IKAPE Alkaid Manual Espresso Machine Review | Unplugged Screw-Driven Coffee Innovation

 Among the vast array of coffee equipment, I’ve always felt that unplugged devices deserve to be considered a category of their own—and one that has won the hearts of many coffee geeks. Recently, a product called the IKAPE Alkaid Manual Espresso Machine caught my attention and genuinely made me think: maybe it’s time to let “no electricity” go a little wilder.

Founded in Shenzhen in 2021 by Vincent Tong and Alex Zeng, IKAPE specializes in manual coffee tools and accessories. Among their lineup, the Alkaid manual espresso machine is undoubtedly the most eye-catching. Its most striking feature is that, unlike traditional lever-style manual espresso machines, the Alkaid uses a screw-driven transmission system to extract espresso. Turning the wooden crank handle rotates a gear, which drives a threaded rod upward. As the shaft rises, a linkage lowers the piston, and water is pushed into the brew head by the piston, which is driven by an internal worm-gear mechanism. Reversing the crank allows the piston to return to its starting position.

I’ve personally used traditional lever-style manual espresso machines—specifically the first-generation Flair NEO—and I clearly remember how physically demanding they could be. By contrast, the screw-drive mechanism of the Alkaid amplifies relatively small input force through gearing, allowing extraction pressure to be controlled more easily and steadily. In practical terms, this means that with minimal downward force, the screw mechanism can achieve the optimal 9 bars of pressure, making the whole process significantly less strenuous.

The Alkaid features a 58 mm E61-style brew head, meaning it’s compatible with all E61 portafilters and standard 58 mm accessories. It also comes equipped with a visible pressure gauge that displays extraction pressure in real time. Typically, turning the handle about six full rotations produces a noticeable pressure change. To properly control the pumping speed, you need to keep an eye on the pressure gauge during extraction and adjust accordingly, avoiding an overly aggressive start. The 58 mm E61 group head offers excellent extraction efficiency, allowing the full flavor profile of the coffee beans to shine through. Of course, like other manual, non-electric espresso machines, it lacks electronic heating control, so you’ll still need to preheat the brew head with hot water in advance.

The Alkaid also incorporates a piston bottom-out protection design. As the piston descends, it applies suction pressure to the brew head. While continuously pumping the handle, the piston keeps moving downward; when you feel a distinct rebound force, it indicates that the piston has reached the lowest point of the brew head. At this stage, reversing the handle (counterclockwise) retracts the piston, making it easier to develop a clear sense of tactile feedback during operation.

As for post-brew cleanup, the design is equally thoughtful. After extraction, hot water remains inside the brew head. By turning the handle counterclockwise, this residual water is drawn back up, preventing unwanted dripping. You can then easily remove the portafilter and place a cup underneath to catch any remaining water. Finally, pulling out the plunger releases the suction, allowing the last drops of water to fall into the cup—effectively avoiding the messy drips that often follow manual espresso brewing.

The Alkaid measures 400 × 270 × 150 mm, weighs 7 kg, and is priced at $749.99 USD on the brand’s official website, which is roughly 5,290 RMB.

Is a €65 Aluminum Espresso Cup Worth It? A Minimalist Coffee Design Review

 The world of coffee gear is inseparable from product design, and product design, in turn, is inseparable from innovation and aesthetics. To some extent, there is always a tension between emotional appeal and rational utility. I can accept that an original design object may carry a premium beyond its material value as a way of honoring the effort and creativity behind it. What I find harder to ignore, however, is a more practical question: What tangible benefits does this product bring to my daily use? And more importantly, what problem does it actually solve?

If I can’t find convincing answers to those questions, I tend to classify the product as “nice but unnecessary,” and switch into a mode of evaluating whether it’s truly worth the price.

Today, I want to talk about an espresso cup made from an unusual material, and use it as a starting point to discuss a broader question: when it comes to original design, do you place more value on form or on function? The espresso cup in question comes from a French design studio called UNAVELA, founded by Javier and Anaïs, a Spanish–French couple. Before starting their studio, they spent six years working in the aerospace industry. Perhaps because of this background, their designs consistently carry a sense of minimalism and rigor. They place great importance on detail and aim to bring that same level of precision into the field of interior and product design.

One defining feature shared across many of their products is the choice of materials. UNAVELA frequently works with 6061 aluminum and high-temperature ceramics, using these materials to create objects with strong geometric presence and visual tension. Every product is modeled by the designers themselves and then handcrafted, piece by piece, in France.

