So yesterday I decided to buy a Bellman Cappuccino CX-25P for camping. The Wacaco pump unit makes decent espresso but warming the milk in a saucepan on the stove and then aerating it was a bit (lot) shit. Probably could have gotten away with the Bellman steamer but thought why not get one machine to conquer them all?
Did the clean and steralisation yesterday and made the first coffee this morning.
Easy to use though boiling the water first speeds things up considerably. Used my Mazzer grinder for expediency but I know I can get the same grind from my camping Rhino hand grinder. I put 35g of coffee into the brew basket. I followed the utube video from Alternative Brewing rather than the instructions (?!) and didn't use the reducers.
Put 3 cups worth of hot water in and then put the unit onto the gas. Reached pressure fairly quickly and I cut off the heat and poured at around 0.9bar (0.5 - 1.2bar recommended). Pour was good with good crema though it does spurt a little until the flow steadies. So I need to look at that and maybe scrap the first flow. Measured out a shot glass of espresso and then fired up the gas again until the unit got to just under 2bar (1.2-2bar recommended). Dropped the gas flame to low, purged the steam wand and started steaming the moo. Very easy to steam the milk and it did a top job.
So what did it taste like? Way too strong for me but I am a woos. I need to probably draw at a lower pressure and/or draw less. I will run my house machine again and check quantities.
Will it work camping? Absolutely. If I cannot get the brew right I can always use the Wacaco for the espresso and use this as a steamer but there is no reason why I cannot experiment and get it right. The advantage with the Bellman is you can stack the basket and draw two or more coffees in a single brew, the Wacaco is strictly one at a time. Anyway thought I would share in case anyone else is looking for a camping brewer. At $259 good value for money I think.