The Best Moka Pot for Authentic Espresso at Home

The Moka Pot is an great solution for people who want to make low-cost, espresso-style coffee at home. In this article, we will discuss 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 learn more about the right Moka Pot for you at the end of this article.

This guide shows you how to buy the perfect moka pot for your requires. We likewise reviewed the perfect stovetop espresso coffee makers on the market for various categories.

The Moka Pot is a kind of stove 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 on.. This stove coffee maker brews coffee by passing water through finely-ground coffee utilizing pressure from steam. In this way, it is similar to espresso coffee 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 made and drunk. Our stove is just a heat source for brewing the coffee. Before stovetops, we brewed 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. But 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 process. 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 many popular method for brewing coffee until the innovation of the Moka Pot in the early 20th century. To this day, it is a popular process of brewing coffee.

The Moka Pot is crafted 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 degree mark for convenience.

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 stovetop. 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 literally as a stovetop coffee maker. But, there are other types of stove coffee makers, such as the classic percolators; Moka pot is the most popular stovetop today. 
You can simply get a Moka Pot that is not a stovetop. I’ll speak about that more in a bit.

The Moka Pot is a best domestic coffee solution for lots 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 coffee to filter coffee, the Moka Pot could be a good option for you. 

The Moka Pot is also really low-cost compared to home espresso coffee makers and is a good way of creating espresso coffee type coffee cheaply at home. 

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

Though similar, Moka Pot coffee isn’t exactly the same as espresso. Both methods work with pressurized steam. Moka Pot coffee uses much less pressure than espresso, however. The industry standard for espresso 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. The Moka Pot filter is much bigger than an espresso machine portafilter. This impacts 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 due to the fact that of the design. 

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

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

Just 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 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 made 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 stovetop that operates at an exceptionally 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 preference for home coffee preparation. If you like espresso-style coffee but 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 fantastic for you. We would love to know how you get on!