Do they actually make decent frothed foam? Does it taste okay or burnt? My experience with moka pots is that because the steam temperature is too high and the pressure too low, you get a watery burnt tasting espresso. I love a decent foam that comes with cappucino (which those butchers at starbucks will never do well).
The bialetti might be good for camping, travelling, etc.
Actually, for a solo camper, a stovetop expresso maker is a great way to make your moring joe. Load it up the night before, then just pop it on your campstove when you get up in the morning. A few minutes later, you’re good to go.
I have that thingy for making espresso. If you are unhappy with the starbucks foam you will be unhappy with this from a foam point of view. Other than that the espresso and milky espresso drinks did not taste burnt to me.
I hadn’t used mine for quite some time so I whipped up a latte with it. I got a decent amount of foam out of it. Better foam than I remembered. But I still think that if starbucks foam is not good enough this won’t be good enough.
The coffee does not taste burnt to me. I don’t like burnt tasting coffee. I don’t buy my coffee beans from star bucks because I think they taste burnt so I think it should be OK.
So… Why not get a cheaper and larger* moka pot and just put a little less water in it and put milk in the top for a fraction of the cost of the Bialetti?
A ‘six cup’ moka pot makes just the right amount of coffee to fill my mug. I’ll drink two of those. ‘Two espresso-sized cups’ isn’t enough.
Those bad boys approximate (very roughly) the general appearance of milk that’s been prepared for cappuccino, but what you end up with is just espresso with whipped milk in it. Bleagh.
Steaming the milk increases the solubility of the lactose, which makes it taste much sweeter and makes life worth living.
Really, the only way to get a decent foam on your cappuccino is with the aid of a proper steam nozzle and a bit of care – and the only way you can get a decent espresso is with an actual espresso machine. (Even one of those dodgy cheap ones is going to be much, much, better.)
Excuse me if I sound like a wide-eyed, jittery zealot, but whoever wrote the copy that described the Bialetti mukka as something that produces “authentic coffee shop capuccino” should be brought up on charges. (Or at least slapped.)
The entire chemistry of the product is different. Espresso is extracted by steam, under high pressure. This yields an entirely different fraction in solution; the emphasis is on the volatile essential oils in the bean, the crema. Bitter alkaloids are less soluble in these conditions and remain in the bean. So you get a nice smooth, creamy extract of coffee.
If you run hot water through, you largely reverse that – a bunch of bitter compounds wind up in solution, and more cafeol remains in the bean. No crema for you! And running hot coffee through milk to foam it – that’s all kinds of wrong.
Now, if absolutely need espresso when you’re camping, here’s what you do: You get the smallest pressure-cooker you can find, about six feet of 1/4" copper tubing, a Coleman stove, and…
Having this doohickey in front of me know I don’t understand how the water gets through the coffee grounds except as steam. The water reservoir is below the grounds and there is now way for the water to make it through except as steam that goes through the grounds and is sent through a little nozzle that foams the milk.
I made an after dinner espresso for myself tonight as opposed to the latte from this morning and it was somewhat burnt tasting. There was no crema of any sort. These beans when made in a drip coffee maker did not taste to me to be burnt.
Also the person that wrote that it is easy to clean is taking liberties with reality. If you make milky drinks it is harder to clean than a consumer espresso machine that has a separate nozzle for making the milk foam. Although in my experience it does a better job at making steamed milk foam than one of those consumer espresso jobbies. But that might just reflect my own impatience with messing around with the valves and holding the pitcher of milk wile it heats up and foams.
All in all I guess I am saying that it makes somewhat decent espresso and lattes. If you want to go to the next level you need to purchase a machine that is much more expensive. The machines the live upto Larry’s tastes are much more expensive and take up much more space in the kitchen.
My father has an excellent epresso machine that forces hot steam through the grounds and makes cups with great crema. He nevers makes capicinnos so I don’t know how good the milk steaming dohickey works. He went through three or four machines going up in price with each one until he found a good one.