Mypressi – My perfect portable espresso maker

MyPressi TWIST Portable Espresso Maker

How do you brew perfect espresso at home without an expensive machine? Doubles anyone?

A few months back I stumbled upon the ultimate coffee afficionado/geek gadget – a portable espresso maker! Not that I travel much, but I’m not a fan of most home machines, and I’m not going to spend thousands of dollars on one I’d be happy with; much less hundreds of dollars on one that I wouldn’t. Yes, I’m a coffee snob.

Enter mypressi TWIST from Espressi. It’s all over the web, TV, and in print. You can even follow them on twitter (@espressi). And no, it’s not just for pods. There’s an adapter for pods, but this finely-tuned instrument is designed for freshly-ground beans. 9 bars of pressure, just like the two-station Rio at the cafe. I just had to have one. So I spread the word far and wide that this was the only thing on my Christmas list. The message made it to Santa, and he came through!

I’m the kind of person that actually reads the manuals. Maybe because I’ve worked for technical writers for so many years; maybe because I’ve actually written a few myself. But mostly because I want to avoid the frustration that occurs when things don’t work as you think they should, and then you try to figure out why by reading the instructions. As I carefully opened the package I noticed that there were quite a few components – different baskets, different showerheads, a tamper (of course you need a tamper!), and even a spare set of gaskets. And a carrying case (I told you it was portable, right?). But what I couldn’t find was the “standard” basket – the one that you would likely use most often to make a double shot. Not to be defeated, because I had read the instructions I knew that you could use the standard showerhead with the pod basket to brew single shots. So that’s what I did.

It was awesome. Watching the espresso pour out of the portafilter was like watching a little bit of heaven fall into my cup. The aroma filled the senses. And the taste was even better. But it was still just a single shot.

After looking around on both the Espressi and EspressoParts sites (Santa acquired my mypressi from EspressoParts) I saw that Espressi was on Twitter. Perfect! One tweet and within an hour I had a response and my missing standard basket will be sent to me on Monday! Now that’s customer service.

If I’ve made your mouth water for some great espresso, here’s what you’ll need:

MyPressi Twist Portable Espresso Maker

Solis Crema Maestro Plus G385 Conical Burr Grinder

Le Creuset Enameled Steel Whistling Tea Kettle

espresso beans (our all-time fave is A&E Roastery’s Espresso Blend)

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go make myself another shot. Salute! - Mary M.

Tagged as: Mypressi, portable espresso maker