The Flair Neo Flex - an espresso noob's review

2024-10-05

you may wonder why I am reviewing the flair neo flex, as it is my first espresso machine and I have nothing to compare it against, so how is this a useful review? And that is a fair point, this post likely will not help you pick a espresso machine, but I feel like it deserves a review by a member of the target market - an espresso noob, just starting out. So here's my take on it after about a month of daily use.

First up, despite selling mostly on being cheap, this thing does not really cost 99 dollars, as it's a picky tool that expects you to have external gear. To get good results from it, you will also need an espresso capable burr grinder (I have a kingrinder k6) and a espresso scale (I have a neoweigh one), putting the cost at more like $250. This is still a good deal for making specialty espresso at home, but a lot more than the initial price tag suggests.

The build of the machine feels... Fine? It has a plastic frame that creeks a lot while you brew, which is offputting, but it does seem like it would hold up. All the parts actually involved in brewing are metal, and feel very solid. the main brew chamber has a silicone sleeve for handling, which is nice as it easily gets very hot.

Making espresso with it is very much a manual process. I love the ritual of it, but to make a single shot with this thing you need to:

grind your coffee
boil your water
pre-heat your brew chamber with the water
dose ground coffee into the basket, distribute, tamp, add the shower screen, and fill the brew chamber with water
Put the piston in the brew chamber and place in the stand, engaging the lever
push the lever down slowly to pre-infuse the coffee until you get the first drips out into the cup (unlike other machines, this is needed on the flair, as if you apply brew pressure straight away water will just splash out of the top of the brew chamber)
push the lever with constant pressure until you have espresso.

This is all a lot to do, especially if you are grinding your coffee by hand. Getting pressure right is aided by the pressure gauge on the piston, but it is less helpful than it should be as it has no real markings, just "espresso" and "stop", so you only know that you are roughly in the right place.

Learning to use it and dialling in a new coffee can take a while, especially as every coffee has a different grind size it needs, and it takes making bad shots for a while to find what works (this is where you need a scale, as knowing your intended ratio is required to get anything good from it). As it is fully manual, this is a time consuming process that needs a lot of learning, and making bad coffee until you get it right. Once you do, it can make very nice espresso, but it's a learning curve, and you have to repeat part of the process for each new bean.

Cleaning is a bit of a pain. You have to fully disassemble the machine, and clean every part individually, though they all clean with just hot water and a cloth. The showerscreen is easy to loose during cleaning, which is a pain. If you want to make more than one drink, you need to pull a shot, following that whole process, fully clean the machine, and then make another. Also, knocking out pucks is hard as there is no handle on the portafilter, so you sometimes have to scrape it out.

so, in conclusion, the neo flex can make nice espresso, but it takes a lot of learning and work to get good results from. I love mine, and if you are also a fan of the process and ritual of coffee brewing, and you want to dive into a world of espresso nerdery, you might love it too. But this is not something to get if you just want espresso at home. You are buying into a hobby, and one that can be frustrating and time consuming, but also rewarding, and that can get you some very nice drinks.