You need two things to make coffee: beans (ideally fresh with the means to grind them, but pods will do), and hot water (or the means to heat it). Believe it or not, the Nowpresso is the first self-contained, portable product to cover both of thoses bases.
The Nowpresso works with Nespresso pods (they recommend the official brand, duh), or a reusable alternative (they only recommend Sealpods).
If you go with the reusable options, you’ll want to pack fresh beans and grind them right before use. That used to mean an inevitable recommendation of the Hario Skerton, but a few months ago we covered the Kickstarter for LUME: a portable, rechargeable, automatic burr grinder, which I’m very excited to test the final version of.
The Nowpresso can use cold or pre-boiled water, which obviously dramatically saves on its battery life, but when you need it to, it can boil the water on its own, which is a first for the category. A full charge will get you three coffees if you go from cold to boiling in-machine, but if you boil elsewhere, you can get up to 100 cups out of the battery. If space and weight aren’t an issue, pairing the Nowpresso with the upcoming Cauldryn I’m looking forward to testing will make for a powerful combo.
The Nowpresso’s battery is removable, and you’ll need to pull it out when you want to power the Nowpresso with the included AC adapter or car charger, or fly with it. You can charge the battery using both of those methods, and to my shock and awe, also with the built-in USB-C port. Nowpresso isn’t currently selling extra batteries, but I expect that will change in the future.
The accessories that are on tap include a well-thought outtravel bag, a stand to turn the Nespresso into a countertop machine, and a press for recycling your used pods.
It’s been a long time coming, but zero compromise travel coffee is upon us. Whether you use the Nowpresso alone with pods, or in combination with the Cauldryn and/or LUME, everything is automatic, portable, and rechargeable. Hell, you could keep the whole system powered via solar with the right gear.