[adevine]

Come on over and visit us at /r/coffee, and we'll set you straight :) There actually is a consensus that "real" espresso has to be brewed with around 9 bar of pressure, and that is the standard used by SCAA ( see http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/tchen3/espdifine.html ). At this pressure, the consistency and mouth feel of espresso is fundamentally different (it's "syrupy") than that brewed at lower pressure. To achieve this pressure, you need to use an electrical or lever pump. Machines that only get 1-3 bar of pressure like the aeropress or a mocha pot produce something that just tastes more like strong coffee.

[e12e]

Wait, are you saying that the old manual lever-based espresso machines, didn't make espersso? Wikipedia has this to say: "There are two types of lever machines; manual piston and spring piston design. With the manual piston, the operator directly pushes the water through the grounds. In the spring piston design, the operator works to tension a spring, which then delivers the pressure for the espresso (usually 8 to 10 bar; 116 to 145 psi)."

(I'm not disputing the claim that the Aeropress, for all its niceties, doesn't allow for 9 bars of pressure when used as intended)

[ed: That lever contraption is awesome. Searching for appropriate metal filters that could help with generating 130 psi, I fell into the rabbithole of

https://www.tumblr.com/search/aerohacks

and found among other things:

http://www.handpresso.com/

Also, by the makers of the video posted by gp: http://www.spressa.us/ ...]