Wacaco Nanopresso Coffee Maker Review

If you need a good coffee when outdoors - camping, hiking or just a picnic - there are a lot of options and we have tried many. The latest on our list is the Wacaco Nanopresso and we think it is one of the best portable coffee makers out there. Read full details below.

What is the Wacaco Nanopresso?

This is a portable coffee maker that works via pumping system to push water through the coffee grounds to extract a strong coffee.

For a good coffee, pressure is important. 9 bars is the the recommended optimum level. This little machine is designed up to 18 bars.

There is no battery or charger - it is just you doing the pumping with the Wacaco and no, you don't need muscles to do it.

The Wacaco is very simple to use as you will see from the images below. It is as simple as filling the portafilter basket with your finely ground coffee of choice, and putting hot water (80ml) into the Nanopresso reservoir. Simple then starting pumping the Nanopresso, about 1 pump per second, into your cup until the water runs out. Nothing complicated, or lots of fiddly parts.

What is going on inside the machine as you are doing this is a spring loaded pump is building up pressure as you start to pump, drawing water into the "grouphead" and then through your portafilter.

FYI - at the bottom of the page is a video so you can see how it all works.

You can buy it at our affiliate - Amazon (with free delivery) for $78 - including protective case

1. Take the Nanopresso apart. The reservoir will be filled with boiling hot water shortly.

2. Fill the filter with your coffee of choice. It looks a a bit high in this photo, but as it turned out...it wasn't.

3. Tamp down the coffee with the tamper. With this coffee, I don't think I had enough coffee in the filter, but I still went through with it as is! I have wiped away any grind that was sitting on the rim.

4. Have now reassembled the Nanopresso and got a fancy glass ready.
Hot water has been added in the bottom of the Nanopresso reservoir.

5. The Nanopresso is turned upside down, and press in the pump, with 1 pump per second. Can easily do with 1 hand.

6. The end result. Not my best work in terms of crema - it's still on the pale side, but its the coffee I have used, not the machine.

Tips for getting a good brew with the Wacaco

Water that has just been boiled works best in this machine. A thermos won't have the same heat so will not work as well.
If time and water allows, fill the reservoir with the hot water and do a cycle without any coffee in the filter. Not compulsory but beneficial if you can wait for your coffee.
If you don't get a good crema that is golden brown, your grind is not right. You should have a fine grind - if you are not grinding your own beans, a supermarket will sell ground coffee for espresso machines and that will be sufficient (because not every can grind beans before every coffee).
You don't need to tamp hard after filling the filter. The Wacaco comes with a tamper but a light press is all it needs. You will know you did it right, when you have finished making your coffee and you look at the filter. Are your used grounds (the puck), all watery? Or do they come out in one nice lump? If it's the latter, then your grind and tamping was good. If it was a watery, sloppy mess - look at your grinds and tamping.
Work on 1 pump per second for best results.

Clean Up

This is a big plus for the Wacaco - the ease of clean up. You simply review the filter basket and empty the grounds, then all parts get a quick rinse under clean water. Leave to dry if you wish. That is it. No taking apart the machine any more than what you needed to fill it with the coffee and water.

Once you have purchased the Wacaco (see cost and availability at end of this story), you can read up in further detail on how to maintain the Wacaco here.

Overall Results

This makes an excellent coffee wherever you might be - at work, home, camping, hiking, anywhere. As long as you can source hot water from somewhere, you can use this.

The crema (which is important to get that full flavour of a coffee) is as good as we get on our home Barista machine.
Whilst we have tried many other coffee machines for outdoors (and the Aeropress has always been a favourite), I think the Nanopresso is easier and less fiddly, and with easier clean up.

You can try different grinds and different pumping speeds to get the coffee taste you are after.

Highly recommended and our new favourite coffee machine!

Cost and availability

You can buy it at our affiliate - Amazon (with free delivery) for $78 - including protective case

There are a lot of add-ons and packages. Sometimes it works out better from a cost perspective, if you do a bundle. If you want to see them all, go to Amazon here - there is a lot of options for you to look at and find out what you want now or maybe later.

If you want to buy the Nanopresso with the pod accessory - that is also via Amazon (with free delivery) for the cost of $129

Note: We purchased this Nanopresso ourselves.