Videocast #4 – Stovetop/Moka Pot

The only person who has regularly served us stove-top/moka pot coffee uses cold water, espresso grind, pre-ground coffee and doesn’t take it off the burner when it gurgles.

Wow. I thought I was just being picky and didn’t like this brewing method. Time to try it for myself.

Great video James. We recently published a photo guide to the Moka Pot as well… Brewing at Home, Part 1: Moka Pot

Great job!

Good video! My wife and I use a moka pot every day, for our evening coffee – otherwise I only use an espresso machine. I’d originally learned of, and learned how to use one in Italy, as that seems to be the home brewing method of choice there. But, I haven’t tried it with the near boiling water to start, I usually use room-temp to colder water. We already use a coarser grind, but I’ll definitely give the hot water a shot.

I’ve seen Stumptown’s brew guide. Blue Bottle also does one for the moka pot, and one of their notes (I think, unless I am confusing it with those of Stumptown’s) was to heat the thing slowly, apparently in an effort to achieve what you mention where it’s really just water coming through, not steam, and not burning/scalding the coffee.

Note to anyone using the electric versions – they do not shut off fast enough, and you will get a small bit of gurgling at the end (it seems to detect that as the stopping point and you hear it turn off, but at that point, you’ve had some gurgling).

James, i’ve got the problem in Safari (mac). Nice video!

Makes me want to pick up a moka pot. All of the videos are excellent, and I’m passing them on to everyone who I think would be interested. They’ve been a big hit.

Excellent video. I hadn’t thought of using the hot water, but I had settled on using a hot flame to make it go faster. I haven’t used mine since I got a smoothtop stove, but maybe I’ll pull out the propane camp stove.
When I was in a small town in Japan and the only thing available was low-grade grocery store vacuum pack pre-ground coffee, the Moka pot managed to make a drinkable cup from it.

Great video! This site is fantastic.

Great video, never tried with preheated water.
Matt, Through the years i’ve been roasting and grinding coffee.
I have a 1 cup (unknown brand) and a 4 cups Bialetti Moka Express.
In the past i had a 3 and 6 cups aluminum Moka, the 6 cup made terrible coffee, over extracted and bitter. The 3 cup much better coffee but no where as good as the 4 cup Bialetti.

To compare my 1 cup and 4 cup Bialetti Moka, i would say the 1 cup makes are more watery coffee but packed with flavors. The Bialetti makes something more similar to espresso, once the pressure valve opens, the coffee brews rapidly and the taste is dryer but also full of flavor.
I cant really decide which one of these 2 i prefer but for sure with larger sizes brewers i find the coffee is overextracted and bitter.

I want to agree about the larger pots producing inferior coffee. I need to test more, but it’s so discouraging to waste so much coffee while working with the bigger pots. I picked up a 4 cup Bialetti Musa like the one in this video and made decent coffee from it with these instructions. However, I found a much prettier 6 cup Erikka for cheap and returned my ugly blue-handled Musa. So far, I find it makes inferior coffee and way more than I want to drink. I guess that’s what I get for being drawn in by looks. I’ll keep working with it though and see if I can produce good results. I’ll post again if I do.