The Pleasures of Moka

[SLB]

Thanks for the info.  The specific advantage I'm interested in is whether it can make good coffee without having to be used every day.  With the Bialetti aluminum ones, I've found that the taste is not great if it's used infrequently.  

Edited June 15, 2016 by SLB (log)

[Martin Fisher]

I keep mine clean.

I find that stale coffee residue ruins a fresh cup — whether the pot is used regularly or not.

 

 

[Anna N]

@DiggingDogFarm

Confession time:. I have never owned a moka pot, never had coffee from one and had no idea how they worked. An education with my morning (Keurig) coffee. Thank you.

[SLB]

Fascinating.  DiggingDogFarm, do you take the filter and gasket out and clean them too???

 

My everyday moka is the tiny one and it tastes great.  It is rinsed daily, but under no theory could it be considered clean.  

 

My larger aluminum moka pot is used infrequently -- less than 100 times in the 20+ years I've owned it -- and the coffee it produces has only ever been half-drinkable.  It's kept much cleaner since I'm not going to put away the pot with coffee residue in every crevice.  I totally thought the taste problem was that it was too clean!  

 

Hence my query about the stainless option -- I'm considering getting one because I thought it could manage to taste good clean, since I thought the point with the seasoning on the aluminum pot had something to do with the metal.  

Edited June 15, 2016 by SLB (log)

[Martin Fisher]

35 minutes ago, SLB said:

...do you take the filter and gasket out and clean them too???

 

I clean everything.

[rancho_gordo]

I find the newer ones don't taste so great. It takes about three weeks to break one in. 

I rinse daily. well, to be honest, i rinse the next day when i make a new pot. I rarely clean mine out the same day unless I'm having another pot. 

 

I am reading this trend about using hot water from a kettle and I just find it ridiculous. It's a huge extra step and the whole process is so fast, I can't imagine the coffee gets much time to get "hot" and cause bitterness. Life is hard enough.

I do now brew with the lid open. I do think it makes a stronger brew. 

[SLB]

Possibly this is another problem, but the gaskets on my daily-use pot get to where they're kind of melted in or something, at which point they don't pull out so easily.  It's hard to imagine cleaning the gasket and filter every single day.  

 

Especially since I don't really clean it at all.  

 

And I agree with ranchogordo on the kettle-hot water.  I just can't do all that before I have coffee.  

[weinoo]

The Humble Brilliance of Italy's Moka Coffee Pot

 

Quote

The moka pot is a symbol of Italy: of postwar ingenuity and global culinary dominance. It is in the Museum of Modern Art, the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and other temples to design. It is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most popular coffee maker, and was for decades commonplace to the point of ubiquity not only in Italy but in Cuba, Argentina, Australia, and the United States. It’s also widely misunderstood and maligned, with approval in the modern coffee world coming perhaps a bit too late, in only the past few years. Get one while you can

 

Not a new article, but still relevant. 

 

And screw pods.