Before going further, it’s worth briefly explaining what 6061 aluminum is, since it’s the core material of this espresso cup. 6061 is a heat-treatable aluminum–magnesium–silicon alloy. Its primary alloying elements are magnesium and silicon, with a small amount of copper added to increase strength, and additional silicon used to offset copper’s negative impact on corrosion resistance. After aging treatment, the material achieves relatively high strength. It offers excellent machinability, weldability, and surface treatment performance, along with good corrosion resistance and toughness. It resists deformation after processing, has a dense, defect-free structure, and is easy to polish and anodize, producing very consistent surface finishes. For these reasons, 6061 aluminum is widely used in precision components and structural parts where both strength and surface quality are critical.

Most espresso cups we encounter have a round rim. This one, however, is deliberately designed with a square opening to emphasize geometric tension. I’ve owned square-rim cups before, and to be honest, this shape isn’t particularly friendly for pouring or drinking. Unless you consciously use one of the corners as an entry point, there’s a real chance of spilling coffee—an awkward moment no one enjoys.
The handle is also worth mentioning: it’s designed as a spherical knob. This type of handle is fairly common, and on a standard-sized mug it can feel acceptable. But on an espresso cup, where the body is already quite small, this style of grip doesn’t feel especially comfortable or secure.

I took a closer look at how the designers themselves describe the thinking behind this cup. Clearly, their perspective is rooted primarily in object and form design. In their view, an espresso cup is not merely a functional vessel; it’s an opportunity to rethink everyday life and to create a quiet, contemplative dialogue through design. While that may sound poetic, it’s also highly abstract. It’s evident that the design did not originate from tasting experience or functional optimization. As someone who leans toward a more technical, design-minded approach, I find it difficult to fully buy into this concept.

As for manufacturing, UNAVELA handles the entire process in-house—from design and prototyping to production. This espresso cup is CNC-machined from a single block of aluminum, ensuring excellent precision and consistency. The surface is then sandblasted with fine abrasives to achieve a soft, satin texture with a natural matte finish that feels smooth to the touch. Finally, a clear anodized coating is applied to protect the metal and ensure food safety.

To be fair, this design does, in some ways, attempt to redefine the espresso cup. From material and tactile experience to manufacturing process and conceptual intent, every step reflects a desire to rethink an everyday object. But when I see that this cup sells for €65 on the official website, what you ultimately receive is a carefully modeled aluminum espresso cup—one whose design doesn’t really address tasting or functional needs. That leaves me with a lingering sense of dissatisfaction: interesting to look at, but not particularly rewarding to use.

Specifications:

• Material: 6061 aluminum

• Surface finish: sandblasted with food-grade anodized coating

• Cup dimensions: 70 × 44 × 44 mm

• Tray dimensions: 125 × 125 × 10 mm

• Capacity: 50 ml

In the end, it raises the same question again: when it comes to coffee gear, where do you draw the line between design as expression and design as utility?

Mahdi Relaunches the Xenia Espresso Machine: A New Era of Smart Home Coffee Gear

 Mahdi certainly wouldn’t miss a market opportunity like this. In the past, they had already released several mid-priced grinders designed for home users, but those products alone couldn’t fully create a complete at-home coffee-making setup. So earlier this year, they made a strategic move: Mahdi’s parent company, Hemro Group, acquired Berlin-based Xenia Espresso. The purpose of this acquisition was to relaunch Xenia’s flagship espresso machine under the Mahdi brand.

Xenia Espresso was originally founded in 2012 by members of a German online coffee enthusiast community. In many ways, it was a product born from collective wisdom—a machine designed entirely from the perspective of hobbyists, hitting all the right notes of what home enthusiasts expect in a coffee machine. The original Xenia already featured a dual-boiler system, a quiet pump, pressure sensors, and PID temperature control for its advanced heating system.

Beyond these foundational components, the newly redesigned machine—now under Mahdi—had to stand apart from the past. And that difference comes from integrating Mahdi’s innovative engineering. The new Xenia espresso machine features a dual-boiler system and four separate heaters: one in the coffee boiler, one in the steam boiler, and two embedded directly in the brew group. The goal is to maintain highly stable brewing temperatures and enable rapid switching between extraction and steaming.

