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I grew up understanding the difference between ‘everyday coffee’ brewed in the stainless steel percolator and ‘real coffee’. My grandmother made the first for my mother and her friends. It was, to quote my mother, an acquired taste. I know now that it was an acquired taste because, frankly, percolators make terrible coffee. When we were at home alone, my grandmother made real coffee on top of the stove with a moka pot. I never had to acquire a taste for this coffee. It was rich and dark and flavorful, a symphony on the tongue. As a little girl, one of my favorite breakfast treats was Nana’s moka pot coffee poured over my cornflakes with the milk.
A moka pot is a three part metal pot that you use to make coffee on top of your stove. Fully assembled, it is shaped like an hourglass. The bottom part holds the water for your coffee. The middle part is a metal filter that fits between the top and the bottom pieces and holds ground coffee. When the water in the bottom part of the moka pot heats, the steam is forced up through the grounds in the filter into the top pot, where it condenses into a liquid again. You can find moka pots in nearly any department store or supermarket for far less than you’ll pay for them through a specialty coffee shop. If you want the best, though, Bialetti makes several different models in 100% culinary grade stainless steel. Most moka pots that you’ll find in supermarkets are made with aluminum, which can affect the taste of the coffee.
Coffee brewed in a moka pot can be a heavenly experience – or it can be a huge disappointment. There is an art to making coffee in a moka pot that includes the amount of water, the amount and grind of the coffee, the compactness of the coffee grounds in the filter and the heat of the water used to brew it. It is possible, however, to make excellent coffee without any acidity or bitterness in a moka pot if you follow a simple procedure.
First, keep your moka pot scrupulously clean. Coffee flavor is the result of extracting oils naturally found in coffee beans. Those oils cling to any surface that they touch. Disassemble the moka pot after every use and clean the filter and top pot, being sure that you clean the underside of the top pot. Every few weeks, run some vinegar through the moka pot as if you were brewing coffee to get rid of any mineral deposits left behind by hard water.
Before you use your moka pot for the first time:
Follow the directions below using spent coffee grounds or inexpensive coffee that you don’t mind wasting. The first pot of coffee you brew in this should be thrown away. The intent is just to clean the machine out before using it for the first time.
To Make Coffee in a Moka Pot
Unscrew the top part of the moka pot and set it aside. Take out the filter basket.
Fill the bottom part of the moka pot with water to the pressure gauge line.
Drop the filter basket into place and add a heaping tablespoon of finely ground coffee for every three ounces of water in the pot. Do not tamp the coffee. The coffee will expand when the steam is forced through it, effectively producing its own tamp.
Screw the top part of the moka pot into place.
Put the pot over low heat and wait. It will take about five minutes for the coffee to finish. You’ll know that it’s done by the throaty sound of the coffee sputtering.
Pour into an espresso cup and enjoy.
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Keith says
Hi Deleilan.
I have a 3-cup pot and it takes between 2¼ and 3¼ minutes to start coming out of the funnel so 20 minutes for a 4-cup pot is definitely odd.
Here are my suggestions for what they are worth:
1. Check the gas flame comes to the edge of the base of the pot.
2. DON’T tamp the coffee. Definitely a no no according to my Sicilian friends. To my mind, this could very possibly bung up the flow from the funnel. Rather, aereate the grind in the coffee pot tank by pricking/punching with a small tool like a pointed handle end of a teaspoon. If your coffee grind is piled up a bit high, it will reduce the total coffee grind mass, at the same time as (paradoxically) aerating it. This is a trick I learnt from a couple of Sicilian friends.
3. The seal: I would have thought that, if you don’t have coffee leaking from the screw thread (where the tank and the coffe pot screw together), there should be no problem. If however there IS a leak, remove and thoroughly clean the rubber seal, replace and SCREW TIGHT before putting the pot on the gas.
If none of this works, then I’m afraid I am stumped. :(
Shantel says
Hi–My guess would be that 1) you’re boiling more water, so it will take longer unless you turn up the heat; 2) the seal is imperfect for some reason. Hope that helps.
Deleilan says
This site is incredible; I’m learning so much about coffee! Love it!
I recently bought a 4-cup Bialetti Musa to replace my 3-cup Bialetti Moka Express (I took very bad care of it and the bottom compartment got all rusty – mea maxima culpa). I’ve only used it a couple of times thus far, but it takes forever to brew. It’s not supposed to take 20 minutes, right? After the first try, I thought perhaps the coffee was ground too fine and got a coarser grind, especially for moka pots, but it took just as long. I’m not sure what else to try. Could it be because I tamped the coffee, or because I’m using the wrong temperature (medium)? Any help/suggestions will be appreciated!
Adrian says
Followup…
According to wikipedia, aluminum oxide is incredibly useful, and chemically inert (probably why aluminum is still a bit costly to refine). it’s an interesting read, actually – though mainly you’ll want to know that aluminum oxide is used in toothpaste, sunscreen, and many industrial applications for it’s hardness. Feel free to do more research, of course, but it looks fairly safe to pass through the stomach – safer than iron oxide, I suspect. don’t get it in your eyes though, it’s an excellent abrasive! :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxide
and the msds for it:
http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/a2844.htm
Adrian says
Just to add to David’s comment, and be scientific…
Aluminum oxide (the coating that forms on untreated aluminum) is classed as a ceramic, and forms a layer which protects the rest of the aluminum (by keeping oxygen away from it). I’m letting you know so that you won’t have to worry about aluminum turning completely to dust on you. if if forms a layer, don’t scrub it too hard. – that’s the other reason for just wiping inside with water instead of scouring, I’m supposing. – I still need to find out if hot water helps or degrades the oxidizing process/ceramic layer of aluminum oxide.
