BEFORE FREAKING OUT: I got Daddy Hoff's explicit permission to troll him. He enjoyed it. Let's not get too serious here. Posting this before any freak out. Also, like and subscribe would be highly appreciated if you enjoyed! (edit)- ALSO please understand this video is a comparison. Yes, I do not use the actively heating element of the flair 58. The flair 58 with heating element is $600. Without, it is $500. So, one reason was to keep things equal. Secondly, I did loads of temp testing in my previous flair 58 video. figured it was good to show what people with the x need to do. Thirdly, I wanted to level the playing field. This is a comparison. NOT a showdown (which is best). Please view accordingly and do NOT get offended if I don't declare the one you own as best. Thanks

Wow that pressure gauge design with concentric rings is absolutely gorgeous, what a great idea

I am using the cafelar robot for three months now. I absolutely love it. There are so many ways to create your own style of espresso with it. I love the cute design and the strong build. There are still so many tricks to explore with the robot. So I wont get bored with it

Ayyyy! Don't skip the ad, folks, we got the rare (and precious) Lance beatboxing!

Wow, another masterpiece of a video! Thanks for showing the world a Brazilian product! Here in the Brazilian coffee forum, someone managed to get a shipment of thin heat coils custom ordered from aliexpress to fit through the top holes, to turn the Aram into am actively heated machine. In my opinion, This, along with the pressure gauge, makes it a very versatile machine

One nice trick for the Aram preheating from Brazilian forums is that the holes on top have been enlarged in more recent versions to fit those cartridge style heating elements. So basically you can fill it with water, stick the heater in and can bring it to a boil inside of the machine without having to keep running water through it. It does take a while but works really well for getting it nice and boiling hot. Pulled many fantastic light roast shots with it.

Your previous video about the Robot inspired me to buy one and it’s honestly my most favourite purchase EVER!!! Thank you very much for reaffirming how amazing the robot is and keep up the good work!

Man, your videos just so insightful, interesting, and enjoyable to watch. Thank you so much for making and sharing these with all of us. Us coffee geeks are lucky to have you!

Yes sir, we do finish watching your videos. I love the deep dive stuff, where I can get into the nitty gritty details of the things I enjoy. Plus, there's always one or two comments that really get my creative juices growing and trying new things with my coffee. So, yeah. Thanks.

The cafelat robot now comes with a red rubber stopper that fits into the dual spout so you preheat both the portafilter and the piston now.

The tamping noise at 10:00 brought back memories. Thx Lance!

Enjoyed the video and very glad you shared about pressure/force needed for the 3. It is what held me back from getting a lever. Would prefer the Aram for me then Flair. Thanks for the video.

This is such perfect timing. I was looking at manual machines trying to find one I like.

Awesome comparison! Thank you for this video, this is exactly what I needed, I'll be upgrading my Neo Flex soon and this is really helpful. I watched the whole video, too.

I have been using Flairs for 5-6 years and really love them. I've only used the classic/signature/Pro models and with those I can get AMAAAAZING shots including from the lightest roasted beans you'll ever find. And now they have the Flex which is soooo cheap but has the same capabilities. That's amazing. Just crazy value. Back when I got started the only options were the Rok and the Flair Classic. These other two machines in the video have some design aspects that look really great. One that is awesome is being able to use normal baskets in the Aram. That's really cool.

I have the robot, I never preheat and it’s excellent with dark roasts. The basket is also much easier to use when filling from my Pharos hand grinder and I think it’s better for other grinders as well because it’s a deep basket rather than a shallow basket that needs a funnel or something.

OMG OMG exactly what I needed for my christmas!

I usually watch your entire video and leave feeling pretty informed about the topic

Lance, if you rotate the Robot 180 degrees you can see the original pressure gauge easily :)

Watched to the end. 👍 For me this was another pointer that the Robot is where I want to aim for in my coffee journey.

