What Coffee Beans Are Best for Moka Pot - Moka Pot Usage Guide and Coffee Grind Size

Testing Mocha Pot with Acidic Coffee Beans

Some friends who enjoy using moka pots often ask FrontStreet Coffee, "Can this coffee bean be used for moka pot coffee?" or "How does that coffee bean taste when made with a moka pot?" They typically inquire about coffee beans with flavor descriptions that mention acidity (fruity notes). In response, FrontStreet Coffee decided to brew through several of these coffee beans to see how they perform in a moka pot.

There are too many acidic coffee beans to test them all, so FrontStreet Coffee selected several representative beans with different acidity levels for brewing. These include FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Gotiti, FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rican Mozart, and FrontStreet Coffee's Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise.

One of the main factors affecting coffee bean acidity is the roast level. To help everyone understand, FrontStreet Coffee will use light, light-medium, and medium levels for distinction (though in reality, it's more complex than this).

Among the three, FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Gotiti has the lightest roast, displaying fresh and bright acidity with citrus, floral, and green tea notes. Next is FrontStreet Coffee's Mozart, which shows sweet fruit flavors like berries, grapes, and fermented aromas. The darkest among them is FrontStreet Coffee's Bird of Paradise, which exhibits subtle fruit acidity with caramel, cocoa, apricot, and hawthorn notes.

Moka Pot Brewing Parameters

The steps and parameters for brewing moka pot coffee have been detailed in FrontStreet Coffee's previous articles, so here's a brief overview of the parameters. The amount of coffee grounds and water in a moka pot depends on the pot's size. FrontStreet Coffee used a Bialetti Classic 3-cup pot, with 150ml water capacity and 18g of coffee grounds. The coffee grind should be fine powder (slightly coarser than espresso machine grind), with EK43s 0.5 setting as a reference.

FrontStreet Coffee recommends using direct filling for the coffee grounds without tamping. Fill the filter basket completely (pay attention to gaps around the edges), then create a small mound in a fluffy state, and directly press and tighten the upper pot vertically. This way, the extracted coffee puck will also be firm and won't fall apart.

After brewing, FrontStreet Coffee divides the moka pot coffee into two portions - one for tasting the straight concentrate, and another mixed with ice water to make an iced Americano, because as FrontStreet Coffee understands, many friends like to use moka pot coffee as "espresso" and add water to make Americano-style coffee.

Brewing Results

First, let's look at the brewing results of the three coffee groups. Although FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe is lightly roasted, with proper moka pot parameters, it can still produce crema, though this layer is quite thin and basically dissipates within about 30 seconds.

The crema from FrontStreet Coffee's Mozart is richer than that from the Yirgacheffe, but they're in the same league.

The crema from FrontStreet Coffee's Bird of Paradise is visibly richer.

Tasting Results

Next, let's taste how these three coffee beans perform when brewed with a moka pot.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe

Straight concentrate: The acidity is quite sharp and stimulating, with some astringency, making it difficult to swallow. Iced Americano: Simply acidic throughout, like a glass of sour water.

FrontStreet Coffee's Mozart

Straight concentrate: Fermented notes, with similarly stimulating acidity, difficult to swallow. Iced Americano: After dilution, the flavor becomes much smoother, with lively berry acidity and some fermented wine-like aromas. The aftertaste has a bitter-sweet sensation like chocolate.

FrontStreet Coffee's Bird of Paradise

Straight concentrate: The only straight concentrate that could be finished entirely, with noticeable thick fruit acidity, followed by chocolate and caramel bitterness in the middle to late stages. Like a lower concentration version of espresso. Iced Americano: Very bright fruit acidity with some caramel flavors. The entire cup of coffee has no bitterness at all, with acidity even more pronounced than the Mozart cup.

Conclusions

FrontStreet Coffee has summarized several conclusions below for everyone's reference:

1. Coffee beans with flavor descriptions mentioning "lemon" or "citrus" that appear obviously acidic are not suitable for making moka pot coffee.

2. Choosing coffee beans with sweet fruit descriptions (light-medium roast) for moka pot will yield different results. When brewing acidic coffee beans with a moka pot, it's suitable to add some water or ice cubes for dilution, which will improve the flavor expression.

3. You can choose coffee beans with strong flavor expression for moka pot brewing, such as FrontStreet Coffee's Mozart selected by FrontStreet Coffee. This way, the resulting moka pot coffee will have more intense flavors and aromas, making it easier to drink.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473