Moka Pot Express Yourself – Part One

How to get the most out of your Bialetti Moka Express

“Oh, yes, yes… it seems easy to make good coffee.” So sayeth the moustachioed Bialetti man, and he’s not wrong. Moka pots are a fab and easy way to make great coffee at home, and a wallet-friendly alternative to buying an espresso maker. So, tune in to Charles Wright & The Watts 103^rd Street Rhythm Band, and get ready to Moka Pot Express Yourself!

What is a Moka pot?

The iconic silver hourglass of coffee history. A shiny aluminium body with a nipped-in waist and black Bakelite handle. You can find them in coffee-loving kitchens across the world, as well as in a few design museums. But what exactly are they, and what do they do?

How does a Moka pot work?

Well, in short they are stove-top coffee makers that use steam (technically vapour pressure) to push water through coffee grounds. This pressure method is way faster than relying on gravity to move the water through the coffee, hence express.

Setting it up is pretty simple – water in the bottom, coffee in the middle, heat it until coffee appears in the top. The heat causes pressure in the bottom chamber to rise until there is enough force to push the water up the funnel and through the coffee into the top chamber.

Do Moka pots make espresso?

The short answer is no. Most people call Moka pot coffee ‘espresso-like’. It has similar characteristics – a small, intense shot of coffee with more oomph than filter coffee. This is partly because Moka pots use pressure to brew through a metal screen like an espresso maker. The metal screen filters out fewer fines and coffee oils than paper, giving Moka coffee that delicious full-bodied texture. However, Moka pots only create about 1.5 bars of pressure, as opposed to the 8 – 9 bars in espresso machines. Hence ‘espresso-like’.

Are Moka pots dangerous?

This is really two questions in one – is aluminium hazardous, and is the pressure problematic? The short answer to both is no. There were some scare stories about aluminium Mokas and Alzheimer’s, but this has been thoroughly debunked. 

Then there’s the pressure part, which the little valve is for. Keep it clean and clear and you’ll be fine.

Who invented the Moka Pot? A brief history of a coffee icon

Alfonso Bialetti and Luigi De Ponti

The exact story of who invented the Moka has become a little blurred over time. The original patent is pretty tricky to find, and without it, we can’t be completely sure, but the general consensus is Alfonso Bialetti, owner of the Bialetti aluminium company, created the Moka in 1933 with a little (or a lot) of help from one of his employees, inventor Luigi De Ponti.

Bialetti named his new brewer after the Yemeni city of Mocha, a legendary place in coffee history and the major marketplace for coffee from the 15th century until the early 18th century.

The rise of Renato

It wasn’t until the mid-1940s that the Moka Express really took off. Alfonso Bialetti’s son Renato took over and refocused the business on the Moka. To say this paid off is an understatement. Some estimates put the number of Moka Express sold around the 300,000,000 mark. That’s a lot of aluminium…

Which Moka pot is best for you?

Which Moka pot size do I want?

Ready to Moka pot express yourself, but you don’t got a Moka? No worries, we can sort you out. The question is, what size do you need?

Well, you want one that fits your everyday usage. You can underfill a Moka without damaging it, but that can screw around with your brew ratios, which makes for not-so-tasty coffee. So, choose the one that you’ll regularly fill up without wasting coffee or having to drink too much (which is apparently a thing).

A ’cup’ in these terms is a similar volume to a double espresso, about 40 – 50ml.

We stock 1, 3, and 6 cup sizes but you can get up to a 12 cup if you have a lot of friends who like Moka pot coffee.

The Moka pot induction conundrum

Traditional Mokas cannot be used on an induction hob. But the good news is this is no longer a conundrum. Got induction? Get an induction-friendly Moka! Available in 4 cup or 6 cup , or as a gift set.

It’s Brew Time Baby

So, you now know the history of the Moka, and hopefully which one to get. Now it’s time to brew! Head over to part two of this guide and become a Moka maestro!

Part Two