Great to see the breakdown of manual espresso machines, according to which roast profile you prefer, thanks @LanceHedrick. Personally I like moving around from light to dark and my flair signature is more than sufficient for that and a better budget option.

Watched till the end. I love the idea and aesthetics of the Robot and it will definitely be my first espresso machine, this video just further confirmed it. The workflow does seem kind of messy on the flair and not having to rely on preheat seems like a huge win for me.

Great video. I think Portaspresso should've earned a shout-out for releasing what I think is the original screw mechanism espresso maker back in 2009: Rossa HC. You can put a bit more water in the Robot's basket and use a regular kettle to up the starting temperature to ~95C.

Watched the whole video. I would add that the robot mittens help a lot with pulling a shot and making it more comfortable. I was anti mittens for a while then got some. It is the move. Also orphan espresso the grinder company makes a lot of cool wood accent pieces for the robot and some other tools like a tamper and a wdt/rake

Great video really enjoyed watching keep up the good work

Not sure if that “squirrel” bit is a reference to Up but I love to hear it. My parents say it all the time and I’m so used to hearing it from them, it’s funny hearing it from others.

Nice vid and subject! I recently ordered the Rossa HC-P, which is similar to the Aram, but with some design choices that I preferred.

watched to the end. Thanks, considering a manual machine. Very helpful.

I'm a happy Robot user and I just love it to bits. It's the simplest to get started as an espresso beginner and the looks are hard to beat! I'd get the mitten add on to make it more comfortable to push down.

Just finished watching the whole video. It's nice to know the pre-heat workflow, which is a very important part of the process with manual machines. I feel like going with the Flair pro 2 might be ideal for me since I prefer filter coffee, and spending around +150 or more for a manual espresso machine doesn't feel like is going to take the game one step beyond.

Lance not only do we finish your videos but I think most of us are left wanting more. I mean, I don’t know what else you could have done, that was about as thorough as it gets, but still!

Kudos for putting excellent effort on the sponsor section!

That pressure gauge design is GENIUS!!!! And so beautifully crafted and integrated. 😅

I've had my Cafelat for 4 years now. Absolutely love it. One thing - i dont think it's necessary to go to 9 bar. You get beautiful shots with a 2 bar pre infusion, ramp to 6 bar and back down to 2.

cool. I already own a Cafelat Robot but still watched the whole video anyways lol. I was considering the Flair 58x before but after watching all the extra steps to pre-heat and potential mess I am very happy I opted for the Robot. Simple pre heat or no pre heat at all, and no electronics needed. I do still wish the Robot allowed me to use 58mm accessories though. I kind of wish there was a manual espresso machine with the robots piston and basket but Flairs handle/base.

Loved the video, watched it all! All these machines look amazing, but the robot is first on my wishlist. The retro look, small size and workflow…

I spent 3+ years carrying a Robot with me throughout Europe, and it was fabulous. I only needed an electric kettle which every Airbnb has, and a good hand grinder. If not for needing to limit my total luggage, I’d still have it - totally recommended.

Regarding gasket longevity. I have the flair pro 2, and I always heat my group and basket up on top of a mocapot base, while I prep my grounds, let the water boil. I leave it on boil for 5-8min, until the temp sticker is at 100C, and then some more to make sure. Doing that since 3 years, no issues yet. During cleaning I found them to be as good as my new backup gaskets I have just in case.

Thank you so much! I've seen so much marketing for the Flair that I was worried it's competitors wouldn't have as strong of a community. I'm most-interested in the Aram after watching this, but I do drink a lot of light roasts and will make sure I'm ready to accommodate them before buying.

Moar manual espresso machines content! I’d love to see a video about how to save shots if we grinded to finely/coarsely.

Excellent showdown! I love my Cafelat Robot - it's just perfect for my needs and the community around it is great. It would be great to see a comparison between Aram Coffee Maker and Kazak Rota. Aram is beautiful, and Kazak seems quite efficient (and it uses similar mechanism).

