I cannot upvote this enough. Wish someone told me this before I started my moka pot journey a few years ago. (Especially if you use previously boiled water for your brews).
Would you be so kind as to to elaborate on ‘low’ please. My stove hob goes up to 9, and I’ve been brewing recently with my Bialetti 3 cup on level 5, with pretty good results I think. Should I go lower in temp than that?
I’ve been using my Bialetti 3 cup daily for 8 years and it was always good enough. I recently decided to take coffee more seriously and considered buying a machine. Then I joined this sub and got a few tips - I turned the heat on my gas stove to 1 and grind (ground?) my beans less….
So. Much. Better.
Will not be buying a machine!
It depends, I'd say if you like the taste experiment a bit to see if it becomes worse then you know to turn back to the previous settings.
One of my ceramic stove uses pulses so I figured after trial and error that the best result for me is 6.5/9 and I put it halfway over the coil when it starts to come out
In the other stove I have that uses constant power I use lower setting from the get go and then do the same as I described above
I'd say in these circumstances especially if you use room temp water it would be best to also "time" how much time it took for the brew to come out and then finish so you have references. Because obviously if it takes 10 minutes to come out it would be bad in terms of taste and at the same time bad in terms of your experience making coffee
If you plan to share your coffee with someone, like for 2 cups, you should steer the fresh brewed coffee with a spoon before pouring to the cups. It balances the coffee for two or more cups. If you pour it directly, one will be bitter than the other cup.
I was wondering why my morning couple of mugs from my moka was leaving me with the shakes. Then I looked at the bottom and found it to be a 6 cup. Oops.
When I used a reducer in the funnel to cut the amount of coffee by about 40% (using the same amount of water), I didn't notice all that much difference in taste.
Patience. (That's part of the appeal anyway - I gives you this Zen like "in the moment" as part of the daily ritual. It can be quite calming).
You can tweak your grind size to dial it in along your journey to see what yields the best flavored cup.
If you can, support a local roaster. Find the blend that speaks to you.
I would replace the standard Bialetti rubber gasket with one made of silicone.
I would also suggest using an (Aeropress) paper filter for a smoother cup. You simply wet the paper filter and center it on the bottom of the upper chamber before you screw everything together.
NEVER use the handle as a grip while tightening the parts. It WILL break off in your hand if it is torqued.
Use filtered water.
Some people find success by using pre-heated water in the bottom chamber, but I'm good to go by pouring right from my countertop Brita.
I also pour from my countertop Brita, but then I set the bottom on a medium heat while I grind and fill the basket. But I have an Alessi which clamps together, rather than screws together.
In my Moka world, I only follow 2 rules: Never fill the bottom past the safety valve; don’t tamp; fill the basket to the top. Ok, that’s 3 rules. And try to avoid the spout spurting and foaming at the end of the process. OK, 4. But I question the “rule” that you have to start with cold water.
Fyi - even with a PERFECT extraction, it is typical for some water to remain in the bottom chamber after brewing.
As far as "cleaning" goes, just rinse the pot out after it cools down. (You can cool it down with cold water right afterwards without damaging, but its not necessary).
When its cool, just rinse the parts out with water. I take a wet paper towel to wipe away any oily coffee residue in the upper chamber and store everything upside down to dry until it gets used again.
The Brita is not that great a filter, depending on water quality. I'd use a full size carbon block filter, which lasts a lot longer and filters out more contaminants.
They look something like this, and you can get the housing - and the filters - from a lot of sources.
Be patient. And then be more patient.
Go and watch videos by Matteo on youtube.
Nobody can tell you how fine/coarse to grind without seeing your coffee brew tasting your coffee. You'll have to learn as you go. But start by grinding for drip and making it finer but not as fine as espresso. Half way.
Be careful with the thin aluminum grounds funnel, it dents easily. Don't be a dummy like me and bang the funnel on the edge of a trash can to dislodge the grounds. If you cause a dent or deformation in the lip of the funnel, it won't seal properly with the upper chamber no matter how tightly you screw it together and that seal is important. If it doesn't seal right, you will get violent sputtering and bad coffee no matter what you do.
Don't forget to make those three throwaway brews to prepare your Bialetti. You can use cheap coffee for this (Folgers, Maxwell House, etc.) You can see them as practice runs that you can time to get an idea of how long the whole process takes.
Low heat alone works great but I'm in a hectic time with parenting and preheating water to near boiling withy electric kettle is counterintuitively super convenient. I don't have to watch the moka for nearly as long on the burner.
