The meaning and usage of mocha pot

What is a mocha pot?

Mocha pot (Moka Pot) is a tool for extracting espresso, which is widely used in Europe and Latin American countries, and is called "Italian trickle filter pot" in the United States.

The mocha pot has a two-layer structure, and when the water in the lower part is boiled, it is sprayed into the upper half of the pot through a mesh filter containing coffee powder. Although hot water can be injected into finely ground coffee powder without air pressure, this is not strictly a concentrated extraction, but rather close to dripping, but the coffee made by the mocha pot still has the concentration and flavor of Italian coffee Espresso.

The earliest mocha pot was made by Italian Alfonso Bialetti in 1933, and his company, Bialetti, has always been famous for producing this kind of coffee pot called Moka Expres.

The traditional mocha pot is made of aluminum and can be heated by open fire or electric stove. Because this aluminum mocha pot cannot be heated on an electromagnetic stove, modern mocha pots are mostly made of stainless steel, and there are electric heating mocha pots like electric kettles.

If we classify the mocha pot according to its size, we can make several servings of coffee at a time by the number of portions. Generally, one serving refers to 30 milliliters of Espresso.

According to the material, the most ideal and mainstream material is still made of aluminum, and there are other materials such as ceramics, stainless steel and so on.

According to the principle, there are several kinds of ordinary type, double valve and circulating extraction, generally we choose ordinary type or double valve.

In the choice of brand, the Italian-made Biloti Bialetti is the well-deserved king of the mocha pot.

How to use the mocha pot

1. Inject hot water into the lower seat of the mocha pot, and the water level shall not exceed the lower edge of the safety valve. The safety valve is the limit of the maximum water level of each mocha kettle. Cold water is not recommended, which will increase the time it takes to soak the coffee powder and make the extracted coffee bitter and turbid.

2. Filter paper can be pasted at the bottom of the upper seat. This is a form of modern mocha pot making method. Ten years ago, the mocha pot was made without filter paper. When sticking the filter paper, the filter paper should be laid correctly in the middle of the lower seat filter. In order to achieve a better fixing effect, the filter paper can be soaked with water.

3. Loading powder. This step is one of the important elements related to the cup effect of coffee (water volume, powder loading, extraction timing).

Many friends have made obvious mistakes in this step, which can be summarized as follows:

There is not enough powder. If you choose the highest water level in the lower seat, your powder should also be fully filled. Otherwise, with the lack of coffee powder, the taste of coffee will gradually fade.

Press the powder with a powder hammer. Many friends use the special powder hammer of Italian machine to press the powder trough of Mocha, which is a painstaking move. If the pressure is too tight and the coffee powder is too fine, the coffee will be difficult to draw. So the key to filling a mocha pot with real powder is to fill it as much as possible instead of pressing it tight. The powder can be injected in batches when loading the powder, and the edge of the powder trough can be covered as much as possible without leaving any gap.

When the coffee powder is full, tap the vertical table of the powder trough a few times to ensure that the coffee powder can be fully filled.

4. After correctly placing the powder trough on the lower seat, tighten the upper seat on the lower seat. You can twist it a little too much for safety.

5. Heat the correctly installed mocha pot on the heat source. For easy observation, it is recommended to boil the mocha pot with the top open. Soon the coffee liquid overflowed from the central metal column of the upper seat. With the continuous extraction, the liquid level of coffee will rise gradually. When there is grease on the liquid surface, please be careful that the coffee extraction is coming to an end. When the color of the oil changes from dark to light, the heat source should be cut off immediately to stop the extraction, otherwise the coffee will be in a state of over-extraction. In particular, you can't stop after the sound of "snoring". This kind of coffee may even have the taste of roasted rubber.

6. Qualified friends can prepare a towel soaked in cold water in advance and put it next to the heat source. When you finish step 5, put the mocha pot on the cold towel. This will greatly reduce the possibility of over-extraction of coffee.

The above editor gives you a detailed introduction to what a mocha pot is and how to use it. If you want to make yourself a mocha, you can try to buy a mocha pot and make it yourself.

Source: pchouse