Awesome video Lance! really thinking about getting a lever machine during 2024. I love the robot but the shipping costs are quiet high, so trying to work that out

I went back and forth between the F58 and the Robot, ended up with the robot because of its simplicity, ease of repair and build quality. I couldn't be more happy. My only critique is the pressure that the arms/claws put on your hands is kind of brutal if you do more than one or 2 shots. I bought the weighted end-ball thingys (Update: mittens) for the hands and it has helped but am in the process of making some larger wooden ones to to distribute the pressure on my hands a little bit better. Nonetheless, love my robot!

I've used both the Robot and Flair 58. I agree with your assessment of both. I personally prefer the Robot for both UX and aesthetics. My only complaint is the stock gauge orientation.

Awesome review, Lance! Kazak Rota next? Im really interested in your view on that piece of art of a manual coffee machine!

Oh, I must say, even though I won't get an Aram (I like medium and light roasts, so not very practical), I love its design and the pressure gauge. What an ingenious way of showing pressure, that's so nifty! I also so enjoy the design of the Cafelat, it's so adorable! However, I am still set on the Flair 58! Thanks, Lance, very informative and fun as usual.

Dude, the pressure gauge is like a jump pack for the robot. Awesome :)

You are making me addicted to anything coffee, thanks for the shot of humour.

absolutely loved the video. Especially the dramatics with the singing. I drink all roast levels, it depends on my taste for the day. I tend to stick to Light, medium-light, and medium-roasted coffees. I am thinking about getting a manual espresso machine to make Pumpkin Spice lattes at home and it would be nice for it to be portable as well for travel. What do you all reccomend?

Just finished the video. The way you use your Flair 58+ is actually my daily workflow on my Flair 58x. but I don't understand how you got only 85° after preheating. What I usually do with mine is I don't remove the gauge and the arm from the piston when I preheat it, and wait until the steam actually furiously bubbles over the gap between the arm and the brew head before removing it and start brewing. The last time I check, I get 92-93 °C water at around the beginning of extraction even without preheating the portafilter and the basket. It takes me about 4 minutes to reach that temperature which is actually the time I needed to grind my coffee and do puck prep. The trick to get it faster is to fill the kettle with just about 200ml of water so it boils faster.

Great video, Lance. I was eager for your video about the Aram, I have one and love using it. If it's not asking too much, you have any plans on making a dedicaded Aram video dialing in espresso? Now I know I have to preheat more than I usually do (2 maybe 3 cycles). Thank you so much for this masterpiece of coffee content

Watched to the end. Thanks Lance.

Finished the video. Awesome content my boy!

Was so looking forward to this one! The teasers in the background were really irking me

The Robot doesn't need to be preheated for any roast. You can compensate for the thermal drop off with a much finer grind and longer preinfusion. The outcome is the same: higher extraction. Even with very light roats, doing it this way removes the preheating step and produces delicious, well extracted shots.

Amazing comparison, thanks! I love my robot!! My game changer (thanks Reddit) was the overflow method. Just let the boiling water overflow in the sink when pouring in the basket. Result is a much higher temperature at the start pulling the shot without loosing much time!

Nice! I am glad that I got one of the last completely polished Robots before Paul stopped making them for effort reasons back in the days. I really should use it more often but since I got a Decent three years ago… 🤷

Okay i lost my shit. Those concentric circles for pressure and incredible. So simple to the user, straightforward and adds so much to the aesthetic of the device

Of course I always finish every video, Lance. If I didn't, how could I make sure I wasn't missing out on that angelic voice?

Superb episode, thank you. Do you have a video installation of the pressure measurement system?

Been watching a lot of reviews for Cafelat Robot and Flair, I decided to a buy Cafelat Robot last month with 1zpresso x-pro s grinder full manual set up still waiting for my Manual Milk Steamer and Cafelat accessories. been doing good tasting shots with the Robot really like the workflow also you can make good shot without preheat that a win for me the build quality is great build like a tank most important is it is easy to clean.

