How to Choose Coffee Beans for Moka Pot? Moka Pot Usage Guide and Ideal Coffee Grind Size

Although the Moka pot is not particularly popular in China, it is a standard coffee appliance in Italian households, allowing Italian housewives to brew rich-flavored black coffee at home. As people's love for coffee grows, some friends have asked FrontStreet Coffee for advice on using Moka pots. This article will discuss the details of using a Moka pot.

What are the characteristics of coffee extracted by a Moka pot?

The Moka pots we commonly see are generally composed of three main components: the lower chamber for water, the coffee powder basket for holding coffee grounds, and the upper chamber for collecting the extracted strong coffee liquid.

When we heat the Moka pot, the water in the lower chamber heats up first and converts to steam, creating a certain pressure that pushes the water vapor upward from the bottom. When the hot water reacts with the coffee grounds while moving upward, the continuously increasing pressure continues to push the extracted coffee liquid into the upper chamber, where we obtain the rich coffee liquid we need.

The high-temperature, pressurized extraction method of the Moka pot is similar to the espresso we commonly encounter. The increased extraction pressure concentrates the coffee flavors more effectively, so coffee extracted by a Moka pot also has a rich, mellow taste. When using a dual-valve Moka pot to make coffee, an additional pressure-accumulating valve is added on top of the original design. The increased pressure enhances the coffee concentration and produces more coffee crema.

Unlike espresso, the extraction pressure and precision of a Moka pot are far inferior to those of an espresso machine. In coffee shops, you can see that freshly made espresso has a layer of golden, rich crema floating on top, while the Moka pot's extraction pressure is lower and the extracted coffee is thinner, so it cannot be completely called espresso. FrontStreet Coffee believes it's more appropriate to call it strong coffee.

How to choose coffee beans?

We all know that under the influence of roast degree, coffee develops acidic and bitter notes. Dark roasting is designed to highlight flavor types like chocolate and caramel in coffee, while light roasting aims to preserve more floral notes and fruit acidity. Therefore, when we pour over different single-origin coffee beans, we can experience unique flavors. However, Moka pot coffee differs from pour-over coffee. The pressurized extraction method concentrates the coffee flavors more, creating a stronger taste. If we use light-roasted beans, Moka pot coffee can easily develop a sharp, acidic taste. If we use darker roasted coffee, it tends to present a thick, bitter flavor. Therefore, choosing the right coffee beans is crucial.

1. Italian Blend Coffee Beans with Balanced Flavors

FrontStreet Coffee summarized above that the principle of the Moka pot is similar to espresso, so the choice of coffee beans is also close to that of espresso. Professional roasters select coffee beans from different origins and with different flavor profiles to blend (or roast separately and then blend in proportions), mostly using medium to dark roast levels. FrontStreet Coffee's understanding of blend beans is to maintain stable flavors and balanced taste, allowing the blended coffee to present an effect where one plus one is greater than two, resulting in more balanced flavor and taste when made into Moka pot coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee's bean menu features four Italian blend coffees, all suitable for extraction using a Moka pot. Here, FrontStreet Coffee recommends the most popular one in their stores: "FrontStreet Coffee Sunflower Warm Sun Blend." It is blended from sun-dried Yirgacheffe Red Cherry and Honduras Sherry coffee in a 3:7 ratio. When made into Moka pot coffee, it presents whiskey and vanilla flavors, paired with the sweet and sour taste of tropical fruits. Even without adding auxiliary ingredients, it won't present a sharp, strong taste but instead shows rich layers of flavor.

2. Medium-Light Roast Single-Origin Coffee Beans with Obvious Flavor Performance

As people pursue specialty coffee, more and more single-origin coffee beans with refined flavors are available on the market. Single-origin coffee is also often used in espresso, and Moka pot coffee is no exception. FrontStreet Coffee suggests choosing some single-origin coffees processed using special methods that present more obvious flavors, such as FrontStreet Coffee's Mozart coffee beans from the Costa Rica Musician Series. This Mozart coffee bean from FrontStreet Coffee uses raisin honey processing, preserving 100% mucilage and a zero-water treatment method to highlight the rich sweet and sour taste of tropical fruits. When made into Moka pot coffee, it presents the acidity of raisins and berries, with a very prominent sweetness.

3. Medium-Dark Roast Single-Origin Coffee Beans with Nutty Flavors

For friends who love roasted aromas, FrontStreet Coffee recommends choosing medium-dark roast single-origin coffee beans, such as FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate coffee beans on their bean menu. The variety of FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate coffee is Yellow Bourbon, which has a richer mucilage layer compared to ordinary Red Bourbon varieties. With the enhancement of the natural processing method, sweeter fructose-like substances penetrate into the raw coffee beans, presenting a clear sweetness. When made into Moka pot coffee, it has the aroma of dark chocolate, cream, and peanuts, and when paired with milk, it presents a silky texture of chocolate milk.

Tips for Using a Moka Pot

Due to the lower extraction pressure of the Moka pot, to extract a cup of rich black coffee, you need to adjust to a finer grind degree to increase the reaction between coffee particles and water. FrontStreet Coffee recommends controlling the coffee powder particle size between 0.3mm and 0.55mm. This grind degree is close to that used for espresso but should be slightly coarser than espresso. Using the EK43s grinder that FrontStreet Coffee's stores use as a reference, FrontStreet Coffee would use a grind setting of 0.5 for preparation.

Generally, we add cold water to the lower chamber, but the disadvantage of cold water is that a small amount of water may enter the coffee basket before the water temperature reaches the required level, which could lead to uneven extraction. Therefore, it's better to add warm water to bring stability to the extraction.

After turning off the heat, if you feel that too little liquid has been extracted, you can let the residual heat extract for a while longer. If the extraction amount reaches about eight-tenths full, you can place the pot on a cold towel to cool it down when removing the Moka pot, avoiding over-extraction caused by residual heat. If the Moka pot makes a whistling sound during heating but no coffee liquid overflows, you should first turn off the heat source to avoid safety hazards caused by excessive internal pressure leading to an explosion.

The Moka pot should be cleaned promptly after each use to avoid coffee residue stains, which can easily cause flavor contamination and bitterness. If old coffee stains remain on the filter plate, gasket, or extraction channels, they may cause blockages and affect extraction.

For brewing coffee, freshly roasted coffee beans are very crucial. Coffee beans have a 4-7 day degassing period after roasting, followed by entering the optimal tasting period with stable flavors. As time goes by, the aroma of coffee gradually fades. If you choose coffee beans roasted more than two months ago for extraction, the aroma may have dissipated, making it difficult to restore the original flavors. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee ensures they only ship coffee beans freshly roasted within 5 days.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the private WeChat of FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473