts a while because the first 25-30 drinks we’ve made with it have been fantastic and we’ve been mostly experimenting.
✔ Verified Purchase
Confusing. What Part is What!?
I had to do a deep dive into how to use this machine. The directions were nearly useless. To begin, it was almost impossible to identify the parts. The pictures displayed didn't show enough detail to match them up. It appears there are 2 portafilters, identical except for the bottom openings which are not shown. I'm still not sure I'm using the correct parts. There are some parts, like a white plastic ring, that I still wonder about. I searched for videos online, but found just one which was mostly promotional, void of guidance. Even the branding is confusing. The seller says the manufacturer is Benfuchen. Its box and the machine itself are marked Capadeli. Since my interest in this machine is to brew only "podless" espresso, I will focus solely on that. After trial and error, I managed to fit together the parts I think are for using my own coffee. I have no experience of any kind with any type of expresso brewing. So, not only did I have to research this particular machine, I also had to research espresso brewing in general since, once again, the directions were useless. I've still ended up guessing at what I'm doing. How much water to use? How much coffee to put into the powder adapter? Since the water capacity is listed as 50ml, that's what I used. Since there is a coffee scoop provided, I used it to put in one scoopful. There is an included tamper, so I used it. I used hot water and it seemed to shoot through the machine into the cup so fast, I wouldn't call it brewing at all. The result was a light colored water with a faint coffee taste. I next totally filled the adapter with coffee and used 50ml of room temp water. It took 6 minutes, but at least it resembled espresso, albeit somewhat bitter and with very little, quickly disappearing froth. I'm not sure that I wouldn't be able to duplicate this result by simple using my fine mesh stainless steel filter filled with the same amount of coffee and hot water and letting it brew for 3-4 minutes in my glass carafe. This brings me to the biggest issue I have with this maker. Everything that water touches, except for the metal strainer inside the adapter, is plastic. This is way beyond acceptable to me, considering I go out of my way to use a reverse osmosis water filtration system for all the water I cook with and drink. I will say, this is a cute, convenient, portable gadget. It's a nice concept and its battery/charging system seems to work well, however, it's just not for me.
✔ Verified Purchase
