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An invention by a local young couple that enables you to make good coffee, wherever you are, is attracting a lot of attention.
The Porta Presso is no bigger than a thermos and is battery powered. It has a built in grinder and also compacts the beans, boils water and heats/froths milk. With the use of an LCD screen or smart device app, a variety of pre-set coffee types could be selected.
Josh Mittendorff, aged 20, of Stanmore Bay, and Brianna Ellin, 18, came up with the idea because they are coffee lovers and were looking online for a portable espresso maker that they could buy and potentially distribute within NZ.
“There was nothing that suited our needs,” Josh says. “Most needed a kettle or pre-ground beans. We wanted to boil water, grind beans and froth milk, all in one machine. Above all, we wanted a good quality coffee.”
He says while there are already portable coffee makers on the market, none they could find work like an espresso machine.
Josh and Brianna came up with a concept and sketches and took them to GDP (Global Design and Production) in Matakana who are currently working out various technical issues and options to produce a working model.
A patent for The Porta Presso is pending. A limited company has been set up. Josh says all going to plan, the first machines could be produced next April.
Recently Josh and Brianna put The Porta Presso up on the crowd funding page Indiegogo, hoping to attract US$50,000 through pre-orders at a cheaper price. So far they have more than US$30,000-worth of orders – the offer closes at the end of this week.
Josh says the response has been amazing, with orders coming in from 19 countries and the biggest uptake from Australia.
“We figured that if we’d use it, and our families would use it, others would too. Friends who are tradies say they would like one and it would also work for those early morning fishing trips.”
The pair grew up on the Hibiscus Coast and Josh’s first job was delivering Hibiscus Matters! He is currently working as an insurance consultant and Brianna is studying business and Chinese at university. Josh says having their own business was always on the cards.
Info: look for PortaPresso on Indiegogo or visit www.theportapresso.com
