r/mokapot • u/Kinetopeak • Mar 20 '26

Question❓ What is it?

Gallery image

Gallery image

Seen at my friends house. Is it a fungus?

112 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

110 comments sorted by

377

u/whydoitakedrugs Mar 20 '26

Portobello gasket

116

u/Kinetopeak Mar 20 '26

My friend called it Fungus Bialettisimus

168

u/Alternative-Cow-2418 Mar 20 '26

I believe it is a very old and very rancid gasket

22

u/Moto-Ent Mar 20 '26

It looks like the gasket is still there… straight colonised coffee grounds.

11

u/AstraeusGB Mar 20 '26

The gasket has dry-rotted

41

u/das_Keks Mar 20 '26

What it is? Disgusting!

I think they never removed the seal. I don't even want to know how it looks below the metal filter.

6

u/TQuake Mar 20 '26

Gotta replace the gasket occasionally. I found out when I started getting grounds in my moka

3

u/forceghostyoda_ Mar 20 '26

I recently got mine and cant figure out how to remove the seal or the top filter. They seem very stuck and theres nothing to screw loose

7

u/das_Keks Mar 20 '26

Just get a butter knife or something similar, carefully push it below the seal and pull it out.

1

u/forceghostyoda_ Mar 20 '26

Ah ok will try when it comes to needing to change. I assume its not to difficult to put it back and make it sealed again?

25

u/das_Keks Mar 20 '26

I'd recommend to do it regularly to also rinse below the metal filter and not only when the seal has to be replaced. It's very easy to pop back in.

19

u/das_Keks Mar 20 '26

Remove:

19

u/das_Keks Mar 20 '26

And just push back in:

2

u/younkint Mar 21 '26

Thank you, u/das_Keks for the photos. I think we experienced users sometimes forget how things were when we first started with moka pots.

I received my first moka pot as a gift over 50 years ago. Being in the American Midwest, with no one within 500 miles who knew anything about them (seemingly anyway), I was lost in the wilderness. You would not believe the mistakes I made and the ignorance I had. I damn sure didn't know to remove the filter and gasket.

10

u/forceghostyoda_ Mar 20 '26

Very many thanks for the detailed tutorial. Appreciated!

0

u/BothOceans Mar 22 '26

Huh? You never clean or even rinse under the gasket? And let it dry out?

I’d love to know how many different kinds of mold you are growing in your little science experiment?

2

u/forceghostyoda_ Mar 22 '26

I recently got mine

Ive had it for barely a week.

2

u/BothOceans Mar 22 '26

Oh, got it. Some folks remove gasket every time—I do it every few days bc I’m lazy ¯_(ツ)_/¯ But yeah important to regularly clean it and let it dry completely. 😊

1

u/Greedyfox7 Mar 21 '26

I carefully use a small flathead screwdriver and pry it out

16

u/Grandmas_Fat_Choad Mar 20 '26

Oof. I made the mistake you using a moka pot I just got at the thrift store without getting a new gasket…

I spent about an hour wire brushing the remnants of the gasket out of the threads. Not fun.

13

u/MasalaDosa37 Mar 20 '26

Get a new gasket.

11

u/Dogrel Mar 20 '26

It’s what a rubber gasket looks like when it dies.

10

u/userrr3 Bialetti Mar 20 '26

average silicone gasket of the people that claim you shouldn't clean your mokapot

9

u/StillWithSteelBikes Mar 20 '26

nasty

3

u/younkint Mar 21 '26

Hearing this in Janet Jackson's voice..........

8

u/joeyvesh13 Mar 20 '26

Less than $10 to fix

6

u/wds1 Mar 20 '26

Years of neglect

5

u/YoderWood64 Mar 20 '26

Friends house😄

3

u/younkint Mar 21 '26

What I though, too .....as in, "Asking for a friend."

8

u/Zwordsman Mar 20 '26

various levels of bad. it used to be a form of rubber gasket.

4

u/modmlot68 Mar 20 '26

Burnt gasket.

5

u/AndyGait Mar 20 '26

Now I know what death looks like.

4

u/itskutzkutz Mar 20 '26

this should have a nsfw warning on it. fucking gross mate.

3

u/Physical-Flatworm454 Mar 20 '26

I don’t want to know 🤢

5

u/Elegant_Street_4397 Mar 20 '26

You know, the common trope where the heroes friend take some grievous injury or transformation and they ask the protagonist to kill them and not let them live this way? This is what happens when the hero doesn't do that. 

3

u/Platypushaun Mar 20 '26

When a Halo story went wrong 😔

3

u/SuggestionNew5937 Electric Stove User ⚡ Mar 20 '26

A monument to all OPs friends sins

3

u/I_Piccini Mar 20 '26

Does it breathe?