Speaking of which… I think it’s time for coffee!
for good breakfast music check out http://www.ancientfm.com, music of the Renaissance!
David says
Hi Annette,
If our pot had a white powder to the surface this is aluminum’s version of rust on steel! I believe it needed removing as it would have only come free and entered your coffee. With it removed and a few brews done and thrown away the surface should seal and no more dust forms.
Annette says
I scrubbed my new cheap stove top expresso pot, before usins as it smelled so bad . I actually disturbed the powder coating in the water part. Have I ruined my pot? No instructions came with the pot. And I have never used one. So I decided to do research here.
Keith says
Roger:
You could be a bit more gracious in the manner you make your comments. This is meant to be a FRIENDLY forum, and for God’s sake we can ALL make mistakes. Your points are logical and definitely valid, but your manner of expressing them is highly off-putting to put it mildly and certainly not in the spirit of this forum :)
Keith says
Oh my God!!! (But you’re living in Venice—lucky you!!! I strongly suggest you ask an Italian friend. They know MUCH more about these things than we humble lot do :( )
Roger says
As for dennis – yes, a moka pot can damage a ceramic hob… if you hold it by the handle and hammer it into the surface.
Roger says
Help with what? Cleaning the walls? Either your moka pot has no safety valve, in which case it fails, or you are not qualified to be operating drinks-making equipment, in which case you fail. I suspect the latter, since even without a safety valve it could only have exploded if you let old coffee become cement in the stem or jammed a marble up the spout.
Jessica says
Up till now I’ve had no problems and LOVE the coffee that the Moka pot in my apartment brews (I’ve been in Venice studying for a month and it’s been fine all this time). But yesterday evening I (assume) I did the same as usual but after only a minute there was an incredibly loud noise and the pot had basically sprayed coffee 5m in each direction! Luckily I wasn’t right by it…but am totallly in shock, cannot get rid of the splatters from the white-washed walls and my landlady is going to kill me. And obviously I don’t want this to happen again. Please please help! I assume there was a blockage but I’m so careful about drying it, not packing in too much coffee etc. Oh dear!
dennis groark says
can moka espresso maker damage ceramic hob?
Shantel says
Cast Aluminum is a relatively porous material; that is why a soap residue can build up on your aluminum pot if you wash it with soap, and also why a pot can be seasoned (so to speak) by brewing coffee in it. The same principle effects the kind of chinese clay pot that is only used to brew one kind of tea.
I came back to this great thread to write about the Alessi 9090 I have had for just over a week now. Like Lucie, above, I was curious about it and could find very little info. The hardest thing to do here will be to avoid talking about the aesthetics–or I will get carried away and lose credibility, so I’ll save that to the end.
Is this pot worth the money (cost in the U.S. is equivalent to five or so Bialetti moka pots); does it offer any advantages, or what defines this pot’s value?
I personally bought the pot partly out of curiosity, spurred on by the demise of my Bialetti pot. Distracted, I had put it on the stove without water. My first clue to this blunder was when the handle fell off (clunk) on the stove. Inside, the rubber ring was fused to the top. That can’t happen to the 9090. At worst, the ring could be melted off the steel. The handle is metal, so you won’t get a half-melted handle, either (as on my first Bialetti pot). In short, I expect the 9090 to last long enough to recover the expense.
About that rubber ring someone asked about: its purpose is to make a seal. Once you have a seal, compressing the rubber more won’t make a difference if the pressure doesn’t increase. Rubber performs very well in compression. For these reasons, I don’t think the clamp mechanism means replacing the rubber ring more often. (It might be harder to find an Alessi ring though.)
In use, this pot is a dream. The coffee holder stands up, so if you sleepily grind your coffee then need to put the holder down while you fill the base, you can. (At least on the tiny 1-cup model, which I have.) The pot snaps shut, and it makes quiet noises on the stove top; “ssssss” (boiling), a spitting sound while the coffee comes out, and “ssssss” when no more water will come up. A cap on the spout means you can leave the top flipped open without spatter on the stovetop. I dutifully used an inverted spoon on my Bialetti (on advice I found here) but I love not having to.
I plan to wash this pot with soap (unlike my aluminum pot which I just wiped) in order to switch between coffees. There are cheaper stainless steel pots, but I don’t like their looks much.
That brings me to aesthetics: The workmanship on the 9090 is stunning; you can see the turned edges of metal at the top, simply but elegantly done, and the traces of welding, etc. It looks like a machine, and in fact I will end by saying that what it really reminds me of is a musical instrument. Not just because it is nicely made of shiny metal but because what it feels like to use it is like you’re playing a little coffee tune.
Kate says
I have had my moka pot since at least 1969. It got me through my bachelor’s thesis. (I think I bought it at Zabar’s.) It still makes lovely coffee. I’ve changed the gasket several times, but everything else is original. I’ve had a catastrophe or two (forgetting to put the water in, leaving off the gasket). Each time I’ve brewed a couple of pots of baking soda (gentle, no residue) and water to clean the bitter burned coffee out. Water alone will not remove it. I’ve tried. You can’t make decent coffee with that disgusting residue in there. After a couple of coffee brews, the coffee is lovely again.
For Cafe Bustelo fans, I often use that with good results. I used to commute on the Cross Bronx Expresssway. Does anyone else remember the heavenly aroma from the Cafe Bustelo plant?