Disclaimer: I LOVE coffee. I like my coffee very strong, and black. I like espresso, but find it a bit bitter in most retail establishments here in the States. I once owned a moderately-priced espresso machine and was disappointed in the results. I typically use a drip maker at home, one that grinds the beans before brewing. It’s sufficient, but mediocre.
A while back, my wife’s aunt gave me an old Bialetti Moka pot. Her family (which are from Spain, one generation in America) almost all use a Moka pot for coffee. While I generally enjoy their coffee, they sweeten it before serving, and I just never bothered to ask for mine without sugar, being the only one at the table who wanted it that way. Anyway, the Moka pot I received was well worn and had a fairly thick patina on the bottom. I always thought the coffee it produced had an odd flavor and rarely used it.
I was reading an article recently, extolling the virtues of the Moka pot. Inspired, I tried my old Bialetti once again, but was again put off by the odd flavor. I tried to clean it a few ways, but the stubborn stains (and flavor) would not retreat.
I decided to buy myself a new Bialetti. Since my wife doesn’t drink coffee, I ordered the 3-cup size. I received it yesterday, ran a test pot to throw away (according to instructions) and made a second pot.
Wow. Intense like espresso, but creamy and not bitter at all. It only yields 1.5 demitasse cups, but it is pure heaven. It literally may be the best coffee I’ve ever had. I’ve tried two different beans that I had on hand and ground myself (Costco Sumatra and Starbucks espresso.) Both were equally excellent. The pot my wife’s aunt gave me was the 9-cup size, which is too big just for me (to make the coffee properly you need to fill the filter, so making less that the full amount alters the excellence.) I could have gotten the 6-cup, but it’s so quick and easy that I can just make another pot if I want more. I salute you, Bialetti company! $24 for an excellent espresso maker. Well done.
I did use medium heat, and let it take it’s time. It still only took about 5 minutes. They say to take it off the heat as soon as you hear it start to bubble up.
I’m an espresso drinker, and I don’t care for plain old American-style brewed coffee. This causes a problem when we travel, because I want my espresso first thing in the morning and this entails trying to find a Starbucks near where we’re staying. And I’m too fussy even to like Starbucks all that much.
Then I found online a Bialetti electric moka machine. It weighs less than four pounds altogether, and you’re right, it makes kickass espresso. Well, it’s not precisely espresso, but it’s close enough. The electric version is extremely easy to use. You press a button when you put the filled pot on the electric base, and it beeps in about five minutes when it’s brewed.
So I packed the machine and nearly a pound of topnotch ground coffee in my suitcase during our recent trip to Hawaii. It sure freaked out the TSA dudes when they saw the image of my Bialetti on the X-ray machine! But I was brewing delectable espresso from artisan beans while traveling and I give the method two big thumbs up.
It’s a general tip. Works fine for my french press, and I heard it first in a recipe for drip coffee. IMHO only really useful if you make pretty strong coffee, but still. It seems to bring out the flavor a bit while reducing the bitterness, and you really need only just a little bit of salt.
Have a go. The worst that can happen is you have to make a new pot of coffee.
Anyway, just to be clear: the way I do it (and what all recipes I read tell you to do) is to add the salt to the coffee grounds before turning on the machine/adding water.
Moka pots rawk. I have a very nice stainless steel cylindrical one, a 6-cup traditional octagonal one, a single-demitasse one I got from REI, and possibly one other (but if I do, I’ve no idea where it is). One thing about moka pots is that you have to wash them and dry them soon after use. If you let water sit in the bottom it will corrode the aluminum. (Maybe that’s what happened to my AWOL 4-cup one.) No such problems with the stainless steel one, but it has its own problem. It’s only a ‘four cup’. Of course, ‘cups’ means ‘demi-tasses’. My 6-cup pot makes about a mug and a half; so it takes two pots for a normal amount of ‘espresso’. Oh, the stainless pot has one more problem: It has a rounded base, which makes it difficult to use on my MSR stove.