The use of mocha pots for coffee utensils

First, the introduction of mocha pot:

Mocha pot (Moka Maker): a kind of distilled coffee brewed from the mocha pot with a steady concentration and aroma. The mocha pot is divided into two parts. The water is boiled in the lower half of the pot until it boils. When the water boils, due to the pressure of the steam, the boiling water rises through a filter containing coffee powder and reaches the upper half of the pot. When the coffee starts to flow to the top half of the pot, the fire needs to be turned down, because the high temperature will make the coffee scorch and destroy its original flavor.

There is a pressure relief valve in the lower pot of the single-valve mocha pot, which will exhaust if the steam pressure is too high. There is no valve in the outlet of the coffee in the upper pot, and the brewed coffee will flow out naturally. A mocha pot with only one valve, called a single valve mocha pot.

Not only does the two-valve mocha pot have the same pressure relief valve as the single-valve mocha pot, the coffee outlet of the upper pot also has a pressure valve. The brewed coffee can flow out only by opening the pressure valve on the mouth under a certain steam pressure. This kind of upper and lower pot has a valve mocha pot, which is called double valve mocha pot.

Structure and principle

Third, the production method

IV. matters needing attention

1. Don't use a mocha pot to make a cup of coffee. As far as making a single product is concerned, the control of the water temperature is the most important condition, and the second is the control of the grinding thickness. These two basic conditions are the prerequisites for making a good single product coffee, which can be summed up in one sentence as "constant temperature and atmospheric pressure". Constant temperature is a relatively stable water temperature maintained in a relative period of time, which involves the technical level of the operator. Normal pressure, that is, under the conventional pressure of the natural environment, this is mainly a brewing tool. From this premise, the selection of hand-made and siphon pots are most suitable for "constant temperature and atmospheric pressure", so they happen to be the best tools for making individual coffee, and they are also the preferred tools for baristas to recommend them. It should be said that there is not much objection to this, but whether it is siphon or hand pulping, their familiarity with the operation technology and techniques is still relatively high, and they do not have certain practical experience. It is difficult for beginners to make a good cup of coffee that really reflects the flavor of a single product. If you want to maintain the long-term stability of a single coffee, you need continuous accumulation of experience and continuous improvement of the operator's level.

two。 Correctly select coffee beans suitable for mocha pots. From the manufacturing principle of the mocha pot, it uses fire or induction cooker to heat the water of the lower pot to a high temperature to produce water vapor. after the water vapor produces a certain pressure, the high temperature water is forced to rise through the hollow tube to a filter filled with coffee powder to extract coffee, and then continue to rise along the hollow tube to the upper pot. From this process, we can see that the mocha pot is high temperature and high pressure. Similar to the pressure cooker principle that we are familiar with, "high temperature and high pressure" is the least suitable for making individual coffee, but only suitable for espresso (please note, the espresso here does not refer to the espresso extracted by the Italian machine with "constant temperature, high pressure and fast" extraction). The correct choice for the coffee beans should be to mix the beans. Its requirements for baking and grinding are also completely different from those of individual coffee beans.

3. The mocha pot is an easy-to-learn coffee brewing tool. The mocha pot itself is a popular and household-oriented tool for brewing coffee, and it requires very little technical operation and is easy to master, otherwise it would not be a household name in Italy. So I think mocha pot is the first choice for new coffee starters.

4. Don't try to use a mocha pot to make an Espersso. Many people see that mocha pots also use steam pressure like Italian machines, so they try to use mocha pots to make espresso like espresso. this is still due to a lack of in-depth understanding of the great difference in brewing principle between mocha pots and Italian machines. one is the use of firepower to produce "high temperature and high pressure", and the other is the use of modern electronic technology to achieve accurate control of "constant temperature, high pressure, fast". The gap between the two is huge. The internal and external conditions of extraction are completely different. Therefore, this attempt is completely futile, and the "high temperature" of the mocha pot depends on the operator's regulation and control of firepower, which is affected by season, air temperature and temperature. it is also affected by the operator's practical experience and operation level, there are many uncertain factors, and any ring error will affect the final effect, which is impossible to compare with the Italian machine's stable control of temperature. The "high pressure" of the mocha pot is only 1 to 1.2 atmospheres, which is a far cry from the 7 to 9 atmospheres of the Italian machine. In addition, the Italian machine is out of coffee for only 25 to 30 seconds, and the mocha kettle takes a long time from boiling the bottom pot to the coffee, so it cannot be extracted instantly, so the attempt to use the mocha kettle to do the Italian machine effect is doomed to outweigh the loss. without exception, the result must be miserable, just like the small digital card camera trying to capture the illusory effect of the background of a SLR full-frame camera with a large aperture, although the principles are all similar. However, because the hardware conditions are completely different, the final effect will be completely different.

When the mocha pot is used, the effect of making milk coffee is great, and you can also make cappuccinos, of course, you can't look at mocha cappuccinos by professional cappuccino standards.

5. Don't be fooled by the dazzling production tools. The biggest misunderstanding and defect of newcomers lies in the correct understanding, identification and selection of different coffee beans. Anyway, I know that some friends love coffee very much, but their love for all kinds of beautifully made coffee tools, especially Italian machines, goes far beyond the coffee beans themselves. Maybe men are born with some machine control, in the arbitrariness and uncertainty of the operation procedure. As a result, the coffee brewed from the mocha pot is bitter and difficult to swallow, so it is concluded that the mocha pot is difficult to master. In fact, a closer look at the cause has something to do with it. It should be noted that no matter how exquisite coffee-making tools are, they are all for coffee, and their ultimate goal is for a good cup of coffee. Coffee beans are the soul of coffee, just as the best and more expensive camera is to finally take a good picture. The real photographer is to pursue a good picture rather than a camera.