Top Five Reasons You Should Not Buy a Mr. Coffee Espresso Machine

I admit that I am a certified espresso junkie. I have no problem making that assertion, for I know well that my obsession can be used for a higher good, namely to help others develop a passion for this pure and precious substance. With that in mind, I humbly offer up my top five reasons why you should not buy a Mr. Coffee Espresso Machine.

It pains me to even call the thing an espresso machine. This brings me directly to my first reason one should not buy a Mr. Coffee Espresso Machine: The Mr. Coffee Espresso Machine is in fact not an espresso machine.

How could this be? Isn't that false advertising? I'm sure it would be in Italy, but here in America, we feel that any bitter strong coffee deserves the title of espresso. The Mr. Coffee Espresso Machine is not an espresso machine because it uses steam power to brew the coffee. Espresso machines use a pump-driven system. Steam power uses about two to three bars of pressure, whereas a good pump-driven machine uses around seven to nine bars of pressure. The difference is that with steam-driven machines, your pressure is tied up to the heat of the water. The water is close to boiling, which is why the resultant coffee is bitter and over-extracted. With a pump-driven machine, the temperature is kept at around 180 degrees Fahrenheit, thus ensuring that you don't burn the beans, and that you produce crema.

Next on my list of reasons one should not buy a Mr. Coffee Espresso Machine is because the machine makes it next to impossible to brew coffee for a crowd. Since it is a steam-driven machine, this means that each and every time you want to brew more than four cups (four espresso cups mind you) you have to refill the boiler and wait for it to heat back up.

This brings me to my third point. The Mr. Coffee Espresso Machine takes a long time, I mean a long time to heat up. The problem is, you are waiting for the entire boiler of water to heat up. In a real espresso machine you are only waiting for the heating element to warm up.

Fourth on my list of reasons why you should not buy a Mr. Coffee Espresso Machine is that it has a ridiculous frothing mechanism. Since the machine is in fact not an espresso machine (remember point number one?) it has to use the same pre-heated water intended for coffee to steam the milk. This means that you can either have four cups of coffee or two cups of coffee and steamed milk. This makes machine inconceivably clumsy, and ultimately useless in terms of making more than one drink.

Finally, you should not buy a Mr. Coffee Espresso Machine because if you really want this type of coffee you can simply buy what the Italians call a Moka. A Moka is the cool looking aluminum or stainless steel stovetop coffee pot you see for sale in funky coffee shops across the globe. These little coffee pots are what many Italians use for their home brew, and they churn out the same bitter strong coffee you would get from the Mr. Coffee machine. The difference is that a Moka is cheaper, built better, and you can take it on camping trips.

Hopefully, that was enough to convince you not to support false espresso machines. Remember these words and let them guide you well: Espresso without crema is simply not espresso.