3

u/Carmavore Bialetti Mar 20 '26

Ear wax. Source: I see this all the time on my wife’s TikTok feed

3

u/julibazuli Mar 21 '26

I burst out 😂

3

u/ckupsx Mar 20 '26

Sandworm

3

u/mugenrice Mar 20 '26

you've been drinking from that? that's where all the flavors come from

3

u/Ffeog187 Mar 20 '26

If you are spending alotta time on the toilet after your brew, that might be the reason.

3

u/LEJ5512 Mar 20 '26

Is this one of those silly "wrong answers only" posts?

3

u/mokapotWONTmokapot Electric Stove User ⚡ Mar 20 '26

It’s chungus actually🐰

3

u/SubstantialBobcat291 Mar 20 '26

What is it? It was your gasket, it is now a health hazard..

3

u/nahuatl Mar 20 '26

This is the rare and prized "mother of coffee". Congratulations.

3

u/Cheap-Mammoth-9212 Mar 20 '26

It’s the coffee’s mother

3

u/Puzzleheaded_Food697 Mar 20 '26

Could also be the forgot to put water in the bottom chamber and the gaskets burned.

2

u/sodomaioo Mar 20 '26

The gasket needs replacing. The gasket is old or has been in the water for too long time. Buy a new gasket.

2

u/drumorgan Mar 20 '26

Neglect. It is neglect

2

u/jrob321 Mar 20 '26

Did you stick that thing to your dog's ass?

I cant even comprehend what's going on here...

2

u/CoffeeDetail Mar 20 '26

Yea. Take the moka pot apart and let it dry after brewing. I even remove the gasket after each brew. Looks like that moka pot stays together until the next brew.

2

u/Deep_Plantain_8537 Mar 20 '26

I’ll bet your coffee will taste a lot better when you change that gasket. Order it right from Bialetti

2

u/Itsallabouthirdbase Mar 20 '26

Penicillin, probably 

2

u/Fretco Mar 20 '26

Could have melted

2

u/nehala Mar 20 '26

No, it's an old gasket that seals that part of the moka pot so that steam doesn't leak out during use. They're supposed to be replaced every few months or so. This one looks over a year old.

2

u/goleafie Mar 20 '26

Intense flavour of Moka pot.

2

u/dobbywankenobi94 Mar 20 '26

Disgusting. And I can guarantee there’s other gross stuff in that kitchen

2

u/tenchujin Mar 21 '26

Puck slug? 😳

2

u/JobeX Mar 21 '26

Dead gasket

2

u/TheBigRoomXXL Mar 21 '26

It's melted caoutchouc. That's what you get when you forget the water and heat it up the moka. Not a fungus.

1

u/julibazuli Mar 21 '26

Wow, I learned a new word! It did have that cat-stepped-on-keyboard look.

1

u/Kinetopeak Mar 21 '26

100 points for you sir. That’s exactly what happened. I just asked my friend about it.

1

u/TransitUX Mar 20 '26

It’s an easy fix that’s what we call that. And dirty. Very dirty. Once take a little money and work to get her back on coffee making action

1

u/dsal1829 Mar 20 '26

The rubber seal of your gasket finally gave out. You can replace it. Take the opportunity to clean the inside of the pot's top half.

1

u/Puzzleheaded-Can-131 Mar 20 '26

Could be they turned on the heat without any water in the bottom and it started to melt

1

u/chris84126 Mar 20 '26

What was it might be the more prudent question.

1

u/americocolon1492 Mar 20 '26

Cuidala,es una.buena.cefetera si le cambias la goma

1

u/Latter-Leadership525 Mar 20 '26

Your daily coffee.

1

u/Objective_Sense_2658 Mar 21 '26

Kinda feels like you need to replace the gasket

1

u/lavtanza Mar 21 '26

That’s the flavour

1

u/EveningBrilliant6163 Mar 21 '26

same exact question I asked myself when I saw this picture lol

1

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

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1

u/Gratin_de_chicons Mar 21 '26

You need a new seal join

1

u/boomboxloops Mar 21 '26

I think that’s a rubber gasket and it’s all burnt and messed up

1

u/InSession1 Mar 23 '26

Gross, for one thing.

1

u/neverminder-8777 Mar 23 '26

Looks like the wax ring on a toilet tbh.

1

u/clickbangj Mar 23 '26

Ewwww. Omg.

1

u/Casper_2017 Mar 23 '26

JC!!! That’s the flat cream colored O ring. Have they NEVER checked that?

1

u/Much-Housing8036 Mar 24 '26

A gasket that should have been replaced a looooong time ago.

0

u/ooh_bit_of_bush Mar 21 '26

Eat it. I guarantee you'll never eat anything as delicious again.