The Best Moka Pot for Authentic Espresso at Home

The Moka Pot is an fantastic solution for people who want to make low-cost, espresso-style coffee at home. In this post, we will talk about this coffee brewer, its history and look into different kinds of Moka Pots. If you decide the Moka Pot is the right fit for your home brewing routine, you can find out more about the right Moka Pot for you at the end of this post.

This guide shows you how to buy the best moka pot for your needs. We likewise reviewed the best stove espresso makers on the market for various categories.

The Moka Pot is a sort of stovetop coffee maker that was invented by Alfonso Bialetti in 1933. The Bialetti company marketed their Moka Pot under the name ‘Moka Express’. The Moka Express is still successfully sold today, nearly 100 years later. This stove coffee maker brews coffee by passing water through finely-ground coffee using pressure from steam. In this way, it is similar to espresso coffee.

If we think about it, stovetop coffee makers are the original coffee brewers that have been used since our ancestors discovered that coffee beans could be brewed and drunk. Our stovetop is literally a heat source for brewing the coffee. Before stovetops, we made coffee in a pot over a fire. We can technically prepare our Moka Pot coffee on an open fire today if the Moka Pot is the right material. However more on that later on..

Up until the 18th century and even for some of the 19th century, coffee enthusiasts still boiled it over a gas fire or stove. There was no science or measurements; they simmered the mix until it smelled right. 

Then coffee was introduced to France, where they revolutionized the brewing recipe. They realized that coffee shouldn’t be boiled directly for optimum impacts. 

So they came up with the idea of vacuum brewing, which didn’t burn the coffee in the same way as boiling. The early version of a vacuum brewer was the Siphon. The next coffee maker to replace the Siphon was the Percolator. The Percolator was the a lot of popular method for brewing coffee until the invention of the Moka Pot in the early 20th century. To this day, it is a popular method of brewing coffee.

The Moka Pot is made up of three parts. The bottom part is the boiler. Water (preheated if you want a quicker brew) is added to the boiler up to the safety valve. Some companies include a water level mark for practicality.

The second piece, the funnel, is then inserted into the boiler and finely ground coffee is added into the funnel. 

The upper part is then screwed onto the base, and the Moka Pot is added to a heat source, i.e. a stove. As the water boils, the steam pushes the water upwards. It then passes through the coffee and is collected in the upper chamber.

The Moka Pot is widely mentioned just as a stove coffee maker. But, there are other forms of stovetop coffee makers, such as the classic percolators; Moka pot is the the majority of popular stovetop today. 
You can in truth get a Moka Pot that is not a stove. I’ll talk about that more in a little bit.

The Moka Pot is a great domestic coffee solution for a lot of people. The main advantage is that it produces a coffee with a stronger and thicker quality similar to espresso coffee coffee. If you prefer espresso to drip coffee, the Moka Pot could be a good preference for you. 

The Moka Pot is likewise extremely economical compared to home espresso coffee makers and is a good way of creating espresso type coffee cheaply at home. 

Finally, the Moka Pot callsfor no electricity. This brews it an great solution for campers or people without access to electricity.

Although similar, Moka Pot coffee isn’t exactly the same as espresso. Both methods use pressurized steam. Moka Pot coffee uses much less pressure than espresso, nevertheless. The industry fundamental for espresso coffee is 9 bar pressure, and the Moka Pot only uses 1 or 2 bars of pressure. 

The coffee is also ground much finer for the Moka Pot than for espresso coffee coffee. The Moka Pot filter is much bigger than an espresso coffee machine portafilter. This effects in less resistance for the water, hence less pressure. The finer grind offers that resistance. 

The Moka Pot cannot develop the 9 bar of pressure because of the design. 

Moka Pot coffee has a lot of the dark, oily qualities of espresso coffee without being rather as bold to taste. It is somewhere in between drip coffee and espresso coffee coffee if we were to approximate a taste profile. 

Moka Pots come in various sizes. If you are actually making coffee for yourself, the classic 1 to 2 cup Moka Pot will do nicely. If you are creating coffee regularly for family or guests, the larger Moka Pots are going to be a better option. 

Really a quick disclaimer – Moka Pot cup measurements, in traditional Italian style, are small. A ‘cup’ is generally 50 ml, which is similar to an espresso coffee serving. Bear this in mind and choose your size accordingly! 

And so we come to the materials. The original Moka Pot, the Moka Express, is crafted of aluminium. It is cheap to buy, resilient to heat and a good heat conductor. Having said that it is not resilient to all heat, and so, stainless steel Moka Pots were invented. 

Stainless steel is even more resilient to heat than aluminium. Stainless steel Moka Pots are also dishwasher safe. The downside is that they are more expensive. 

Make sure to check out what kind of stovetop you have before you buy your Moka Pot. If you have a stove that operates at an really high temperature, such as an induction cooker, you will need a stainless steel Moka Pot.

It’s Decision Time!

So, we’ve talked about the properties of Moka Pot coffee, its design and our picks of the recent Moka Pots out there.

The Moka Pot is an fantastic choice for home coffee preparation. If you like espresso-style coffee nevertheless don’t want the hassle or the price of an espresso machine, this is definitely the right way to go.

If you’ve decided to give the Moka Pot a try, have a look at some of the options above and find the one that is excellent for you. We would enjoy to understand how you get on!