Is there anything more iconic about Italy than this little aluminum kettle? Pizza? Duh, okay…
It feels like everyone and their mom have this little silver kettle stashed somewhere like a souvenir from a different era. No wonder: they are cheap, practical, and make great coffee… if you know what you’re doing.
While the chance of your moka pot exploding is low, it’s never zero…
And to be 100% on the same page: while it’s sometimes called espresso maker, it is NOT making espresso. Just because it doesn’t provide the required pressure and doesn’t operate on a specific dose of coffee. M’kay?
How does the moka pot a.k.a. percolator work?
The idea of a percolator is simple: it provides percolation for your coffee grounds. LOL 😆
Percolation can be easily explained as passing water through something, in this case… coffee. Contrary to the infusion techniques where water is all around and stays around the coffee grounds, in the percolation process, we either push water through coffee using gravity or mechanical pressure. Boom, you’re a scientist now.
Circling back to the initial question, the water from the reservoir is heated and moves through the basket filled with coffee grounds, to be deposited in the little pot at the top of the percolator1. We provide the heat to generate about 1 bar of pressure and move the water up. Simple.
That’s also why you hear that specific hiss when the water is moved from the reservoir and only some remnant steam is generated and pressurized air. More about it later in the technique section.
Why will you love the percolator?
Percolators make terrific, strong coffee. Fast. You can get your cup in about 5 minutes or less and there are some strategies and techniques that speed up the process of brewing without adverse effects on quality. And it will be hot, so if you like your coffee piping hot you will love your percolator.
It’s also a very enjoyable way to make coffee — you see the little pipe spew coffee and slowly fill up the pot. Fun and playful!
Percolators also forgive lacking brewing technique and are fairly safe with the modern models having safety valves — when controlled, it should not explode and will make pretty good coffee even when used slightly incorrectly.
While there are some considerations to the brewing technique, the percolator does not care that much about the coffee grounds and you can use pre-ground coffee to make your own blend. 50/50 decaf blend? Yes!
What will you dislike about the percolator?
It’s hard to master — it will spew coffee left and right if you cannot control the temperature effectively, leaving you with a slightly burnt taste. Passable but not perfect.
It’s also kind of dangerous should your safety valve break, calcify, or otherwise stop working. Oh and the pot is super hot, keep your hands away!
You might have some work cleaning your percolator with all that screwing, removing seals, removing baskets, etc. It takes a minute.
The best way to make coffee in a percolator?
There are two schools of making coffee in a percolator and you can decide if you want your coffee’s taste milder or stronger/bitter:
start with cold water for a slightly stronger/bitter taste,
start with hot water for a milder taste.
Why? Because the initial temperature affects the brewing start — percolators are pretty fast to start pushing the water through the coffee grounds and starting warm keeps the grounds… colder (because the whole process is shorter, I know, seems illogical).
I usually start with acceptably hot water from the tap to prevent scorching my hands — you still have to screw the bottom and top parts together!
Fill the bottom reservoir,
Place the basket in the reservoir and fill it to the top with coarsely ground coffee — do not tamp or press down, you can level it!
Screw the top kettle part on,
Turn on the stove to max and heat until the first coffee starts to drop,
Set the stove to a minimum to keep the percolation process running slowly and gently,
When you hear the “boom and hiss”, turn off the stove and close the lid,
You can lift the percolator and cool down the base under the tap or with a cold towel to stop the cooking process (optional),
Stir the coffee before serving with a teaspoon (optional).
Simple?
You want the percolation process to start fairly quickly and keep it very gentle until all of the water is pushed through.
That’s probably where the espresso maker idea comes from, it’s just different pressures and a slightly different technique.