Moka Pot Coffee

A moka pot is an eight-sided (on the classic model) aluminium or steel pot in three parts: a lower chamber for water, a funnel-shaped basket for ground coffee and an upper chamber that collects the finished brew. As the water heats, the pressure of steam and expanding air in the base pushes it up through the coffee and out of a spout into the top, where it gathers with a soft gurgle.

The coffee is strong, dark and full-bodied – often called “stovetop espresso” – but it is not true espresso. A moka pot works at roughly 1–2 bar instead of the 9 bar of an espresso machine, so the result has little or no crema and a slightly rougher, more robust taste. Many people drink it short and black with sugar, or use it as the base for milk drinks at home.

In Italy the moka is the coffee maker of the home kitchen, just as the espresso machine rules the bar. It is also widely used across Europe, Latin America and Australia, and its design has become so iconic that examples sit in the collections of MoMA and London’s Science Museum.

Pressure-driven stovetop brewers existed in the 19th century – Samuel Parker received a patent in 1833 for a tabletop machine that is seen as a precursor – but the moka pot as we know it is credited to Alfonso Bialetti, an aluminium worker from Piedmont who had set up his own workshop in Crusinallo by 1919.

Bialetti began selling the Moka Express in 1933. Sales were slow at first; it took off after his son Renato took over the business and ran a large advertising campaign after the Second World War. In 1952 the company commissioned its mascot, l’omino con i baffi – the little man with a moustache – which still appears on every pot.

The moka became one of the symbols of Italian domestic life and of Italian industrial design. A 2010 study calculated that 90% of Italian families owned a Bialetti moka pot, and the design is held in museum collections including MoMA and London’s Science Museum.