Inside the Xenia, additional sensors and control mechanisms allow users to create extraction profiles based on pressure, flow rate, temperature, and output weight data collected from the built-in scale. This dramatically enhances data visibility and increases the machine’s appeal to coffee geeks, aligning perfectly with the core demands of today’s home-brewing enthusiasts. According to Mahdi, the machine’s powerful steam system also delivers 50% more pressure than typical home espresso units. On top of that, the machine includes Mahdi’s built-in Sync system—a technology that allows it to pair seamlessly with Mahdi’s E64 WS grinder. Using extraction time and weight recorded by the Xenia, the E64 WS can automatically adjust its grind setting coarser or finer based on the programmed target outcome.

This part alone is already exciting—and the auto-adjust grind feature immediately reminds me of Mahdi’s commercial-grade EK Omnia grinder, which previously impressed me. Its biggest advantage is the ability to automatically micro-adjust burr spacing and dose calculations as soon as you select a recipe, enabling precise alignment with the chosen parameters. Without relying on personal guesswork, the grinder uses micron-level burr positioning to achieve ultra-fine tuning. While the E64 WS may not match the EK Omnia’s commercial-grade precision, it carries the same core technological philosophy into the home-use category, which is incredibly promising.

At this point, Mahdi’s forward-thinking market strategy becomes crystal clear. They aren’t blindly chasing the home-espresso trend just to join the competition—they’re building an entirely new product ecosystem. Grinder precision, machine stability, and intelligent extraction control are being seamlessly fused together, offering home users an unprecedented level of professional-grade performance. As of the time I’m writing this, Mahdi has not yet announced the machine’s final retail price. They have only stated that sales are expected to begin next year. When that happens, we’ll definitely keep an eye on further updates. It’s absolutely something to look forward to.

VortexBrew Pro Review: 60-Second Cold Brew Maker You Can Take Anywhere

 The VortexBrew Pro cold brew maker may look like any regular cold brew pot on the outside, but its core feature sets it apart — a small motor that uses centrifugal technology capable of spinning at 1,000 rpm. Inside, it’s equipped with a 5W ultra–low-power motor and a built-in lithium battery, which means it’s fully rechargeable. You can take it anywhere — to the office, camping, or traveling — and it becomes your portable cold brew companion. When fully charged, the VortexBrew Pro can make up to 30 cups of cold brew. And even if the battery runs out, it can still operate while plugged in. The pot has a 600 ml capacity, which is more than enough to supply two or three people with cold brew for an entire day.

The filter basket uses a 300-mesh ultra-fine nylon filter, which does a decent job keeping coffee grounds out of the final brew. During operation, as shown in the demo, the device works almost like a washing machine in spin-dry mode — continuously rotating to create a centrifugal stirring effect. This increases the contact between water and coffee grounds within a short period, allowing extraction to happen faster without compromising the extraction rate. According to the manufacturer, it compresses the usual 8–12 hours of cold brew time into just 60 seconds. The operation is simple as well. There’s a small screen on the lid that displays the countdown timer and remaining battery life. Press and hold for three seconds to turn it on or off, and tap once to start the 60-second automatic extraction. It stops on its own when time’s up.

Some people might question, “One minute? The water might not even be cold in one minute.” In my opinion, this claim is more of an ideal scenario — actual results will still depend on personal taste and brewing habits. The manufacturer’s data likely comes from controlled tests focused on extraction efficiency. On the other hand, using high-speed centrifugal rotation does accelerate the process, allowing you to use a lower coffee-to-water ratio. After brewing, you can add ice to chill the coffee, lower its temperature, and enhance flavor. Adding ice to cold brew often brings out more nuanced, smooth, and balanced tasting notes.

While the real-world results of the VortexBrew Pro still need to be tested by the market, the idea of shortening cold brew time does make sense. Many of us have brewed cold brew in the fridge only to forget to remove the filter basket in time, or worse — drink it after it has over-extracted. Even at low temperatures, long contact between coffee grounds and water can create an environment for bacteria growth. I’ve experienced this myself, and it got bad enough that I had to throw out both the coffee and the cold brew pot. Once your mindset shifts about the brewing timeline, you’re less likely to leave cold brew sitting untouched in the fridge for too long. In a way, being able to drink fresher cold brew is also a healthier and safer choice.

The VortexBrew Pro is priced at $69, or roughly 500 RMB. Personally, I feel that adding a basic centrifugal mechanism — which isn’t exactly advanced technology — doesn’t quite justify the price tag for a home cold brew maker. From a value standpoint, it feels a bit overpriced.