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Bialetti is the most famous moka pot brand, and the moka pots it produces still retain the most classic shape. If you have ever visited the Front Street store, then you will surely remember that classic octagonal pot lying on the display shelf—this is the classic-shaped moka pot produced by Bialetti.

The Birth of the Bialetti Moka Pot

The earliest way to brew coffee was to add coffee grounds to water, boil it on the stove, and then filter it for drinking. Starting in the 19th century, some people tried using steam to brew coffee, hoping to brew a strong cup of coffee in an extremely short time. In the early 20th century, the Industrial Revolution began to take hold around the world. Italians created an espresso machine whose shape and presence resembled a steam locomotive boiler, with a dazzling metal shell and brass fittings, and full sound-and-light effects when brewing coffee. The steam locomotive itself was a product of an epoch-making era, allowing people to travel quickly from one place to another, and when applied to coffee brewing it did not disappoint either. Modernity and coffee flavor were perfectly combined, and cafés attracted Italian men like magnets, giving them a ready excuse to leave home at any time.

Compared with the coffee in cafés, the coffee women drank at home was far inferior. This situation did not change completely until 1933, when Alfonso Bialetti invented the first device that thoroughly improved home coffee. And this coffee device is what we now know as the moka pot. Even more remarkable is that this moka pot has never changed in any respect since Bialetti first designed it—whether in material, design, or even appearance, what we see today is exactly the same as the first moka pot born in 1933. Its unique shape even placed it, in a vote on the most influential designs in 20th-century Italy, alongside the 1946 Vespa scooter and the 1957 Fiat 500.

The clever Bialetti created the moka pot so that people could brew café-quality coffee at home, but this octagonal moka pot truly flourished only after his son Renato inherited the business.

After World War II, Renato returned to Italy from Germany and restarted the machinery and equipment that his father had packed away during the war. Combined with his skillful use of marketing—from billboards, newspapers, and radio to large three-dimensional product sculptures outside exhibition halls—the production of the Moka Express moka pot expanded from 10,000 units per year in his father's era to 1,000 units per day, and even set an astronomical global sales figure of 300 million units from 1950 to the end of the 20th century!

Times change, and the materials of moka pots have evolved from aluminum into all kinds of varieties, but the Moka Express moka pot produced by Bialetti, apart from some parts being mass-produced using industrial technology, still insists on the handmade craftsmanship of the lower chamber used to hold water since its founding in 1933. This is also why its interior surface looks very much like the original character of a handmade product. The body of a genuine moka pot produced by the original Italian Bialetti factory all features a cartoon-like mustachioed man pointing upward, as if speaking to order a cup of coffee. This is a logo design for Bialetti moka pots that Renato created based on his father's image. Now, besides appearing in 90% of Italian households, it also firmly occupies a place in the hearts of coffee lovers around the world.

The Principle Behind Brewing Coffee with a Moka Pot

A moka pot is mainly divided into three structures: the bottom layer holds water, the middle layer holds coffee grounds, and the top layer holds the coffee. First, fill the bottom layer with water, fill the middle layer with coffee grounds, and screw the three parts together. Then, through heating, pressure is generated, causing the water to be drawn upward through the metal tube in the middle, extracting the coffee grounds in the middle layer, and finally the coffee liquid gushes into the top layer.

How to Use a Moka Pot to Brew Coffee

Previously, many friends kept asking Front Street how to use a moka pot to brew coffee, so here Front Street will give a unified reply. First, you need to choose the right coffee beans and the corresponding grind size. Because a moka pot uses pressure extraction, it is suitable for some coffee beans with a darker roast level. For example, the Warm Sun blend beans used by Front Street for espresso, or the medium-roast Papua Bird of Paradise and the coffee beans from Brazil's Queen Farm are all good choices.

The grind size is also very important for a moka pot. If it is too fine, there is a high chance the coffee liquid will not come up, and it will also increase the pressure in the lower chamber; if pressure is not released properly, there is a risk of explosion. So if the water has already boiled but the coffee liquid has not come up for a long time, the heat source should be turned off promptly. Too coarse is also no good, because the resistance is too low, the coffee liquid will gush out, and there is a risk of splashing and burns. Front Street recommends a grind size of EK-43s #3-3.5 setting (fine powder consistency).

Specific Steps

1. Pour hot water into the lower chamber up to 0.5 cm below the pressure release valve. Choosing hot water can better shorten the coffee brewing time.

2. Pour the ground coffee into the filter basket, tap it left and right a little so the coffee grounds settle naturally downward. And level the surface of the coffee bed. The purpose of doing this is to make the spatial distribution between coffee particles even; not tamping is to prevent the resistance of the coffee bed from becoming too great.

3. Place the filter basket into the lower chamber, and tighten the upper chamber and lower chamber together. Place it on an electric ceramic stove, turn on the power, and begin heating.

4. When the moka pot heats up to a certain temperature, when the moka pot makes an obvious "hissing" sound, set the electric ceramic stove to low heat and open the lid of the upper chamber; the coffee liquid and oils begin to flow out.

5. When half of the coffee liquid in the upper chamber has come out, turn off the electric ceramic stove. And move the moka pot to the table. The residual heat and pressure of the moka pot will "push" the remaining coffee liquid into the upper chamber.

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.