Outin Nano Portable Espresso Machine Full Review
Great Coffee on the Go. Anywhere.
Pros:
-very compact and portable
-makes rich espresso with excellent crema
-battery lasts for over 200 brews (using boiling water)
Features:
-20 bar built in pump
-uses both coffee grounds and Nespresso capsules
-can heat water itself or use boiling water
-optional basket plus is available for stronger coffee
Cons:
-takes around 5 minutes to heat water
-can’t make multiple coffees at once
Full disclosure: Outin sent us the Nano free of charge for testing. We purchased the Basket Plus add on with our own money. Now, let’s get to the review!
The Outin Nano is a portable espresso machine. You can use it to make any coffee beverage that uses espresso as a base, from straight espresso all the way to an Americano. We’ve been using it daily for seven months, and we generally make Lattes and Americano’s with it.
It is a versatile machine: it can heat the water using it’s internal battery OR you can use pre-boiled water PLUS you can use either coffee grounds or Nespresso capsules. If you start with cold water, the battery is good for five brews of 50ml, or maybe 3 to 4 brews of the 70ml that we typically do. Outin claims over 200 brews using boiling water, and I don’t doubt it, although I haven’t actually counted. But as long as we don’t use it to heat water, the battery lasts for weeks on end!
As mentioned above, right out of the box you can use either coffee grounds or Nespresso capsules to make a single shot of espresso. You can also buy the add-on Basket Plus: it’s aptly named, as it’s simply a bigger double shot basket for coffee grounds which also brings a funnel and tamping tool to the party. In the mornings we always use coffee grounds along with the Basket Plus, to ensure we get the maximum amount of caffeine in our morning coffees. We generally only use the Nespresso capsules either for an after dinner espresso, or when I’m on the road and I want a quick caffeine pick me up at a rest stop. Using the capsules, the end result is on par with an actual Nespresso machine, which is to say lots of crema but not a very strong coffee. If you’re a coffee snob, you’ll want to use the basket plus with a really high quality ground espresso coffee, since that combination delivers a strong, rich espresso with a great crema that is a great basis both for Lila’s lattes and my Americanos.
If you haven’t guessed yet, we love the Outin Nano. Portability, ease of cleaning, and the quality of the coffee are this unit’s greatest strengths. When we’re RVing, it’s just like having a countertop espresso machine with you, yet it takes up very little of our camper’s precious storage space. We keep the machine, the basket plus, along with a bag of Nespresso pods in a single Tupperware container. The ease of cleaning is also great when camping: it’s much simpler to get rid of the used coffee than it was using our old Bodum or our Percolator, just scoop the grounds out of the basket with a spoon. It’s not as easy as Instant Coffee, and you have to make your coffees one at a time, but the rich coffee it produces has been more than enough to convince us to make it our go to both at home and on the road.
Make sure you check out our Youtube video review for a live demo of the unit and even more details, including a minor issue we had with the Basket Plus which didn’t impact it’s function. If you decide you want to buy an Outin Nano, please use the buy now links below since we’ll get a small commission at no extra charge to you!