Review: Fellow Series 1 Espresso Machine

Beautiful temperature consistency and fast heat-up. Beautiful in general. More espresso shot options than I ever knew existed. Excellent steam wand. Excellent machining in general.

There aren't a lot of game changers among espresso machines. But after testing the Fellow Series 1 for three weeks, I feel confident in saying that it will almost certainly change the conversation about what a home espresso machine is supposed to do.

For decades, most home espresso makers have aimed at mostly the same goal: a consistent temperature and a consistent 9 bars of pressure, delivered with precision and reliability. Nine bars is, after all, the traditional ideal of an espresso shot. According to popular imagination, this was the pressure that baristas were able to exert back when espresso was pulled manually with spring-loaded levers. It was also the pressure chosen for the first electric-pump espresso machine from Faema, in ...