How to Make Coffee with a Moka Pot

While it’s quite obvious to think that the key to a perfect cup of coffee is an expensive new espresso brewer with dozens of settings and features, some tools can take your at-home coffee game to the next level. One such tool is the Moka Pot. It’s very easy to use, either for your everyday coffee or to create a beverage that closely resembles an espresso. 

Whether you’ve just begun to experiment with coffee brewing or you’re a seasoned brewer who loves to make café-style coffee at home, this article will have some valuable information for you.  

What is a Moka Pot?

The Moka Pot is a compact and affordable stovetop coffee maker that enables you to make a rich and strong brew conveniently. It comprises three main parts, the lower chamber for the water, the filter for the coffee ground, and the upper chamber for the finished coffee.  The water boils in the lower chamber which eventually builds up enough steam to force itself through the coffee ground in the middle chamber so the coffee bubbles up into the pot. It continues to push up through the pipe and is finally released into the upper chamber. A Moka pot produces a truly rich coffee profile that is closer to a true espresso in comparison to the AeroPress coffee maker which produces a much cleaner flavor profile.

What Will You Need? 

Here are the tools and ingredients you’ll need to prepare coffee with a Moka pot :

• Roasted Coffee Beans: You can use coffees with any roast profile while brewing in a Moka Pot. However, the water temperature that you begin your brew at will vary. More on this later!
• Water: We recommend using RO or UV filtered water.
• Coffee grinder: It is recommended to grind the beans just before brewing for optimum results. However, if you do not have a coffee grinder, you can select the Moka Pot grind size before purchasing your bag of coffee.
• Food scale: You can use a digital food scale to weigh out the quantity of coffee and the weight of water poured.
• Moka Pot: And finally, you require a Moka Pot!

Step-by-step Process to Prepare Moka Pot Coffee 

The brewing process is easy and takes just a few minutes. Here’s what to do: 

• Grind the Coffee: Grind 14g of beans on a medium-fine setting.
• Add water: Add 120ml of room temperature water if you are using light to medium roasted coffee in the lower chamber. If you are using coffee that is more toward a darker roast profile, use water that is pre-heated to approximately 50 – 60 degrees Celsius. Mix boiling water with room temperature water (in equal parts) if you do not have a temperature controlled kettle.
• Add the coffee and assemble: Fill the upper chamber with coffee grounds and screw it into the bottom chamber tightly.
• Place over medium heat: Place the pot on the stove over medium heat.
• Allow Coffee to brew: The water will boil, come upward through the coffee present in the middle chamber, and fill the top of the pot. It starts boiling rapidly in about 2 minutes and the volume of the boiling sound increases. Once the sound starts dissipating, you can hear a loud gurgling sound. Turn off the heat when you hear the sound.
• Do Not Overboil: You may be tempted to continue boiling the coffee due to some water that is still present in the lower chamber. Do not do this as you may end up burning your coffee. Stop the brew once you hear the gurgling sound.

We recommend washing your Moka Pot immediately after use as it is much easier to clean and will prevent long-term stains. 

At Naivo, our roasts are curated to suit a whole variety of brewing methods including Moka Pot, Espresso, Aeropress and Pourover. Our portfolio includes a large variety of beans from various farms across India and around the world. Each coffee has a unique story to tell, a different dimension of flavour that it opens up for you, and a very memorable coffee experience to expand your understanding of the beverage.