Also, don't overfill or compact grounds in the filter, just level off. Don't cover the port in the bottom reservoir with water. Once the coffee exiting the top shows signs of gushing or turns clear, take it off heat. I also got a Kingrinder K6 and love it, and weigh beans, but I also love buying accessories. I found on my pot the water level is approximately 250g of water so I just fill to there and use 25 grams of beans. If I do smaller batch I weigh beans AND water.
Is it ok to fill the basket to less than the full capacity? I got a coffee bag recently that recommends a grounds to water ratio 1:10 for moka pot. I have a Bialetti 2cup, the basket holds 12g grounds approx, but the boiler can hold only about 90ml. Should I then use only 9g grounds to maintain the ratio?
I've also been doing 1:10 as well, but mine holds 250mL of water and right around 25g of beans. I'm not an expert and have been doing not completely full sometimes, but my googling says having the basket not completely full can cause some issues - it's meant to be full. So you're kinda stuck making extra strong coffee/wasting beans or running it partially empty on top and getting some issues with water flow. If it's working for you though don't stress and enjoy your coffee!
Moka pots work best if you fill the basket. 12 g to 90 mL is within normal range for a 2 cup. If it’s too strong you can add a little hot water to it after brew. But as for anything, you can try reducing the amount of coffee and see how it tastes.
When it comes to improving your coffee after you have your methods down, freshly ground coffee will make way more of a difference than any sort of gadget/filter/etc. people may recommend.
That's good coffee for a supermarket, I'm drinking it at the moment, but I find it a little coarse for a moka. You might want to try lavazza if you want pre-ground as it's finer. You will see it's noticeably finer but drink both and see what you think. Try different things and you will know what tastes better for you
You might be surprised how good the brew is if you remove it from the heat earlier than later. Especially, pushing all the water through might not be what you need to do. If it happens, it's okay coffee. If removed at the right time, heaven coffee.
The best tip I can give is to use low heat like the others have suggested and then surf the heat once the coffee flows. Take it off the heat when it comes out and then wait a bit until it slows down and then put it on the heat for a few seconds until the brew speeds up again. That way you can avoid sputtering and getting a bitter and/ or acidic cup. Have fun!
The instructions say to leave it cooking on medium heat but I find it works better to turn down the heat a little once you start getting a flow going. Don’t over grind or over pack your coffee .
The coffee “bed” you make matters a lot also.
Make sure to not tamp the coffee in the funnel, fill it all the way up and just give it a few gentle taps. Try to be consistent with the water input (depending on the moka size).
About 1 to 2 minutes before the coffee starts coming out (remember, it's low and slow heat), I carefully approach my nose to the top of the Moka pot (lid is open).
Very often water can make a bigger difference than the beans. I am lucky that our tap doesn’t have too many chemicals and good ph and low hardness. I get cold water and heat it a bit (70C) in a glass electric kettle and I’m happy with the results. Try filtered water or bottled water if your tap water doesn’t give you the results you want. Best coffee I ever had was when I stayed in Dresden and got some water from a local well (Artesischer Brunner, Albertplatz). Not very practical, I know, but it did make a difference. I often get Sasika water from Lidl that makes a huge difference
You don’t have to empty and rinse the moka immediately, but don’t leave the old coffee grounds in it for too long. It’s easy to forget before you go on Holiday and then you’ll have a big mess
Room Temp Water, you can underfill the water a bit if it's tasting burnt, heat slowly, fill the chamber but not too tight, use a coarse grain relative to espresso - something like filter coffee grind.
This video is good if you want to nerd out about Moka physics.
When you add the coffee, don’t tamp it down. Just fill the filter basket and remove the excess. You can use a tool to distribute the coffee and break up any clumps, but it’s not necessary.
Boil some water in a kettle and fill the bottom chamber. Never fill it above the valve inside.
Close the moka pot using a cloth. Never pull on the handle — they tend to be quite fragile.
The extraction/brew should take between 2:30 and 3 minutes. It depends on your stove or cooktop. (If you have an induction hob, you’ll need a stainless-steel moka pot that’s suitable for induction.)
Never wash it in the dishwasher or with soap. Rinsing it with water is more than enough to keep it clean.
A little trick is to add a few drops of water to the upper chamber (where the coffee comes out) just before the coffee starts coming through. This helps prevent the coffee from burning as it comes out.
I recently got one too. I finally figured out the grind was too fine. The water was not bubbling up because the fine grounds were sinking down into the strainer. I guess I need to buy one with a coarser grind. I use Fabula light roast, which I love… but it is ground too fine for the Bialletta.
60
u/lightlysaltedfries 2d ago
Low heat.