Moka pot
A moka pot is a little stovetop pot in three parts: water goes in the bottom, coffee in a funnel basket in the middle, and the finished coffee bubbles up into the top 🔥. As the water heats, steam pressure pushes it up through the coffee. The result is strong, bold and chocolatey, somewhere between espresso and filter coffee. It's cheap, lasts forever and makes the kitchen smell amazing.
Grind: Fine-ish, a bit coarser than espresso
Pick your kind
- Stovetop moka pot without the burnt tasteHot water in, level coffee (no tamping), gentle heat, off the heat when it sputters.10 min · easy
- Electric moka pot, nice and easyFill to the valve, level the coffee, switch on, and stop it when it sputters.10 min · easy
Words you'll hear
- Boiler
- The bottom chamber you fill with water. It has a safety valve on the side.
- Safety valve
- A small brass valve on the boiler that releases pressure if something blocks the flow. Never fill above it or cover it.
- Funnel basket
- The metal basket that holds the ground coffee and sits in the boiler.
- Collector
- The top chamber where the finished coffee rises and collects.
- Sputtering
- The gurgling, spitting sound near the end when steam starts pushing through. Your cue to take it off the heat.
- Ratio
- Water weight divided by coffee weight. A typical moka basket and boiler land near 1:10, for example 15 g coffee to 150 g water.
- Extraction
- How much flavor the water pulls from the grounds. Under-extracted tastes sour and thin; over-extracted tastes bitter and burnt.