Old Italian Moka by Alessandro Paiva

Though espresso machines with all the latest bells and whistles are popular kitchen appliances these days, they are not your only option for home espresso brewing. Depending on how familiar you are with making espresso, you may not realize that there is a much simpler (and cheaper) kind of espresso machine.

It’s not even really a “machine” if you want to get really technical, but just simply a stove-top pot. They’re called espresso pots, or moka pots. A little like a tea kettle, it’s about as low-tech as you can get.

An espresso pot looks like a small kettle with a spout, but with a narrow waist in the middle. The most recognizable model is made by Bialetti, and has a distinctive multi-sided shape. It would look at home with any typical modern decor.

So how do they work? The pot has basically 3 parts: the bottom chamber for water, a filter funnel for your coffee grounds in the middle, and the upper chamber for your finished espresso screws on top. No moving parts at all. With the water chamber filled, and finely ground coffee tamped into the funnel, you just place the pot on a heat source. A stove burner works perfectly.

As the water heats up, it is forced up from the bottom chamber up through the coffee grounds in the funnel. The brewed espresso accumulates in the top chamber, ready to pour when your brewing is completed. Elegant, nearly silent and doesn’t require a handbook to learn how to use it.

Now the espresso pot doesn’t produce as much pressure as most electric machines will, which does mean a less strong cup of espresso. Nevertheless, it shouldn’t be ignored as a potential kitchen gadget you could come to love. They do come in many sizes too, from the little one-cup to larger 8 or even 10-cup espresso pots.

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1. Stovetop Espresso Maker

They are sometimes called stovetop espresso makers, or sometimes moka pots. These stovetop espresso makers all look somewhat the same because it’s their shape that makes them work. They look a bit like a metal teapot, but with a narrow spot on the middle, like an hourglass. Bialetti makes the most common models, and you would recognize the faceted design. They come in various sizes. Most are designed for single cup brewing, but there are larger models out there if you need to brew for a group.

You will be surprised at how simple they are, and how easy they are to use. Here’s the basic process:

The moka pot unscrews in the middle, leaving you with a bottom and top chamber, and a little funnel that fits in the space between the two. Fill the bottom with water, and fill the funnel filter with finely ground coffee. Give it a good tamp so the grounds are firmly in place. Drop the funnel into the neck of the water chamber, and screw the top piece back on. Now it’s ready to brew.

Place the filled pot on a stovetop, with the heat up fairly high. Within a few minutes, the water will start to boil and build up some steam pressure in that bottom chamber. Hot steam and water are forced up through the ground coffee. And presto, fresh espresso is deposited up in the top section of the moka pot. The pot has a little spout so you can pour it directly into your demitasse cup and enjoy.

The pressure is lower than with an electric machine, so there won’t be any foamy crema on top of your espresso and it won’t be quite as strong. Obviously there are some pros and cons to using a stovetop espresso maker.

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1. Espresso Pots
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3. Espresso Coffee Maker