Finished it, twice! And just retired my Flair Classic after picking up a used Robot Barista with extra basket. I’m totally in love with it! 💕 Impossible to pull a bad shot, and I never preheat it at all! Engineer’s win all the way!

I bought robot few days ago, it is impossible to ruin a shot, such a great machine. Might as well sell my Mitica, I use it mostly for frothing these days anyway😂

I always watch your videos all the way through and I really appreciate all the effort you put on them, Lance. You're truly an inspiration 💜 Pd: I specially enjoy the rants :)

Thanks for another great video Lance! I am right there with you on an the ADD struggles ❤ I wish you had gone into more detail about options for steaming milk on these. If I ever got an espresso machine, it would be largely for making cortados (distant second would be sprover/turbo/filter 3.0) so understanding my milk steaming solution before purchase is essential. This did re-affirm my thinking that Flair 58 would be my current best choice for a budget lever machine 👍

Ok you really made me wanna get the Cafelat Robot with this one. I blame you for my eventual dive into the sproverse 😂

I always love your videos! Thanks for all that you do! I have the Flair 58. The machine is pretty amazing. I, on the other hand, am obviously NOT. First, I'm a dark roast guy. I have a J Max manual grinder (thanks in no small part to your reviews). I have tried numerous different beans. MY espresso shots are crap! I'm frustrated to the point of regretting my purchase of a manual machine. I wanted the manual machine for the process. I expected a learning curve. However...

I LOVE the aesthetics of the Aram, but I'm not doing all that with the temp management.

I can’t wait to tell my friends years later that this is the year The Great Coffee Wars started between James and Lance.

Great video. The pressure gauge is pretty

Ohhh, the Aram is an amazing bit of clever engineering, I really like it. If these machines were actually all the same price-point I might get one (I do not consider everything < $500 to all be the same point, personally... and Aram doesn't even make that range), but Flair just has more affordable options. The Nomad is tempting though, not included in this showdown, but Nomad is the only one of these manual machines that can do longs and sprovers. But really probably going to go Flair.

I watched through no problem. Great comparison. I did not know about the Aram, which looks great, but the manual Robot automatically won my heart when I saw it the 1st time.

Thank you for another great video!! I would like your opinion for the 9barista if you have some time. A review would be highly appreciated. Thanks again!

I finished the video, great job!

I've got Flair 58 electric version and 1ZPresso J-Max S - very pleasing manual combo. I ordered J-Ultra a few days ago and it should arrive to me by the end of this week. I quite like to make espresso this way, but I wouldn't like to preheat a grouphead by putting it on the kettle. I'd rather keep my electric module on XD PS: Dialing in with J-Max is totally unproblematic. Absolutely brilliant grinder, so it's succesor will, undoubtely, be as good as previous model.

Your Robot looks like it's rockin a little jetpack. Now mine wants one too.

Hey Lance! I did finish the video. Actually, I watch all of your videos end to end. Yours and Daddy Hoff's that is :)

Watched till the end and it was great.

As someone who owned both the Robot and the F58 I really appreciated this video! I think you pointed everything out pretty well, even if I don't agree with everything you said. I overall prefer the F58 which is why I sold my Robot but honestly, I never had as much trouble selling something as I did my Robot! I LOVED it! It has a charm that's really hard to explain but to me one arm just worked so much better that two in controlling pressure.

Excellent videos, hair dryer can do good job for heating up parts.

