As a "new favorite" among everyday beverages, most people have had some experience drinking coffee out. The freshly ground coffee in cafés is fragrant and sweet, but the number of times you can visit a café is limited by your free time and the thickness of your wallet, so the best solution is naturally to make it yourself at home. Front Street Coffee has met many customers who, after tasting that unique vinous aroma in espresso at Front Street Coffee's stores, wanted to recreate a similar flavor at home.

Those with the means will keep a dedicated espresso machine at home, while those with somewhat more limited means will mostly keep a moka pot at home. Because moka pots are cheap and can brew a fragrant, intense, and rich concentrated coffee liquid, they have caught the eye of many people. There are always people who go to Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) stores to ask Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s baristas,What coffee beans are suitable for a moka pot? How do you use a moka pot to brew a delicious concentrated coffee liquid with rich crema? But,Is what a moka pot brews espresso?

The moka pot is now the first choice for many coffee enthusiasts when making Italian espresso. Although the extraction pressure of a moka pot is far lower than that of a professional espresso machine, and the extracted coffee liquid lacks a bit of viscous mouthfeel, compared with expensive and professional espresso machines, the moka pot, as coffee equipment, is relatively inexpensive, and often only a few hundred yuan are needed to buy a very good moka pot set.

With simple operation, you can get a cup of Italian coffee made with your own hands. I believe that after hearing this, quite a few people are getting eager to try. Next, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) will introduce to everyoneHow to use a moka potand some tips for using it.

The appearance of the moka pot can be traced back as far as the 1930s, when an aluminum metal worker who had spent more than ten years in France returned home in glory, went back to Piedmont to establish his own workshop, and made and sold aluminum household items. One day, when Alfonso Bialetti observed the washing machine at home, he had a sudden inspiration, and thus the moka pot, this coffee brewing device, came into being.

The structure and working principle of the moka pot are remarkably similar to those of the washing machine at that time. It is mainly divided into three parts: upper, middle, and lower. The lower chamber holds hot water, the middle has a basket for coffee grounds, and a metal channel connects the upper, middle, and lower parts, while the upper chamber is responsible for holding the extracted coffee liquid.

When the lower chamber is heated, as the water temperature rises, more steam is generated within the limited space. The hot water surges upward through the metal tube in the middle, passes through the fine coffee grounds in the middle, and then emerges like a fountain from the upper chamber, with the espresso liquid carrying coffee crema remaining in the upper chamber. This is the extraction process of the moka pot.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s steps for making coffee with a moka pot

1.     Add an appropriate amount of hot water to the lower chamber

2.     Pour the coffee grounds into the basket and distribute them evenly

3.     Place the basket into the lower chamber, and screw the upper and lower chambers tightly together

4.     Apply heat to the moka pot

5.     When the moka pot makes a "whirring" sound and coffee liquid begins to emerge, turn off the heat source

Because the process of brewing coffee with a moka pot involves a process of pressure buildup, this means there is a certain degree of danger, and safety must be constantly kept in mind during operation.

The particle size of coffee grounds is between 0.3 mm and 0.55 mm. Since it is difficult to check with the naked eye, you can buy moka-pot-specific grounds or a particle size ruler for comparison, or determine the coffee ground particle size through continuous testing. When adding water to the lower chamber, note that the water level must not cover the pressure relief valve; it should be filled to 0.5 cm below the lower valve.

During the process of brewing coffee with a moka pot, if the coffee liquid spurts upward too quickly, it means the coffee grounds are too coarse; if you hear the moka pot making a "whirring" sound but no coffee liquid emerges for a long time, Front Street recommends immediately cutting off the heat source and taking safety precautions.

On the bean rack at Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), where nearly fifty kinds of coffee beans are displayed, there are often people standing in front of the rack, at a loss and not knowingwhat coffee beans are suitable for a moka pot. Many people add a moka pot generally to replace an espresso machine for making concentrated coffee liquid. The characteristics of espresso are thick, smooth, and rich in crema. Therefore, some coffee beans with a darker roast level can satisfy such characteristics.

One espresso blend used at Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) stores is made from 70% Honduras Sherry coffee beans and 30% sun-dried Red Cherry. It has both a rich vanilla cream and Sherry whisky vinous aroma, and the berry notes that sun-dried Yirgacheffe coffee beans should have.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Sunflower Warm Sun blend coffee beans

Region: Honduras & Ethiopia

Varieties: Caturra, Catuai, Pacas, local heirloom varieties

Processing method: Washed & sun-dried

If you want to use single-origin coffee beans, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s baristas generally recommend Brazil Queen Farm's sun-dried Yellow Bourbon. Because the coffee cherries of the Yellow Bourbon variety have a thicker mucilage layer, meaning they are richer in sugars, when the whole intact coffee cherries are retained for sun-dried processing, as much of the fructose-like substances as possible penetrate into the green coffee beans, bringing a preserved-fruit-like sweetness and a fuller body to coffee that originally has a rich nutty profile.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Brazil Queen Farm coffee beans

Region: Mogiana, São Paulo State, Brazil

Farm: Queen Farm

Altitude: 1,400 meters—1,950 meters

Variety: Yellow Bourbon

Processing method: Sun-dried processing

There are always people who ask Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s baristas whether the coffee brewed with a moka pot can count as espresso.

Front Street also mentioned briefly earlier that a professional espresso machine has high extraction pressure and can produce a cup of espresso with a viscous mouthfeel and rich crema. Butthe advantages and disadvantages of brewing coffee with a moka potare numerous. Although it is simple to operate and convenient to use, its extraction pressure is only about 1.5 bar. You should know that the extraction of espresso generally has an extraction pressure above 9 bar. In addition, because the metal filter of the moka pot basket is relatively sparse, this means that the grind size used for a moka pot is much coarser than that for an espresso machine.

These factors lead to the crema of coffee brewed with a moka pot being far less rich than that from an espresso machine, and the mouthfeel being somewhat thinner than the coffee liquid produced by an espresso machine. In other words, the coffee brewed with a moka pot cannot be considered espresso, and can only be regarded as a distinctive strong coffee.

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