Kitchen small appliancesNov 2, 2026
9Barista, off the grid: the jet engine engineer's espresso machine that needs no power
Official homepage: https://9barista.com Espresso stores usually sell machines that need your kitchen. 9Barista sells one that needs nothing but flame. The Cambridge, England company makes the only stovetop espresso machine that brews true nine-bar espresso the pressure professionals use with zero electronics, zero pumps, and exactly one moving part, which is a spring. Its founder, William Playford, built rocket motors and fully functioning gas turbine engines in his parents' garden shed as a teenager, earned a PhD in jet-engine thermodynamics at Cambridge's Whittle Lab, and then spent his nights analyzing why his beloved stovetop brewers could not make real espresso. Five years of prototypes later, he patented the answer: two saturated-steam …