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I really wanted this thing to work. Black and Decker's new Expresso Mio (yes, that's right, e-x-presso) would liberate me from the clutches of Starbucks. I could make my morning triple shot in the microwave, a standard feature of every office. Since the Mio retailed for about US$30, and I was putting out US$2 five mornings a week, I would be ahead of the game in less than a month.
The premise is straightforward: the Expresso Mio is a variation of the stovetop pressure pot, the coffee maker used in almost every European home and by anyone who wants cheap espresso (you can pick up a new 4-cupper for about US$25 or, since they were standard issue for baby boomer grad students, find one for a buck or two at a garage sale). Water goes in the bottom, ground coffee in a screened basket in the middle. Apply heat, water boils, steam is forced through coffee, and espresso ends up in the top. Quick and easy.
Black and Decker, hip to the fact that Americans love all things microwave-able, thought they could adapt the time-tested pressure pot to our favorite high-speed appliance. It's a great idea. But I tried three different coffee grinds, from medium fine to coarse, and two different microwaves, and the Expresso Mio just didn't work.
It splattered espresso it all over the inside of the microwave. I tightened the pieces together, double-checked the gasket, but it never failed to leak. So the promised double shot was usually no more than a small sip.
And it tasted awful. If all of the water hadn't been forced through the coffee after the recommended 90 seconds, I nuked it for another 30 or so, as instructed. Unfortunately, since the molecule-exciting, heat-producing energy of the microwave can't be focused on the bottom of the pot, the espresso in the top boils away merrily. Boiling coffee leaves it tasting bitter and, well, boiled.
To top it all, the Expresso Mio is even more of a pain to clean than a stovetop unit. The coffee basket is small, there's another filter on top of it that's just dying to get lost, and the rubber gasket is difficult to remove.
The bottom line on the Expresso Mio: forget it. If you want to make espresso, find a pressure pot or spring for a pump-driven machine like the Krups Semi-Commercial unit.