One day I was reading about the effects of Kava so I went to a Mexican Store and found some raw ground Kava and went home to try a cup. The instructions say to strain it in cheese cloth but that seemed like a lot of trouble so I decided to use my Latte machine which is basically a mini boiler made out of Aluminum. I packed the machine added water and turned it on. After about 5 minutes it still was not producing any liquid so I figured that I must have forgotten to add water which is easy to do. I opened the lid to add water but instead I got superheated steam out of the lid which burned my hand slightly. It turns out that Kava has a lot of Pectin (think jello) and it had completely sealed the Latte maker.At that point it occurred to me that this boiler does not have a pressure release valve on it and at some point it would have no other option then to explode possible killing me. I had to sit down and think about that. I almost screwed up bigtime.

Submitted on 12/19/2009

Submitted by: Lonnie Blakley
Reference: none personal story

Copyright © 2009 DarwinAwards.com

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
I think this is worthy of a PA. I don't recall any previous stories involving misuse of an espresso maker, and since yours didn't have a pressure relief valve it sounds like a potential accident waiting to happen. Thanks, Lonnie!

James said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Rather amusing and certainly original! Thanks, Lonnie!

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