Christoph Meyl was faced with a dilemma that many espresso-lovers would relate to. His office was too far from the nearest café, the communal kitchen was shared with 600 other employees and there was no coffee machine, just a microwave. All Christoph wanted was to enjoy a good coffee at work, so with the help of brother Hendrik he invented a solution – the Piamo single-serve espresso maker.
While the idea of making coffee in the microwave isn't new, the Piamo boasts a compact design combining coffee cup and coffee maker in one unit that can turn out an espresso in 30 seconds.
Making coffee with the Piamo involves four simple steps – add water to the water chamber, insert an espresso pad or ground coffee, assemble the three parts together and place it in the microwave. When heated for 30 seconds at 800 watts, the heat pressure in the water chamber forces the water to filter through the coffee chamber and down into the cup, creating a ready to drink espresso. You can check out Christoph Meyl explaining how the Piamo works in the video below.
Developed in partnership with design studio Lunar Europe, the Piamo has been through "several tiers of prototypes" and Meyl's company gemodo coffee is currently raising money on the German crowd-funding website startnext to bring the product to market. For those coffee lovers who like what they see, pledges start at €40 (around US$53).