Morning coffee and a choice

Espresso needs three things: hot water, high pressure and electricity. That's what I used to think, and that's why for years I didn't take any of these coffee gadgets seriously. Every one of them ended the same way — boil water first. And if I can boil water, I have a kitchen, and if I have a kitchen, I have an espresso machine, so what do I need a toy for.

Then I came across something that heats the water itself.

You pour in cold water, straight from the tap. The device brings it up to ninety-odd degrees and pushes it through the coffee at twenty bars of pressure. On a battery. Charged with the same cable as your phone.

And only then does everything else start to make sense. Because if I don't need a kitchen, I don't need the time of day when a kitchen is available either.

And that time of day is where my problem is.

Two times of day, two places

In the morning it's enough to add coffee, pour in water and head downstairs. The rest happens on the way — the device heats, you drive. You drink when you have a moment for it, not when the kitchen allows.

The second such moment is at work. There's no espresso machine there and nobody's going to put one in. There is a socket in the car, though, or a charged battery — and that's enough to make espresso on a building site, in a workshop, in a parking lot.

You use whatever coffee you've got. Ground from the shop, ground a moment ago yourself, or a capsule. The device isn't picky, and that's its greatest strength — it doesn't make you change your habits.

Two times of day, two places, one device. That's the whole idea.

Who's who here

Before I go any further, I have to untangle the names, because I kept getting lost in them myself.

The OutIn Nano is the model that built this brand. It's been on the market longer, it's been through reviewers' hands, it's proven. It makes coffee from ground coffee and handles capsules just as smoothly, and it heats the water itself.

The OutIn Mino is the newer and smaller design. The main difference sits in the coffee basket — it holds ten to twelve grams, considerably more than the Nano. That matters, and in a moment I'll explain why.

What to look for

Does it heat on its own. That's the first question and the decisive one, because everything else depends on it. Gear in this class takes cold water and gets up to temperature by itself, in roughly three minutes. On a single charge it will make a few servings.

Does it take ground coffee and capsules. Sounds like a detail from a leaflet, but it's the answer to those two different times of day. Ground the night before or freshly ground on the spot — for the device it's the same job; the difference is in your evening. The capsule is the second mode, for a day when you can't be bothered to measure anything.

How big is the basket. Here's a detail you won't see in any ad, and it decides everything. With a small basket it's hard to measure the coffee and tamp it evenly, and packed too tight it blocks the flow of water — Nano reviewers wrote about this openly and advised buying a bigger basket. If you spoon in coffee rather than drop in capsules, this is not a detail. It's the difference between a device you like and a device you put away.

Where it gets its power. It charges from twelve- and twenty-four-volt sockets. Twenty-four volts means trucks and some site equipment. Provided the adapter delivers at least fifteen watts — a weaker one won't charge it.

How much it weighs. Around seven hundred grams; it fits in a hand. That matters if you drop it into your bag every day along with everything else.

If you're after specifics: for grinding, the Fino grinder with adjustable coarseness, and the EVA Plus case if this thing is meant to travel with you rather than stand in a kitchen.

What you're not buying

Honestly — because otherwise this would be an ad, not an article.

It's not a cup. The coffee flows out of the bottom and you need something to catch it in. You carry two things instead of one.

The battery can't be replaced. This is the most serious thing in this entire text. People whose battery gave out after a few years were told by the manufacturer that the device can't be repaired. The cell itself can't be replaced — that service simply doesn't exist. For the first year the manufacturer swaps the whole device under warranty, and in the EU you get two years of seller's liability on top. After that, you're on your own. Users report that with daily use the battery lasts two to three years. So you're buying a device for as many years as the battery holds out — and that's something to know before, not after.

On a plane it goes in your hand luggage only, and you can't use it on board. The rule covers anything with a lithium battery, not just this device — but since it's meant to travel with you, better to know beforehand.

It won't be café coffee. It will be strong, hot and yours, made where coffee normally doesn't exist. That is quite enough.

The moment you decide

There's one more thing, and it has nothing to do with the gear.

Coffee you buy is always coffee made to someone else's settings. Someone picked the beans, someone set the grinder, someone decided how much of it ends up in your cup. It can be very good. But you weren't the one running it.

When you press the button yourself, everything flips. You decide the hour. You decide whether today it's coffee ground last night, fresh, or a capsule. You decide how strong.

And that, I think, is the real reason people get into this. Not the savings, not the taste. That moment when you're the one deciding — and there are fewer of those in a day than one would like.

Now you know what you're looking at

Next time you see a device like this, the numbers in the listing will stop being the first thing you look at.

You'll know the question is a different one: how much time do you have in the morning, and what do you actually feel like doing then. Because in the morning you usually don't feel like anything. You get up at the last minute, get dressed and leave.

And the same question works when you're buying for someone else. There are no people who have no use for a device like this — only people who haven't yet had a reason to think about one. Everyone, one day, gets up from the kitchen table and walks out the door.

You'll settle that yourself.

I'm writing this before I've held the device in my hands. When it gets to my building site and works with me for a few weeks, I'll come back with part two — first-hand this time, with dust and frost in the background.

Sources

1. OutIn — technical data and product specifications (heating time, power, weight), manufacturer's site: de.outin.com
2. IATA — rules for flying with lithium-battery devices in your luggage; check your own case before a flight: iata.org