- Fellow has launched its first home press machine, the Espresso series 1
- It has different pro-level features, but also offers guidance to home barista
- You can pre -order now at a price of early bird, with shipping later in the year
Fellow, Maker of the Popular Aiden Precision Coffee Maker, has just launched its first home-essential machine and it is packed with professional quality features that you would normally expect to find in a café. I have heard rumors of the Speciality Coffee Association (SCA) members that exciting things were on the foot of the world by home manufacturers, and I suspect that the colleague Espresso series 1 is what they referred to.
The Fellow Espresso Series 1 is a nice machine that has a similar Boxy shape as the Aiden Precision coffee machine, with a front pressure gauge that allows you to see the pressure profile when you pull each shot so you can decide if you have achieved the right grinding size for your beans.
Professional features include temperature control that is accurate in the degree, a boiler with three heating elements (including a flow heater for preheating water before entering the boiler), a commercial style heated group head with brass kernels and a 58 mm bottomless porta filter.
A bottomless porta filter has no spout at the bottom, which means you can see exactly how your coffee is pouring and diagnosing problems with tamping. If the coffee does not flow out of the filter basket evenly or there are rapidly debilitating ‘leaks’, the tamped puck may be cracked or not level.
A bottomless porta filter also means that your espresso shots should have more krema because the coffee does not come into contact with any surfaces before it reaches your cup.
The Fellow Espresso series 1 also comes with a backflush disk that allows you to clean it in the same way as a commercial coffee maker. Just mount the disk in Portafilter -the handle, add a backflush cleaning tablet (included in the machine), and select the cleaning program to thoroughly remove traces of old coffee and oils that can smash future drinks.
A helping hand
If it all sounds a little scary, don’t worry – there’s help with home baristas as well. For example, you get both single -walled and pressure baskets, the latter of which makes it easier to get a proper flow speed, even if you have not completely painted the coffee perfectly and are more forgiving than a single -walled basket.
Steam Wand has a temperature-sensing tip that helps you achieve perfectly sweet-tasting milk without scalding (which can give a vanilla sauce-like taste). The rod stops steaming when the milk reaches the right temperature and cleanses automatically when you are done.
The Fellow Espresso series 1 is available in three color pathways: black, malted chocolate and maple and cherry red and walnut. The latter two have portafiles with real wooden handles, which adds a little extra to the price.
The Black Model is available for pre-order now for $ 1,199.95 (approx. £ 900 / AU $ 1,900), and will sell for $ 1,499.95 (about £ 1,300 / AU $ 2,500) when the early bird offer is over. The two wood-trimmed versions can be pre-ordered for $ 1,299.95 (about £ 1,000 / AU $ 2,000) and will eventually sell for $ 1,599.95 (approx. £ 1,200 / AU $ 2,500).
If you pre-order the machine, you will also get the $ 100 Fellow DROPS credit, which you can use on the brand’s own coffee.
Fellow has not given an accurate shipping date, but the Espresso series 1 is expected to reach the customers “before the winter holidays”. As a fellow is based in the United States, we would expect it to mean November. Hopefully I can give you a full review soon and see how it compares to the best espresso machines from other brands.