I preferred the f58 because of its versatility, it’s heat management, temperature stability, no need for modding and it allows me to use a huge variety of standardised accessories such as the new precisions basket such as Weber Unibasket. I was never that huge of a fan of the pressure control of the Robot but that’s probably largely due to me having use the one arm levers before, so I knew that box and can get a nice gentle and precise control with it. If one has never tried manual espresso then yes f58 is definitely a steeper learning curve and can be less forgiving then the Robot, but largely be handled by just getting more forgiving baskets. But honestly I prefer the faster, more normal less faff workflow that resembles a normal espresso machine. The Robot is honestly more for the tinkering type if you intend to use it for light, if one doesn’t like tinkering and drinking light I honestly wouldn’t go with it, but it’s a fun little machine that make great espresso. I do agree that turning the preheat off before pulling the shot on f58 is advisable for most coffees, but I did try some coffee where it actually improved with the rising temperature profile. If one get the f58x there isn’t really much to actually repair on except the gasket. It’s a rather simplistic machine Gasket material can withstand up until about 200 degrees Celsius so no chance they fail by heating it up that way, same with the silicone grease you use to lubricate it with.

ROBOT FTW! 🙌 unless you’re light roast hardcore person, there’s no contest in terms of comfort, workflow, maintenance, footprint, built quality (robustness), minimalistic approach, portability. Aesthetics is up to the eyes of the beholder. Finally, I found it ridiculously easy to achieve great shots almost instantly. Within a month of use I was pulling shots that easily rivalled and even surpassed top specialist coffee places around. Best investment ever! More money for an end game grinder (which more important) than a speced up bells and whistles boiler machine.

Diggin the new eq on your vox

Any thoughts on coffee subscriptions? Just got myself the K-Ultra grinder and want to step up my coffee game. I live in Southern California and have checked out some local roasters which have been great but would like to expand a bit. I’m using an aeropress. Thanks and love your videos!!

I just ordered a Flair Classic with Pro 2 upgrades (Hate the rose gold accents on the pro machines). I hope I’m strong/heavy enough to pull a shot on it, as I am small. If not, I’ll get a step stool and lean on it! I love these toys. Already have a Picopresso with stand for the travel I never do, and a fully modded Gaggia for every day at home… Fun $💕$

I am in love with this shirt !

05:14 just became my new notification tone!

Hey Lance, I’ve noticed you have the fish pro kettle there. Thoughts? I like my regular fish but man adjusting the temp is annoying.

Great video as usual! Any suggestions on whee to buy the Aram Manual Espresso Maker in the states?

that segway was next level. i didnt skip it just for that, and stayed for the beatbox.

Enjoyed the video and watched it all! Thanks Lance! I’m a cafelat robot owner but have never used powered espresso machines. I’ve always wondered how espresso and drinks made from the robot compares to more expensive espresso machines with a boiler in terms of taste and quality, all else being equal. Am I missing out? Or what price point machine would robot be equivalent to? Or can robot be endgame quality with enough practice? For reference, I enjoy med-light single origin coffees and typically make cortados with a nanofoamer but will taste my shots. I feel like a lot of espresso/drinks I order in cafes are either bad or intentionally pulled way too sour to shine through milk drinks, so I practically consider them different drinks. Even still there is some quality to the cafe drinks that I can’t replicate and don’t know how to describe.

Great ad performance!

I would like one that works well for the Rao Allongé so 1:5 and most manual makers are on the line. The only exception is the nomad but the nomad goes all the way to the other end with its huge capacity and 49mm basket format haha.

YAY Lance! Great video, even to the end. Fellow ADHD/ADD coffee lover but without home espresso yet. Ever tried the R. O. K. ? If so how does it compare with these three?

As someone who doesn't see a need to move on from my flair classic after many years, still enjoyed this whole video

You need to get the little round hands for the Robot. Gives you maybe 10% more mechanical advantage. Improves the looks too. I wonder about pre heating piston and basket with a heating gun?

I've started to cutoff the temperature control after preinfusion on my 58 and I find my shots to be better tasting overall.

Boom the best add placement ever like usual 😂... you neeed to take a look at what the thai guys are doing at ALM KOPI , their pid lever is just tooo good

Can you make a video about the ROK, I've been using one for 2 years and have a lot of fun with it and would be interested to know what you think of it

"Yada-yidya-bing-bing" - Lance Hedrick, 12/12/23