Flair 58 review: 1 year of delicious cafe quality manual espresso

I've been a Flair fanboy for a long time. After learning about what coffee actually was with the Aeropress, I hopped onto the manual espresso train with the Flair Signature, upgraded my brew chamber to the Flair PRO 2 and have now arrived at the latest station, the Flair 58. You might expect the law of diminishing returns when optimising your gear, but after a full year of use I can now confidently say that the Flair 58 is worth the upgrade and might actually be my final stop in the espresso game.

It's clear Flair has learned a thing or two about manual espresso in the last number of years, and the Flair 58 feels like the ultimate trade-off between features and ergonomics that make it surprisingly workable as a daily driver for a delightful workflow and excellent cups of espresso that compete with espresso machines several multiples in price.

Improving upon past strengths

I still hold the Flair PRO 2 in high regard. It's very affordable, it's a lot more forgiving when it comes to grinder compatibility, and it is extremely portable. So portable that when I go on multi-day trips, I actually still take the PRO 2 to enjoy an espresso on the go. The smaller basket helps restrict flow, allowing you to create acceptable espresso with a much cheaper grinder.

For all its strengths, the PRO 2 is just less enjoyable as a daily driver for your cup of espresso, the pre-heating being the most important nuisance. While there are a multitude of methods to manually preheat the PRO 2](../flair-espresso-preheat-tricks/), they are all finicky and distracting from the experience of brewing coffee. Last but not least, the PRO 2 brew chamber, even with a perfectly practiced workflow, just doesn't get hot enough to properly extract a light roasted coffee.

The Flair 58 shines in its workflow. As I have a small kitchen, I store the 58 on a shelf. After setting the water to boil, I take the 58 out to the kitchen counter, connect it with the quick release cable (the power brick stays connected and hidden behind the grinder), and turn the heating unit on.

Then comes the puck prep. As much as I've enjoyed prepping the puck for the PRO 2, handling a real portafilter is just a more pleasant experience all around. The grip adds heft and control, coffee grounds rarely spill out of the basket, there is more actual surface area akin to a zen garden to rake with the WDT tool, and even the stock tamper has a weight and machine accuracy that is pleasant to work with.

There is no faffing about with hot water pre-heating or displacing hot metal: for the lightest roasts I fill the electrically heated brew chamber with boiling water and get brew temperatures of up to 92 degrees (check out Lance's thermal tests for measurements). The lever is long, reducing the strain and muscle necessary to pull the shot, making the workflow a lot more ergonomic to such an extent that Mrs. Snoffeecob also brews espresso with this machine.

Trade-offs

Of course the machine is not perfect. The recently upgraded models 58 Plus and Plus 2 try to fix the bulky power supply by embedding the brick in the base of the unit, but the cable is still clumsily connected externally to the brewing chamber. The Plus model now also includes a number of accessories that I bought separately and which I think are mandatory for use, such as the shot mirror and the portafilter funnel.

I've also experienced a big difference with the stock basket and the IMS precision competition basket (IMS B702TCH24E), which has banished the stock basket to a drawer ever since.

Another important fact to keep in mind when opting for the 58 is that the 58mm basket, especially with the precision baskets, offers a lot less resistance to the flow of water than the smaller PRO 2 and Signature baskets. This means your grinder needs to be able to grind very fine.

I thought I'd try to get away with brewing with my Eureka Mignon Perfetto grinder, but as much as I liked that machine, I wasn't able to grind fine enough to properly extract a lighter roasted coffee. This led me to the inevitable purchase of a DF64 grinder which has been an amazing experience since, but adds another 489 euro to the cost of god-like espresso.

To finish up the review, I'd like to share the experience of pulling some of the first shots with the machine. While getting to know the machine better, I also encountered and fixed some user mistakes which might prove helpful below. After the last fixes I made little to no changes and am still using the same techniques to pull at least 2 cups every day ever since. Enjoy your brew and do leave a comment to let me know how your upgrade experience was!

early 58 experience log

Unboxed and connected the 58, fired up the Perfetto on the smallest possible grind size (just a hair before touching burrs), but even with the slightly restricted stock basket could only get a turbo shot. I was prepared for this, and pulled the trigger on the order of the DF64 flat burr grinder.

First time puck prep with DF64 ground beans. Super fluffy grounds, tamped and re-tamped for it wasn't completely level. Pre-heated the 58, pre-heated the cup, put in the water and pulled up the lever. Getting this amount of pressure with so little force on the lever was a surprising feeling after years of high intensity PRO 2 handling.

Slightly slow shot at DF setting 10, but great build-up of pressure. Also: a much higher continuity of puck resistance during the rest of the whole pull in comparison to the PRO 2. This allows for so many more pressure profiling options!

A lot of the resistance I experienced before in the PRO 2 also came from the bigger doses. For the first pull on the 58, I used 15g in, 45ml out, out of necessity: I couldn't fit more grounds in the stock basket and I didn't know yet how to get more liquid out.

And then: the result of the first pull. Godly. I've tasted these Shakisso beans before but never like this. Better shot than I've had in cafés for a long, long time. So much more depth, no acidity at all, sweetness, velvety mouthfeel. This is amazing! I'm afraid I'll have to retaste the entire catalog of Snoffeecob beans.

Workflow Optimization Lessons Learned

• Q: I can only get 43ml of liquid out?
• A: When I used a bigger basket with smaller doses, it left noticeably more room for water in the brew chamber. Also, I found out from uncojwu on reddit that slightly wiggling the lever in the top position disengages the plunger and allows you to keep filling the brew chamber area with more water (the instruction video mentions this as "after topping off"). Using both these techniques I can reproducibly get at least 50ml, up to about 60ml liquid out.
• Q: How to get the hottest possible temperatures?
• A: Preheating with the lever in the up position. It takes a little longer because the plunger is also preheated by the heating element that resides high in the collar of the brew chamber. This results in much higher temperature drinks, less fiddling with the lever to release air, and results in much drier pucks. The accompanying downside is the slightly dirtier puck screens and dirtier chamber, because the bloom allows some of the infused coffee back into the chamber.
• Q: What is the best trade-off between temperature and cleanliness?
• A: Heat in upright position (piston gets heated properly), press down without water, attach portafilter, pour water, wiggle the lever, lift up, top off with boiling water, brew. I started noticing the darker tones immediately after pulling the shot with these techniques.