Reviews ROK espresso GC - black

I have been using ROK for more than 11 years. I bought it at a coffee festival in London for about 110lbs. A couple of years ago I upgraded the available kit to the GC version. With a professional grinder and 10+ years experience I can make espresso like you get in top speciality coffee shops. It's not at all true that crema is impossible with the Rok. You have to learn how to work with it, know its limits and most importantly have a good quality grinder (every coffee requires a different grind). The body holds steady as new. I've only changed the seals, the original clear cylinder for a black GC one and the lever, on which the tooth on the bayonet broke after about 6 years of daily use (Rok UK sent me a new one free of charge), as it is a metal part covered by a 10 year warranty. In the meantime I also bought a naked porta filter which I have been using for the last few years and it is great. I rate the whole thing excellent. Over the years the flies are picked out and daily espressos are lovingly and literally ritually prepared ;)

Excellent coffee machine in a great design... I appreciate that the whole body of the coffee maker is metal

Great coffee maker, you can pack it in your backpack and make coffee (with hot water in a thermos) anywhere on your trips👍

+ The extractor is portable, simple, you just need a kettle or other water heating source...
Original design
It really doesn't take up much space and is easy to carry.
- You won't get coffee with crema like in a cafe on it
The hot water that is poured in quickly loses its temperature and therefore probably cannot be fully extracted like in an electric coffee machine
The gearing on the pivots where the movement of the two side arms come together strikes me as weak, thin - considering the force required to push the water through the coffee. They really didn't have to skimp on the solidity of the gearing. Well so far it's working for me, but I wonder for how long?
A cheap plastic coffee spout fork from the lever instead of a traditional metal one - so they pretty much buried it with that
Making coffee on this takes practice: certainly more practice than on any electric lever coffee machine. So, even I am still learning
By critical points of evaluation, I don't want to regard the extractor as explicitly bad. As an alternative coffee preparation option somewhere in a cottage or campground, it can be quite good. However, given the rather high price of this product and the result of the prepared coffee, I recommend an electric coffee machine instead.

Super coffee maker, I always wanted a manual coffee maker like this and it did not disappoint. Before we had a regular electric one but every 2 years we bought another one because the pump was breaking down. Here is the advantage that nothing can go wrong and even if by chance all the parts are available. And the taste of the coffee is completely different (I don't really know what it is)

If you don't want to buy expensive espresso machines, this product is great.

You need some time to operate it properly and figure out all the tricks such as grinding degree etc., but then it works great.

APPROX! APPROX! APPROX! APPROX! APPROX! APPROX!