Although espresso coffee is delicious, not all families have the funds and space to own an espresso coffee machine. Therefore, more and more friends have a Moka pot at home. The Moka pot is convenient and fast. You only need to fill it with hot water and coffee powder, then place it on the heating device and wait to drink coffee.
However, the coffee brewed by the Moka pot is not as good as today's espresso machines. The Moka pot originally appeared more as a substitute for espresso machines. However, after understanding that today’s espresso coffee is extracted by pressing boiling hot water through a tight coffee powder cake at extremely high pressure, reaching such a high pressure was only achieved in modern times with the development of the espresso machine production process.
If you want to understand the emergence of the Moka pot, you have to mention the history of espresso machines. The first espresso machine was demonstrated in Turin, Italy, at the end of the nineteenth century. By 1905, La Pavoni's first commercial espresso machine appeared, allowing baristas to provide espresso liquid to many people in a short period of time. Later, more and more cafes in Italy used La Pavoni coffee machines.
When making coffee, this large commercial espresso machine needs to place the entire device on a flame for heating, and the inside of the machine is used to use internal steam to flow the hot water in the bottom compartment from a pipe leading to the coffee powder. However, this machine is too expensive and bulky. Unless it is a wealthy family, it is impossible for ordinary families to have such a coffee machine at home.
The emergence of the Moka pot dates back to the 1930s, when a Crusinaro from northern Piedmont invented the Moka pot device. After working in the French aluminum metal industry for more than 10 years, Alfonso Bialetti returned home and returned to Piedmont to establish his own workshop to produce aluminum household products. One day, Biaretti saw his wife washing clothes and suddenly had an idea, and he invented the moka pot. At that time, the machine used to wash clothes was divided into two layers. The lower layer was filled with soapy water and heated to boiling. The upper layer was filled with clothes to be washed. In the middle was a pipe connecting the two layers. The hot soapy water poured into the upper layer through the pipe and was dispersed on the clothes. With the help of Luigi De Ponti, the Moka pot we see today was developed.
The Bileti Moka Pot works on the same principle as the washing machine mentioned above. It is an octagonal aluminum pot with a gel handle for heat insulation. The device is mainly divided into three parts: the lowermost container is used to hold hot water, the uppermost container is used to hold extracted coffee liquid, and a metal filter in the middle is used to hold ground coffee powder.
When making coffee with a Moka pot, first fill the lower pot with a certain amount of hot water, put coffee powder into the metal filter in the middle, then install the filter on the lower pot, then tighten the upper pot, and finally place the entire coffee brewing device on the heated appliance. When the water in the lower pot boils, water vapor is generated. Due to the limited space in the lower pot, as the water vapor increases, the air pressure in the lower pot increases, forcing the hot water in the lower pot to pass from the pipe in the lower pot to the coffee powder in the middle layer, and then to the upper pot through the pipe on the metal filter.
The Moka pot appeared to replace the espresso machines of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, the production process of espresso machines has gone through decades of development, and the extraction pressure has far exceeded the 1.5 Pa of ancient times. Since the water moves upward after boiling, it also means that the temperature of the water is relatively high. There is a huge difference from the espresso coffee extracted by today's espresso machines.Advantages and Disadvantages of Making Coffee in a Moka PotOne is that there is no rich grease. The extraction pressure of modern espresso machines can far exceed that of Moka pots, which means that the coffee grease brewed by Moka pots is not as rich as that of espresso machines.
In addition, the reason for the advantages and disadvantages of this Moka pot for making coffee is that its metal filter is relatively sparse.Moka pot powder thicknessIt is thicker than the espresso machine. As the powder becomes thicker, the contact area between water and powder particles decreases, so less substances can be extracted. In other words, the coffee brewed by the Moka pot is not as thick as that of the espresso machine.
Many friends want to make espresso at home, and they also have a Moka pot at home. So this question comes to mind: What kind of coffee beans are suitable for brewing with a Moka pot? Since the Moka pot was designed to replace the espresso machines of the ancient times, and espresso is characterized by richness and smoothness, in order to have rich oils, some darker roasted coffee beans are needed.
In addition to trying FrontStreet Coffee’s sunflower warm sun blended beans, you can also try the Indonesian PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans and Brazilian Queen’s Manor coffee beans on the bean list.
Mandheling coffee beans are produced in Sumatra Island, Indonesia, Asia, and are also called "Sumatra coffee". Mandheling is a high-quality coffee bean planted in plateau mountains at an altitude of 750-1500 meters. It is a rare Arabica variety in Indonesia. Speaking of Mandheling coffee, FrontStreet Coffee likes its rich aroma, rich taste, and strong taste, and the unique herbal spice flavor is also the hallmark of Mandheling coffee. In addition to the growing conditions in Indonesia, the wet planing process is also one of the sources of the strong taste of Mandheling coffee.
FrontStreet Coffee: Brazilian Queen Manor coffee beans
Production area: Morgiana production area, Sao Paulo state, Brazil
Manor: Queen's Manor
Altitude: 1400 meters - 1950 meters
Variety: Yellow Bourbon
Treatment method: Sun treatment
The yellow bourbon variety was discovered in the state of Sao Paulo in Brazil in the 1870s. Later, scientific research found that the pectin layer of the yellow bourbon variety is richer, and the pectin layer contains a large amount of sugar substances, making the sweetness of the yellow bourbon variety more obvious. The Front Street yellow bourbon variety of coffee beans uses the most original and traditional post-processing method for green coffee beans-sun-drying. The intact peel and pulp are retained, allowing more sugars to penetrate into the green coffee beans, resulting in a qualitative leap in sweetness.
Queen's Manor has won multiple awards since the first Brazilian Cup of Excellence Coffee Competition in 1999, and even won 12 awards in 7 years. This shows that the coffee beans produced by Queen's Manor are of superior quality. The sun-drying method requires a lot of manual labor. In order to avoid producing bad fermentation flavor, Queen's Manor specially uses small-scale sun-drying to ensure the quality of the raw beans.
Some of you who don’t have a moka pot at home may be wondering:Can a French press make espresso?? After all, the French press is the simplest coffee brewing tool, and you always have one at home. When using a French press to make espresso, even though there is no beautiful golden layer of oil, it retains the original oil of the coffee and has a different flavor.
For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account cafe_style)
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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
