Victoria, British Columbia is one of my favorite places in Canada, and it’s also the home of Mark Prince, the founder and editor in chief of one of the best and longest-running coffee websites, CoffeeGeek.com. During a recent visit, Mark invited my wife and I to coffee…but not at one of the city’s cafés.
Instead, we met at Willows Beach so Mark could make cortados—equal parts espresso and steamed milk—using portable brewing equipment that can just as easily make café-quality espresso.
The highlight was spending time with Mark to talk about coffee, with the cortados themselves coming in a close second. Here’s the gear he brought:
Ikape Portable Coffee Maker – KAPO K2 Pro. Charged via USB, this little unit can heat water and extract an espresso shot, with an app that lets you control the water temperature, pre-infusion time, extraction time, and more. It also has a 58mm basket, the same as you’ll find in most coffee shops. Mark brought pre-heated water in a thermal bottle to speed things up, but you can start cold; the heating is a big power draw, so that would give you about five shots before the unit needs to be recharged. If you use pre-heated water, a charge can make dozens of espressos.
Timemore Chestnut C3 ESP Pro Hand Grinder. This all-metal manual coffee grinder sits at the low end of the price range for hand grinders, but it’s built well (and smokes a much older manual unit that I own).
Timemore Whirly 01S battery-powered grinder. While I was grinding one set of beans with the manual, Mark used this electric unit to grind another set. It’s not fast (to be fair, neither was I), but is a good device to use if you don’t want to wear out your arm. (Be sure to read Mark’s researched article about why torque makes portable electric grinding difficult.)
Flair Wizard Stovetop Milk Steamer. Normally, Mark says, he gets by with the espresso machine and a grinder to make espresso in the wild. But to make cortados (or lattés or cappuccinos), you need a way to steam milk. This little pressure pot heats water over a standard camping burner. When the valve on top indicates it’s developed enough pressure, you can steam milk just as you would with a regular espresso machine.
Daily Bump, Social Coffee. The coffee Mark used is the espresso blend from Social Coffee, a roaster out of Ontario.
Here’s what the process looked like. As for taste, the cortados themselves were excellent.
Jeff Carlson | Never Enough Coffee Creations 