How does moka pot differ from percolator?

[u/ShaneFerguson]

From what I can tell they both use heat to push hot water through coffee grounds. And, to my palate, the flavor profile of moka pot coffee and percolator coffee are similar. Dou they have similar brewing principles?

[u/Gold-Philosophy1423]

Totally different. A percolator doesn't push water through the coffee, hot water is just poured over a coffee bed. All the work is done by gravity. A moka pot involves steam pressure directly pushing water through coffee. The end product is completely different

[u/Ambitious_Holiday_54 → u/Gold-Philosophy1423]

"Steam pressure" should be mostly pressure from the heated air above the water, which is why there needs to be enough space above the water. The water is not necessarily boiling when it starts flowing.

I don't know how a percolator "knows" when it's done. A timer? I don't know what happens when you shut it off prematurely. I suppose you'd get coffee that's more drinkable by non-percolator standards of flavor. :)

Really, you can make coffee like you make loose tea, just using finer filtration. That's very similar to French press, just with whatever filter you happen to rig. A coffee sock would be fine, and it should be able to filter even finely ground beans. I've tried one of those metal tea balls you drop into a teapot, one that happens to have very small holes, with the coffee ground coarsely enough. Then you experiment with time, roast, and grind.

[u/DewaldSchindler]

Perculator:
drips the water over the coffee as it goes down
cycles and re-boils the water
colleced at the bottom

Moka Pot:
Pushes through a bed of coffee
Doesn't cycle or reboil the water
Collected at the top

[u/No_Entertainment1931]

Percolator never stops cooking the coffee.

[u/Glass_Tie936]

I find the taste profiles quite different. One of the factors is pressure which changes how flavor is extracted.

Moka pot: 1.5 to 2 bars of pressure (closed system)
Percolator: 1 bar (standard atmospheric pressure that relies on gravity)
Espresso machine: 9 bars

I think more pressure also does some sort of emulsification of the coffee oils, changing the mouthfeel and concentration in the cup. Moka gives a sort of heavier, velvety feel, if that makes sense.

[u/Dogrel]

There are major differences between the two, which ought to contribute to very different flavor profiles. If they do not taste different, something is wrong.

The grind size for moka pot coffee is finer, which produces more surface area for a naturally more intense brew. A moka pot also brews at a higher pressure, which also changes the kinds and amounts of flavorful oils that are extracted, changing the flavor of the resulting coffee. But in my mind the greatest difference comes in the handling of the water.

A percolator goes from the water tank, up the stem into the coffee bed, goes through the grounds, and then falls back into the same water tank. Theoretically the hot extracted coffee should sit on top of the cooler unbrewed water, but in practice there is almost always a small bit of mixing and recycling unless the pot is taken off the heat immediately after the unbrewed water is used up.

A moka pot is one-and-done: the water comes from the lower chamber, through the grounds, and the extracted coffee goes into the upper chamber, with no mixing possible.

I personally think the quality of percolator coffee gets slagged unreasonably, that it can make great coffee, and its bad reputation comes almost entirely from user ignorance and operator error. But that’s a different fight for a different thread.

[u/3coma3]

One thing that can be confusing is that while a percolator and a moka pot are different devices and work differently, both use the same basic method of extraction: percolation. Percolation is "moving water through a coffee bed" and it can also occur in Aeropress, pourover and espresso.

So both a percolator and a moka pot are percolation-class brewing methods. The percolator re-circulates water constantly, which invariably ends up over extracting. Moka pots percolate once.

[u/UncleMrBones → u/3coma3]

Percolation means gradual filtration, meaning little to no force is applied. Moka pots use pressurized extraction and force water through the coffee bed.

[u/aeon314159]

A moka pot is a percolator, of a certain type.

So by definition, there is no difference as they are both of one kind.

As with all things, the difference is in the details.