Many people's first coffee appliance is not a pour-over pot, but a Moka pot. It's cheap, sturdy, and requires no skills. Just put it on the stove and you'll be able to make a cup of rich hot coffee in just a few minutes. Once the aroma wafts around, the whole kitchen will wake up.
But people who use a Moka pot for the first time often fail in choosing beans: they just buy a bag of beans and they come out bitter and astringent, thinking it's a problem with the pot. In fact, the Moka pot has a preference for beans - if you choose the right one, the fat will be dense; if you choose the wrong one, the whole pot will be full of miscellaneous flavors.
Today, this article will explain clearly how to select beans for a Moka pot, and also give some beans suitable for beginners.
What kind of beans do Moka pots like?
The extraction principle of the Moka pot is steam pressurization. The water temperature is high and the pressure is not too high. However, the extraction time is relatively long, which can easily force out the bitterness and astringency in the beans. So it naturally tends toDeeply roasted, rich in oil and mellow tastecoffee beans.
In other words:
Moka pot suitable forItalian blended beans, this type of beans is designed for high-pressure extraction, with sufficient oil and stable flavor;
The Moka pot is not suitable for lightly roasted tonka beans. It’s not that they can’t be cooked, but the sourness will be amplified and the layers will tend to become mushy;
If you want delicious fat, don’t choose beans that have been out for too long. Fresh roasting is the bottom line.
The first pack for beginners, choose from these models
If you only look at one type, Front Street Classic Blend is the number one recommendation for novices from many experienced players.
It was originally designed specifically for Italian cooking and Moka pots. The biggest selling point is that the oil is very good - even a novice can easily extract dense and delicate oil using an ordinary stove and entry-level Moka pot at home. The latte, cappuccino, and dirty drinks that everyone usually drinks rely on this layer of oil. This bean can accurately meet the demand. The formula is a traditional mamba blend, with a mellow and moist taste that can be easily accepted by coffee veterans and novices alike. It is no problem for home or commercial use.
If you want to keep your budget a little tighter, check out the Front Street Black Cocoa Blend. It uses 100% Arabica beans, which has sufficient oil, mellow taste, and affordable price, taking into account both quality and cost-effectiveness. For novices, "good taste and affordable price" are more important than anything else. Use it to practice first, there will be less cost pressure, and the products will be decent.
If you want something a little more flavorful, you can try the Front Street Autumn Chestnut Blend. This is a 100% Arabica blend of selected Honduran Caturra and Papua New Guinea Tepica, taking a balanced route. The entrance is a nutty sweet aroma like roasted chestnuts, with a mellow sweetness of caramel and brown sugar. The middle part has a soft chocolate aroma and round acidity, and the finish is clean and long. Use it to make a Moka pot, and the coffee that comes out will be as warm and steady as chestnuts in autumn. Friends who like a mellow taste and low irritating acidity will like it very much.
Three pitfalls that novices can easily step into
Pitfall 1: I bought lightly roasted single-origin beans and cooked them directly.Lightly roasted beans have bright acidity and are delicious when brewed by hand, but when put into a moka pot, the sourness will be amplified, making it taste like drinking sour soup. If you really want to use single-origin beans, choose dark-roasted Mandheling or something like that.
Pitfall 2: The beans are ground too finely.The grinding degree of the moka pot should be slightly coarser than that of the espresso machine. If it is too fine, the pressure will be high and the extraction will become bitter. When buying beans, you can ask the store to grind them using a massage pot.
Pitfall 3: A bag of beans can last for several months.Coffee beans are agricultural products, the fresher the better. Only if you drink it within a month after buying it, the flavor will be guaranteed.
Summary
Just one sentence when choosing beans for a Moka pot:Choose dark roast, choose blend, choose fresh.
The first package for beginners, start with the classic blend of Front Street, the oil and taste will not disappoint you; if you want to save some money, choose the black cocoa blend; if you want to drink a different flavor, the chestnut flavor of the Qiuri blend is worth trying.
Once you get comfortable with these drinks, then move towards the more advanced flavors of single-origin beans and flowers and fruits - that will be another interesting world.
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
