The Cay | Espresso Meets French Press

As if espresso didn’t have enough variables, it’s time to get back into the wild world of the manual press. Which of course relies on you and your understanding of coffee brewing dynamics to produce a proper cup. But today, we’ve got our hands the unique and under-the-radar Cay coffee press. Its like a French press meets espresso, but the question is will it work?

↓CHAPTERS↓
[00:00] Intro
[01:07] Third Wave Water Sponsor
[01:52] Usability & Performance
[05:42] Quirks & Downsides
[06:53] Final Thoughts

Learn more about this video’s topic.
Cay: https://www.caycay.co.uk

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I think its fair to say espresso is a relatively expensive hobby, theres a lot of pieces to the puzzle… but I always love to see new equipment offering the experience and the ability to make espresso at home, or anywhere for that matter, to a broader audience, and the Cay Cay coffee press does just that. Of course, as you can see it is an incredibly simple piece of kit, with a tank for water, a pressure system that resembles a bike tire pump, and a 58mm group head. And this simplicity isn’t lost on its designer and builder, Max. Who says he wanted to create a friendly entry into real espresso, so thats the bar, thats what we’re looking into today. Can the Cay Cay meet the generally agreed upon standards of espresso, as in reaching 9 bars of pressure, some crema, and a tasty little hot beverage. But as always before we do that, I should say Max at Cay Cay sent me the coffee press for my review and feedback, and of course agreed to my terms of access to my draft or the content of this video before full public release, and with that out of the way, we’ll dive right into it after a quick word from the sponsor of this video, Third Wave Water. When it comes to brewing the best coffee, quality ingredients matter. And purely by the numbers water makes up to 98% of what’s your cup, and its also vital to the long term reliability of your equipment. So after months of testing and trials, I’ve landed on Third Wave water formulas for all of my coffee preparation. Not only is it formulated to not produce scale or cause corrosion, there’s an option for every palate. Third Wave Water offers a wide variety of mineral blends specifically designed to get the most out of your favorite roast level or brew type. So take control of one of the most important variables for quality coffee and head over to thirdwavewater.com/sprometheus, or use code sprometheus at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase. Thanks to third wave water for sponsoring this video, now let’s get back into it. Usually on these videos I do a little overview, but considering the simplicity of the Cay Cay we’ll just jump into its usability and performance. Now I think straight off the bat, its hard not to note its small, not particularly pretty, but definitely inoffensive design. And because it only weighs a couple lbs it can easily be stashed away in a drawer or cabinet until you want to use it. But the design itself is also rather effective, and in my mind, leaves no questions to how its used. Coffee goes there… Water goes here… And Pressure is made there… But let me back up just a bit, the ground coffee itself goes into the included 58mm bottomless portafilter, so that gives you a lot of options for accessories… but when it comes to baskets you’ll want lean towards the larger options depending on your preferred dose, because the way the group is designed, the shower screen does sit pretty deeply in the basket itself, which is why prepped espresso looks pretty under-dosed at a glance. From there, brewing is as simple as utilizing the pump system to direct water into the group itself, and as simple as that sounds, there is quite a bit of nuance when it comes to group flow and the subsequent pressure created. And thankfully, despite its minimalist design, it has a pressure gauge, which yes it can reach and even exceed 9 bars, so we can check that off the list, And because you can directly control the pressure, you can do things like low-pressure pre-infusion, blooming, and other modern espresso profiling approaches. But this also requires some experimentation with flow rate, because obviously unlike a pump driven machine there isn’t a grams per second base line I can give, because that all depends on how fast you’re pressing the plunger down. But keep in mind that brewing a shot isn’t one full press of the pump, and because of that you will see some pressure loss between presses, but you can slow the press and generally get through half or so of a standard double after one pre-infusion press. But on the bright side, I have found the Cay Cay’s chosen method of building pressure to be very forgiving when it comes to grind size as its easy to push slower to reduce the flow, and I’ve yet to pull a shot that felt like I was having to really put a lot of muscle into to brew. And finally, speaking of the brew, let’s talk about the experience in the cup. Over my time with Cay Cay I pulled shots on a variety of difference coffees, ratios and styles. And generally it’s performed well, producing properly extracted, at least 18% yields, and tasty little hot beverages, coated in some nice glossy crema, which checks off the basic espresso list. But, its not all rainbows and sunshine, and it does suffer from a couple common hand-press espresso issues. For one, shot temps can be on the lower side… pre-heating definitely helps, but on average mine landed at about 120 to 130 degrees max, you could probably eek a few more out if you power through it quickly, but I didn’t see the need as I didn’t experience a drop in cup quality. I’d just go by the basic metric of brewing hotter with lighter roasts, and cooler with darker. And second, the shots themselves do have a bit of a lack of mouthfeel or body, but again, this isn’t unusual for hand press machines, so par the coarse. And lastly, likely partially due to the spotty flow from the shower screen, inconsistent pressure application, I found it difficult to get smooth clean, single stream shots on the Cay Cay. Now of course, its hard to avoid the ol’ quirks and downsides, and even with its sheer simplicity, the Cay Cay can’t escape. And I think the biggest is it’s price point, at $200 it feels a little steep, especially up against other similar entry-level espresso units with decent controllability like the classic flair at around 170. But it does come with a the aforementioned 58mm portafilter, and this small, but rather cheap feeling scale that fits on the drip tray. And when it comes to the general fit and finish I feel like it could use a bit more polish. For example there’s literally only two parts of the machine that the user interacts with, the plunger, and the group and I have complaints about both. The plunger itself seems a little wobbly, thin, and strikes me as a potential failure point over an extended period of time. And the portafilter lock-in is similar to standard machines, but feels difficult and awkward as it requires more muscle to push up and in, and I found it common that the removal leaves the basket stuck in the group. In the end though, like nearly every espresso machine, or maker or whatever category you want to put them in, when paired with a proper grinder you can get some tasty shots and the Cay Cay. It’s small but inoffensive aesthetics, simple design, and French press adjacent usability makes it solid option for espresso drinkers, tinkerers on a budget, or without a lot of space. And where it truly stands above many of the other manual options I’ve used, it can actually do longer pulls, lungos, Allonges, spro-overs, etc., and even be pivoted to brew a pour over if you feel so inclined. Of course, the longevity, and repairability could be a tricky considering their current one-man operation, and as always, buy at your own risk because this review isn’t me co-signing anything, and its a small young company so theres always potential issues with that as well. But on that note, I think its time I start to wrap this one up and as always pass the conversation on to you. So what are your thoughts on the Cay Cay, and manual espresso as a means to get into espresso or learn about it in general? Drop your answers to those questions and any others you may have in the comment section down below, and of course, I’ll see ya’ll again at some point in June with a full channel refresh, so until then. Thanks for watching and if you enjoyed the video don’t forget to like, share and subscribe Hit that little bell button for notifications when new videos drop Check out my instagram @sprometheus for more coffee content. Help support the channel by considering becoming a member for unique exclusive perks And as always, stay caffeinated pony boy