Moka Pot Brewing Guide + Cubano Recipe
Looking for a caffeine pick-me-up that is stronger than drip coffee, while less bitter and intense than espresso?
The Moka Pot is your new best friend!
“In 1933, Alfonso Bialetti fashioned and crafted the first Aluminum Stovetop espresso coffee maker. This coffee machine, The Moka Express, would find itself in 90% of all Italian homes (ineedcoffee.com)”
A Moka Pot is also a fantastic method to quickly brew an espresso-like beverage without paying the price for an espresso machine. Plus, the hands-on process is more enjoyable in the end!
The method and extraction varies, as measurements and temperature are not as precisely controlled; however, here is what we suggest to get started.
Moka Pot Brewing Steps:
Turn on your stove top to a medium heat.
Run hot water over the bottom water chamber and coffee basket to heat the vessel.
Grind 18g of freshly roasted coffee on a fine setting (less fine than traditional espresso).
Fill the bottom chamber with water up to the relief valve.
Evenly disperse coffee grounds in the filter basket, and tamp down with a spoon or espresso tamp lightly.
Place your moka pot on the heated stove top, and wait to see the “espresso” funnel out of the stem.
Once you see foamy liquid bubbling out of the stem, remove your moka pot from the stove top and pour into your mug!
Cubano Recipe:
Spoon out a tablespoon of raw sugar into an empty mug. Follow steps 1-6 above… When the “espresso” begins to come out of the stem, catch the first couple of spoonfuls and mix into your mug of sugar.
While the moka pot is finishing up the rest of the brew, stir the little bit of “espresso” into the sugar in a fast whisking fashion until it becomes a paste.
Pour and stir in the rest of the moka pot “espresso” into your paste and now you have a Café Cubano!