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Recently, many friends have been asking Front Street, "What coffee beans are suitable for a moka pot?" So Front Street took a look at the moka pot sales on our online store and put together the numbers: the top four best-selling moka pots together sell over 2,000 units a month, which counts as high sales for a coffee gadget costing several hundred yuan or more.

The moka pot first appeared back in 1933. Because it is small and simple and can conveniently brew strong coffee, it won the hearts of the Italian people — "if you don't have a moka pot at home, you're embarrassed to host guests." In the movie "To Rome with Love," there is even a scene of coffee being brewed with a moka pot.

Besides Italy, the places where moka pots are used most are Australia, the United States and other countries with large Italian-descended communities. But just a few years ago, the moka pot was still a very niche gadget in our country. Apart from people who made a point of learning about coffee, most people probably had never even heard of a moka pot. A few years ago, if you searched the Chinese internet for how to use a moka pot, it was nearly impossible to find a complete process.

Now the moka pot has huge sales, and today a casual search turns up dozens of video tutorials about it. What is it that has made more and more people use the moka pot to brew coffee? Front Street has summed up the following reasons.

- A substitute for an espresso machine

Front Street learned from a friend that when he first bought a moka pot, what drew him to it was that it is small, can make strong coffee with crema, and above all is cheap. He bought the moka pot to extract coffee, and he likes to add milk when drinking it, indulging his urge to do latte art along the way.

Front Street previously wrote an article on "Can a moka pot make espresso like an espresso machine?" In it, we said that whether in terms of crema quality or coffee concentration, the coffee made with a moka pot has an obvious gap compared with espresso. Of course, this view is from a barista's perspective. For home enthusiasts, as long as you choose the right coffee beans and make sure you operate it properly, the simple version of espresso brewed with a moka pot can actually serve as a substitute for espresso, used as the base for popular drinks like Americano and latte.

There is another important point: baristas and consumers/enthusiasts look at coffee by different standards. The coffee made with a moka pot may not meet the barista's standard for espresso, but for enthusiasts, this gadget makes coffee that is stronger than what home devices like pour-over, French press or AeroPress produce, and by comparison it is already the result of a process of selection.

Next, let's pick a coffee bean we like and teach you how to use a moka pot to make an Americano and a latte respectively～

Key one to delicious moka pot coffee: choosing the right coffee beans

Just as in that still from "To Rome with Love," Italians generally buy pre-ground coffee powder made specifically for moka pots. In China, specialty coffee has developed quite rapidly, and many domestic coffee roasters offer freshly roasted coffee beans, making them convenient to buy. Freshly roasted coffee beans have richer flavors than coffee stored as ground powder. If you want satisfying results from moka pot coffee, Front Street believes that choosing the right coffee beans is very important, especially when adding milk to make a moka pot latte. Here, Front Street has listed three types of coffee according to most people's tastes, and you can just match them to your own preference:

If what you want is a cup of moka pot coffee that is full-bodied, rich and aromatic, without acidity, and with plenty of crema, then it's best to choose medium-dark or dark roasted beans. We recommend Front Street Classic Espresso Blend, Front Street Mandheling, Front Street Brazil Cerrado, and Front Street Huila;

If you want moka pot coffee that is not so bitter, with a bit of fruity acidity, floral notes, and a fresher profile, then you can choose medium-light roasted types such as Front Street Huakui, Front Street Kafa Forest, and Front Street Little Tomato. These beans have relatively rich floral and fruity aromas, with very bright acidity, and are suitable for making moka pot Americano;

Or if what you want is moka pot coffee with prominent flavor and full of personality, then you can choose coffee beans with rich aromas, such as Front Street Strawberry Candy Espresso, Front Street Mozart, Front Street Sidra, and Front Street Big Belly. These beans can easily show rich fruity aromas and distinctive coffee flavors in moka pot coffee — they can make a clearly layered moka pot Americano, and after blending with milk they can also show a smooth, silky mouthfeel.

Key two to delicious moka pot coffee: finding the right grind size

Actually, if you are brewing coffee with a moka pot, you only need to choose a grind slightly coarser than espresso. You can refer to the size of the gap in the filter screen of the funnel basket to make sure the coffee particles won't fall into the lower chamber. Of course, it can't be too coarse either, otherwise during extraction there won't be enough pressure, no crema will appear, and because the resistance is too low there may even be sputtering. Grind size is directly proportional to extraction time: how coarse or fine the coffee is ground affects the length of extraction time and the extraction yield. Simply put, the finer the coffee is ground, the longer the extraction time and the higher the extraction yield, and the stronger the coffee taste; the coarser the coffee is ground, the shorter the extraction time and the lower the extraction yield, and the lighter and more sour the resulting taste.
 

Key three to delicious moka pot coffee: properly controlling the parameters

To demonstrate for everyone, here we chose Front Street Strawberry Candy coffee beans. This is a Geisha blend made from beans from the Panama and Costa Rica growing regions. When brewed, it often shows flavor notes of strawberry gummy candy, raisins, and rose floral notes, and under pressure extraction it also carries just the right golden crema, so it is suitable for extraction in multiple ways at the same time.

1. Pour purified water into the lower chamber of the moka pot; the water level should be about 0.5 cm below the pressure relief valve.
 

2. Slowly pour the coffee grounds into the funnel basket, tap gently to distribute the coffee grounds evenly, and when the coffee grounds form a small hill shape, level the coffee surface by distributing the grounds. Filling the basket with grounds is to avoid extracting bad, defective flavors. Because the closer the density of the coffee grounds in the funnel basket, the more you avoid some grounds being over-extracted or some being under-extracted, which leads to uneven flavor or a bitter, astringent taste.

 
3. Put the funnel basket into the lower chamber, tighten the upper and lower parts of the moka pot, then place it on an electric ceramic stove and turn on high heat. Note that the lid should stay open, in order to observe the extraction of the coffee liquid;

4. When the moka pot rises to a certain temperature, it will make an obvious whooshing sound, and then we can set it to low heat and wait for the coffee liquid to flow out.
 

5. When the coffee liquid in the upper chamber reaches half of the pot body, we can turn off the electric ceramic stove. The residual heat and pressure of the moka pot will "push" the remaining coffee liquid into the upper chamber.
 

6. Once all the coffee liquid has been extracted into the upper chamber, it can be poured into a cup and tasted.

The coffee extracted with a moka pot is very rich, with a layer of yellow Crema foam. Drunk straight, you can taste flavors of candied fruit, nuts, raisins, sweet orange and so on, but because the concentration is on the high side, much of the lingering mouthfeel has not yet unfolded, so Front Street makes it into an Americano or a latte.

To make an Americano, Front Street prepares a coffee cup with a capacity of more than 200 ml, pours in 150–180 ml of warm hot water, and then pours the freshly extracted Strawberry Candy moka pot coffee liquid over it. An Americano made this way shows beautiful yellow crema, and you can also taste a juice-like sweet-and-sour coffee flavor;

If making an iced latte, use a 300 ml coffee cup, add 90 g of ice cubes, then pour in 150 ml of fresh milk, and finally pour over the strong moka pot coffee liquid extracted from Front Street Strawberry Candy. After stirring, you can start tasting. Unlike a conventional dark-roast latte, the medium-roast Strawberry Candy latte has a rich aroma, yet is not bitter at all on the palate, and also carries the fresh fragrance of berries — very special.

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