If you're going to purchase a stovetop espresso maker but you want something a bit more...of today's age, you might as well go for something designed by a jet engineer, right? That's exactly what the 9Barista espresso machine is, and it can produce killer shots of espresso on par with a big fancy machine.

Watch it in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAf-NjV1dbM

The secret to the 9Barista's success lies in its ingenious pressure/temperature regulation system:

1. The high-pressure boiler at its base creates the standard 9 bars of pressure (hence, 9Barista ?) while overheating the water to 354°F (179ºC).
2. The water is then pushed upward through a coil heat exchanger, where the temp comes down to normal boiling temp (212°F/100ºC) before being passed through a fin heat exchanger, lowering the temp yet again to a more espresso-appropriate 199.4°F/93ºC.
3. Finally, this fully temp-regulated water, still at 9-bar pressure, flows up through the puck of coffee grounds to produce a high quality double-shot of espresso that will blow you away.

In case you're skeptical, the man himself James Hoffmann reviewed this gizmo a year ago and was pleasantly surprised how well it works:

And here's what the 9barista team wrote in response:

James, if you’re reading this, thank you for putting together such a great review. We really enjoyed it, and you gave an impressively comprehensive explanation of how it works.

[…]

One minor correction:

We actually recommend a heat-up time of between 3 and 6 minutes, rather than exactly 6 minutes as suggested in the video. Please also note that the spitting issue James mentions is now fixed, but if you’d like to understand further you can do that here.

It’s also possible to grind, tamp and prep the coffee in the portafilter while the boiler is heating on the cooker. Using this fast method, it’s possible to get your cycle times down to around 4 minutes per shot. We find this works well for making two shots in a row.

This is one awesome little piece of engineering, and if you're willing to drop $385 for one — not to mention wait for the next batch of orders to start shipping — then it's sure to find a happy home in your home coffee collection. Cheers! ☕️