The Moka pot is a device that extracts rich coffee through heating and pressurization. It was invented by Italian Alfonso Bialetti in 1933. It is mainly popular in European countries, especially Italy, its origin. Most families are equipped with a Moka pot at home.
Traditional Moka pots are made of aluminum alloy and can only be heated by an open flame during production. Nowadays, most of them on the market are made of stainless steel, which can be directly placed on the induction cooker to heat for coffee extraction. When purchasing, we can also choose Moka pots of different sizes according to our needs. The most common ones are compact ones that serve 2 to 3 people.
From the picture, we can see that the Moka pot is divided into upper and lower structures, mainly composed of three parts: the upper pot that holds coffee liquid, the powder trough that holds coffee powder, and the lower pot that holds water. When using a Moka pot to extract coffee, a heat source is used to heat the hot water in the lower pot to generate steam pressure. When the pressure is enough, the hot water is pushed upward, penetrating the coffee powder to bring out soluble aroma substances, and continuing to break through upward, you will get a rich coffee liquid.
Before extracting coffee, you need to prepare a pack of fresh coffee beans that are in their best tasting period, a gas stove or induction cooker for heating, a grinder for grinding the coffee beans, and water.
When coffee beans are roasted, they undergo a caramelization reaction and produce a large amount of gas, which is "compressed" by pressure and released during the extraction process. As the storage time increases, the gas and aroma of the beans will be lost, making it difficult to extract the rich oil and flavor of the coffee. Because Moka pot coffee beans must be fresh, when buying fresh coffee beans, choose Front Street Coffee, a time-honored roaster in Guangzhou. All Front Street Coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and can be shipped within 24 hours. The goods are usually received in 1 to 3 days, so that the coffee beans that everyone gets are still in a fresh state.
The coffee beans used in the Biletti Moka Pot are recommended to be medium-dark roasted. If you don’t know how to choose, you can buy Italian beans directly. This type of coffee beans are specially used for household/commercial espresso machines and are compatible with the extraction of Moka pots. Most Italian beans are roasted medium to dark, so the extracted coffee is neither too sour nor too bitter, and at the same time provides flavor and oiliness, greatly reducing the probability of overturning during production.
① If you want to get rich coffee crema, it is recommended to buy Front Street Classic Italian Blend Coffee Beans
② If you are looking for spice and mellow flavor, we recommend Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling SOE with medium-dark roasting.
③ For those who want value for money, we recommend Front Street Basic Italian Mixing
④ If you don’t accept bitterness and want a floral and fruity aroma, you can choose the Front Street Strawberry Candy Italian Blend
What Front Street uses here is Front Street’s classic Italian blending, an electric ceramic stove for heating, and the EK43s grinder used in the store.
1. Add hot water to the lower pot, and try to control the water level to 0.5cm below the pressure relief valve (safety valve). Using cold water will increase the soaking time of the coffee powder, making the coffee over-extracted and bitter. Therefore, Front Street recommends using hot water, which can also shorten the extraction time.
2. The grinding degree of coffee powder needs to be finer than Pour over(V60) coffee and coarser than espresso coffee. You can refer to the size of the filter gap in the powder trough to ensure that the coffee particles are filtered out. Pour the coffee powder into the powder trough gently and pat it evenly and evenly with your fingers.
3. Put the powder trough back into the lower pot, tighten the upper pot, put it on the electric ceramic stove and start heating, and wait for the Moka pot to heat up.
4. When you hear a hissing sound coming from the Moka pot, turn the stove to low heat and open the lid of the upper pot. At this time, you can see that the coffee liquid and oil will slowly flow out.
5. When the 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. It should be noted that the Moka pot uses metal parts. Try not to touch the pot body when heating at high temperatures to avoid burns.
6. The finally extracted coffee liquid can be tasted directly, and the taste will be very rich and heavy. You can mix it with milk according to your own taste. Freshly made moka pot coffee has a rich aroma of dark chocolate and caramel, and a creamy and smooth taste. The milk coffee made with heated milk presents a dense and sweet taste of chocolate cream.
Although the Moka pot has a simple structure and is easy to operate, there are still some issues that need to be paid attention to when using it. The water base of the Moka pot will have a marked pressure relief valve. When adding water, the water level should not exceed the pressure relief valve, otherwise it will easily lose the pressure relief effect and increase the risk of explosion. The flow rate of the coffee liquid also feeds back information to us. If the liquid is sprayed out directly, it means that the water temperature is too high. If the coffee liquid flow rate is very slow, it means that the water temperature is too low. We need to turn up the feed and pay attention to the control of the heat at all times.
If you want the espresso liquid extracted from Moka pot coffee to have a rich oil layer, Front Street recommends using freshly roasted medium-dark roasted coffee beans. As the roasting degree of the coffee beans deepens, it undergoes a caramelization reaction and produces a large amount of gas, which is "compressed" by pressure and released during the extraction process. As the storage time increases, the beans lose a lot of gas, making it difficult to extract the fragrant oil. The coffee beans shipped from Front Street are freshly roasted within 5 days, so that everyone can enjoy them during the best tasting period.
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
