There are hundreds of coffee brewing appliances on the market. However, there is no conclusion as to which coffee appliance brews the best coffee, because everyone has different taste preferences. Even if the same coffee beans are brewed with the same coffee appliance for the same time, everyone will have different feelings about sourness, bitterness, sweetness, alcohol, strength, and lightness. What's more, if different coffee appliances and different brewing variables are used, the taste of each cup of coffee will be even more varied.
In addition to the common Italian coffee and Pour over(V60) coffee in coffee shops, many people's first real contact with coffee making actually started with a Moka pot. Because it is not only beautiful, convenient, affordable, but also very easy to operate, it is especially easy for newcomers to get started.
But FrontStreet Coffee also found that some friends are more pursuing a sense of ritual, such as the increasingly rare siphon pot coffee. The cool equipment and unique operating procedures make people want to buy it and try it home after experiencing it once. So what’s the difference between these two ways of making coffee? How big will the taste difference be? Next, please listen to Front Street’s detailed analysis.
What is a Moka Pot?
The Moka pot uses the vapor pressure of boiling hot water to pass directly through the coffee powder to extract the inner essence of the coffee. The brewed coffee has a richer taste and aroma, with a thin layer of coffee oil on the surface. This is the charm of Italian coffee.
Compared with other coffee appliances, the design of the Moka pot is very simple. The entire structure is only divided into three parts: the upper pot that holds the coffee liquid, the powder tank in the middle, and the lower pot that is heated by water. When we heat the Moka pot, the water in the lower pot is first heated and converted into steam, forming a certain pressure, causing the water vapor to push up from the bottom. When the hot water reacts with the coffee powder upwards, the increasing pressure will continue to push the extracted coffee liquid to the upper pot. At this time, we will get the rich coffee liquid we need.
The extraction method of the Moka pot is similar to our common supercharged espresso. After the water boils in the lower pot, it will generate steam. More and more steam condenses to create a certain pressure, forcing the hot water to penetrate the coffee powder, dissolving the flavor substances and flowing with the coffee liquid into the container above. The Moka pot brews coffee at about 1.2 to 3 atmospheres of pressure. The increase in pressure brings together the coffee flavor, so the coffee brewed by the Moka pot also has a mellow taste.
Common Moka pots on the market are divided into single-valve and double-valve devices. When using a double-valve Moka pot to make coffee, a pressure accumulation valve is added to the original one. The increase in pressure also increases the concentration of the coffee and brings out more coffee oil. Although the Moka pot cannot match the pressure of more than 9 atmospheres of a standard espresso machine, if we can just drink a cup of strong coffee during our leisure time at home, Front Street believes that the Moka pot is also a very good choice.
What is a siphon pot?
A set of instruments that look like laboratory science and engineering, paired with a halogen lamp or alcohol lamp. Through the firelight, you can see the bubbles rising in the hot water. When you pour in the coffee powder, a refreshing aroma wafts up. After cooling down, the liquid that quickly returns becomes darker. Take a small sip and the taste is round and balanced. Compared with other brewing methods, comfort and healing are the most profound impressions of FrontStreet Coffee on the siphon pot.
The English name of the siphon pot is "SIPHON", so it is also called a wind-stopper pot. It uses the thermal expansion and contraction caused by the water vapor generated after heating the water. The hot water in the lower pot is pushed into the upper seat to fuse with the coffee powder. When the temperature drops, the water will flow back into the lower pot through the vacuum tube, thereby obtaining coffee liquid. As for the origin of siphon pot, we can trace it back to the early 19th century, nearly a hundred years earlier than hand brewing. According to relevant records, in 1826, German physicist Johann Norremberg invented the siphon pot using laboratory equipment. His original intention was to demonstrate the power of steam to students, so he did not apply for a patent, and his design was not popular. It was not until the mid-19th century that this set of utensils was improved in the hands of French inventor Marie Fanny Amelne Massot, and the up-and-down convection siphon pot was born. She obtained the relevant patent in 1842, and this set of utensils was able to enter the market.
Around the same time, Scottish engineer Robert Napier designed his Napier Coffee Pot, a device that also used a vacuum to brew coffee. Although it won a prize from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1856, Napier never applied for a patent for it. Since then, the same type of vacuum brewing equipment has become popular throughout Europe and introduced to the United States and other places. However, due to the birth of automatic drip coffee, Americans' use of siphon pots gradually decreased.
How to use a Moka pot? What are the flavor characteristics of Moka pot coffee?
Before making coffee, we need to prepare fresh coffee beans, water, a grinder, a heated gas stove (or induction cooker), and our protagonist - a Moka pot. Front Street’s coffee beans use the “Sunflower Warm Sun Blend Coffee Beans” roasted by Front Street itself, which is a 7:3 blend of Honduran sherry and sun-dried Yirgacheffe red cherries.
First remove the base of the Moka pot and add pure warm water to the lower pot. This can shorten the brewing time and prevent the coffee powder from being heated too quickly and causing the flavor to burn and become bitter. The water volume is controlled at about 0.5cm below the pressure relief valve line. The safety valve prevents the coffee pot from exploding due to the clogging of the extraction channel caused by grinding the coffee powder too finely. If the safety valve is submerged by water and the extraction channel is blocked, the consequences of an explosion in the high-temperature coffee pot will be disastrous.
To extract rich black coffee, the grinding degree must be finer than that of ordinary hand brewing. The Front Street store uses an EK-43s grinder with a scale of 0.5. The control of the amount of powder depends on the size of the Moka pot. The one used here in Front Street is the Bileti Classic Pot for three people, with an amount of 18g of powder.
Pour the ground coffee powder into the grinder trough, fill it until it is nine-tenths full, smooth it out with your fingers and put it into the base. There is no need to press hard, as an air layer that is too tight can easily block the flow of water upwards, thus affecting extraction.
Then tighten the upper and lower pots, dry the pot body with a towel and place it on a gas stove or induction cooker for heating. When using an open flame, be careful not to exceed the base of the Moka Pot.
Just wait for the moka pot to heat up. When you hear a hissing sound, turn to low heat and the coffee liquid and oil will slowly flow out. When you see that the upper pot of coffee liquid is half full, you can turn off the heat source, move the pot to the table, and use the remaining temperature and pressure in the pot to continue extracting the remaining coffee liquid.
Finally, pour the extracted coffee liquid into the cup and taste it directly. The taste will be very rich and solid, with a strong aroma of whiskey, vanilla, cream, sweet and sour berries, and the aroma of roasted nuts. For those who usually like to drink American coffee, Front Street recommends mixing it with hot water of 70 to 80 degrees Celsius in a ratio of 1:5 and stirring it before drinking. This will bring out the fresh and sour fruity sweetness; if you prefer coffee with milk, you can pair Moka pot coffee with milk, and you will taste the sweetness of chocolate and cream cookies.
Is it difficult to make coffee with a siphon pot? What does siphon coffee taste like?
This time, Front Street will use a fast-paced extraction method and pair it with a light roasted coffee bean - Kenya Asalia! Therefore, the water temperature will be relatively high, about 92°C, that is, it will be sealed when the pot is boiled until it bubbles frequently. Since the extraction time is not long, only 60 seconds, and the coffee beans are lightly roasted, a grinding that is "two degrees" finer than hand brewing will be used here. The 9 scale of ek43, the 90% sieving rate of the No. 20 sieve; the powder to water ratio is 1:14, that is, 20g of coffee powder with 280ml of hot water.
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
