Brew Method: The Bialetti Moka Express
There are many ways to brew coffee at home—as many bad methods as good methods. Aside from auto-drip, instant and K-cup machines, I personally think the worst cup of coffee one can make at home comes from a Bialetti. There are a few techniques to improve the coffee from a moka pot—like pouring pre-heated water into the lower chamber—but I still think the outcome is on par with burnt metallic sludge.
Coffee taste aside, the object itself is a beautiful and iconic part of design history, with a place in several major museums around the world. Which is why it looks great on posters, sitting on a kitchen shelf, or even oddly contorted into a ceramic mug.
Yesterday, The New York Times ran an article about the invention of the Moka Express that says 9 in 10 Italian homes own one—which is an incredible saturation of the home brewing market. But just like Italian espresso, ignoring progression in the name of tradition can limit the quality that good coffee can produce.
The moka pot is often referred to as a stove-top espresso maker, but it doesn’t actually make espresso. While, it does use pressure to push water through the coffee grounds, it’s a substantially less amount than what’s required for a proper shot (1-2 bars of pressure instead of the required 9 bars). In many ways it’s just a well designed percolator.
However, if you love using a moka pot as much as looking at one, atleast give the tips in this video a try to see if you can improve the taste. If you’re buying fresh roasted coffee, you shouldn’t sacrifice flavor for the sake of romanticizing an inferior brew method.
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CMIIW, but…
“In many ways it’s just a well designed percolator.”
AFAIK, the “sin” of the percolator is that it uses the extracted coffee+water components to again-and-again flush the coffee ground, thereby creating a quasi-endless cycle of coffee extraction.
(mind you I never used percolator though, I just see from videos and old infomercials and documentaries)
But the water that pumps upward in the Moka Pot only goes ONCE, thereby extracting only ONCE. Not cyclic. Unrepeated.
Ergo, Moka Pot IS NOT THE SAME AS a percolator. And I think you have made a mistake in your line above.
But once again, CMIIW. Just 2 cents from a non-espresso drinker.