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Brew Backcountry Espresso with Handpresso Wild

I’m a huge fan of leaving it all behind, stuffing a few essentials into a bag and heading into the backcountry. I’ll gladly give up running water and sleeping on a mattress for a few days out in the woods, but one thing I won’t give up – no matter where I’m going – is coffee. It’s definitely a luxury, but I assure you that nothing will put more pep in your step than a tin cup full of java before you hit the trail. For the longest time, this meant packing along a sandwich baggy full of grounds and a couple filters and brewing it like a hobo, but then I came across this contraption from Handpresso.

Designed by a team of coffee enthusiasts from France, the Wild ESE is a compact, handheld espresso maker that doesn’t use any power, so you can take it with you anywhere – on an overnight camping trip in the woods, or in the glove box for those emergency mornings when you can’t make it to Starbucks without being late to work.

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Here’s how it works: you pop in some grounds – either Handpresso’s pre-packaged “espresso pods” or just raw grounds – and pour in some hot water, presumably from a thermos or a freshly-boiled pot. Once you’ve got the water in there, use the hand pump to pressurize the chamber, using the built-in pressure gauge to get juuust the right PSI. When the gauge tells you it’s full, just hold it over the cup, press the release button, and watch as silky, reddish liquid streams out for about half a minute.

Find out more or place an order at Handpresso.com

Drew Prindle
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