This time I want to add some knowledge about the Moka pot to the question: "Is the coffee brewed by the Moka pot espresso?"
Because among the friends I met on the front street, many of them went in the direction of Italian coffee. After learning about semi-automatic coffee machines and considering their own budget conditions, they suddenly turned to Moka pots. From a historical perspective, these two things do have some connection.
Here is a brief history. The first generation of true espresso machines, the "Ideale", was born in 1905. It looked completely different from the current espresso machines. The ideale's extraction pressure is much lower than the 9bar of modern machines, only 1.5bar. Its Espresso is extracted in 45 seconds, and its body and taste are inferior to those of modern espresso machines (black coffee with basically no oil).
The Moka pot was invented by Bialetti in 1933. In terms of its working principle, the Moka pot also quickly extracts coffee substances by adding pressure to generate pressure. The pressure is about 1-2 bar. This is very similar to the coffee machines of the time, which are simply miniaturized espresso machines.
The first definition of "espresso" appeared in an Italian dictionary (by Alfredo Panzini) around 1920, which is "espresso made using a pressurized machine or filter." The principle of making coffee with a Moka pot is also very consistent with the people's definition of espress at that time.
Back to reality, what we call espresso now is different from the espresso defined at that time. The reason is that in 1961, Faema released a new coffee machine E61 that was of epochal significance. This machine can increase the pressure to 9bar when extracting coffee, which suddenly put the previous coffee machine several blocks away. The extracted coffee is more fragrant and the oil is richer and more delicate.
From then on, people's definition of espresso gradually changed, and the difference between coffee brewed by a coffee machine and coffee brewed by a moka pot became more and more obvious.
Judging from the mainstream brewing parameters, the powder-to-liquid ratio of the Italian coffee machine is 1:2 and the pressure is 9bar. The powder-liquid ratio of the Moka pot is 1:5 and the pressure is 2bar. The espresso produced by the espresso machine is richer, richer, more delicate and longer-lasting.
Therefore, the Moka pot cannot be a transitional or replacement version of the espresso machine. From today's perspective on espresso, coffee brewed in a Moka pot cannot be regarded as espresso as we know it. The coffee brewed by the Moka pot is a distinctive espresso.
How to make a single-valve Moka pot extract rich oil?
1. Selection of beans
Fresh dark roasted beans are definitely the best choice. Dark roasting makes the texture of the beans more loose, and hot water can more easily penetrate into the inside, allowing the carbon dioxide hidden in the beans to be discharged with the hot water! Therefore, the first choice for making moka pot coffee is the basic blend of Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling, Front Street Queen’s Manor, and Front Street Black Cocoa.
But please note that freshness here does not refer to freshly roasted beans, because the carbon dioxide content at this time is too much, which will hinder the extraction of aromatic substances, and the final coffee will not taste so good!
Therefore, fresh beans here refer to beans that have been raised and are still within the viewing period! Fresh beans contain the most carbon dioxide. Combined with the loose texture of dark roasted beans, we can more easily obtain a large amount of fat.
2. Grinding degree
In addition to using fresher beans, we also need to pay attention to controlling the extraction pressure of the Moka pot. Although it does not have a pressure as high as 9 Bar like an espresso machine, it does not mean that it does not have it! It's just smaller.
There are two methods of pressure control, which need to be used together: one is grinding degree! The grinding degree of the Moka pot will be finer than that of Pour over(V60) coffee, and a little coarser than that of Italian grinding!
(The left side of the picture shows hand grinding, the picture shows Moka pot grinding, and the right side of the picture shows Italian grinding)
When you use coarse grinding for Pour over(V60) coffee, the hot water will spurt out directly because there is no resistance! If Italian grinding is used, it will be too fine and the coffee liquid will not come up (because the Moka pot does not have enough air pressure to break through the resistance of the powder cake), which is prone to the risk of explosion caused by poor pressure relief!
When you see that the coffee liquid is not coming out for a long time, be sure to turn off the fire source in time to ensure your own safety! Therefore, whether it is hand grinding or electric grinding, when using a Moka pot, it is better to adjust the grinding scale of the grinder to be coarser than the Italian grinding. It will be more appropriate!
(Moka pot coffee made using hand-pour grinding)
After you have identified the beans and ground them, the next step is to fill them with flour! This is another step in stress control!
3. Filling powder
Generally, we will choose the amount of coffee powder based on the size of the Moka pot we use. So the Moka pot used here at Front Street is a three-person Moka pot, which requires about 19g of coffee powder for filling!
It can be seen that the height of the powder bed is higher than the groove, so at this time many friends will choose to press it with their hands and wait first! We smooth it out first, then tap it sideways and tap it left and right to evenly distribute the coffee powder in the lower layer! This way the gap is smaller and can effectively reduce the channel effect!
After pressing, pour 110ml hot water into the lower pot, then install the powder trough and the upper pot in order and start brewing coffee!
Once the grease has covered the silver surface on the bottom of the moka pot, remove it from the heat.
The residual temperature is enough to extract all the remaining liquid.
Then, you will get a cup of Moka pot coffee with thick oil. If your Moka pot is a double valve, the oil will be richer. Don’t wait, just make any coffee and start enjoying it.
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
