Why I started brewing coffee

I never was into coffee. All I used to drink at cafes were hot chocolate. Then I started getting old and gaining weight, so I decided that was over. Since I still wanted to have some milk added to my diet, I chose adding coffee to milk to minimize calorie. That was about 7 months ago and back then I did not expect the rabbit hole to go down so deep but here I am.

The Moka Pot

When I was starting out I did not know what types of coffee there are, I just wanted something that’s easy to make and clean. I didn’t even know that you should be using espresso-style coffee to get cafe latte, but I didn’t want to brew filter coffee anyways so I did not start there. The moka pot seemed like the reasonable choice back then, mostly because it was very affordable. I did not know that I were looking at different moka pots between Bialetti moka express and the brikka, and thought it was just about the design. The shop I chose listed Brikka as the renewed version so I just chose that.

The detour

Basically, I did not know that I had to specifically look for recipes for the Brikka. I was brewing coffee based on Youtube videos made for other moka pots, so I was not getting optimal results. My mother did not favor the coffee I brewed with the moka pot over the automatic machine we had in our house mostly because there was no crema. I found this strange because on the product description on the store I bought the moka pot from, it said this model creates great crema. Looking for crema, I dipped my toe into espresso machines. Specifically, I wanted something that was manual and small, because I did like the loud noise coffee machines make and the kitchen was mostly under mom’s control. I settled for the Wacaco picopresso, and enjoyed brewing with it for quite some time.

The espresso that came out of the Wacaco picopresso was enjoyable and I liked how it tasted, even though I never really had a nice espresso machine that I can compare anything against. I bet it is not as good, but it did the job for me. Problem was that it was a hassle to clean, and pulling consecutive shots using it was a lot of work. I considered buying manual lever espresso machines that are better at it like the cafelot robot, but the model was discontinued. I considered buying the flair 58 but it took up too much space. The ROK GC did not look pretty and got rejected by my mom.

The recipe

So I went back to the moka pot, and started inspecting the problem with more attention. Soon I found out that I was using a specific model, and it required a different recipe. The Bialetti Brikka required much less water. The usual recommendation for moka pots is to fill the water to right under the safety valve, but this was not the case for the Brikka. 180ml of water is the recommendation for the 4 cup model and that was pretty much all I needed to brew correctly. With less water, what I believe happened is that the water left in the boiler is lighter, and it gets pushed up faster and easier. I could extract coffee at the recommended brew time of 3~4 minutes with ample amount of crema.

Other things I found helpful were the amount of coffee. When I could get the coffee ground to fill the basket as much as possible, especially when it is full to the brim, I find that the coffee tastes slightly better. However I do not stick to this, I just prefer not wasting coffee while filling the basket since the gain feels marginal.

Cleaning tip

While looking for the recipe, I also found out a better way to clean the moka pot. I had trouble removing the coffee ground from the basket so far. I tried smacking the basket against the wall of the garbage can, swinging it out, blowing into it and no matter how I did it it left a significant amount of coffee in the basket that I had to just wash away down the drain, which I did not really like. Eventually I found out that the best way to do it is to hold the narrow end of the basket with your palm and blow into the opening in your fist, like a blow dart but not biting into the end of it. I assume it’s because that distributes the pressure better across the bottom of the basket but it’s the cleanest way to do it I’ve found so far. I still wash the remaining coffee on the sink but it’s minimal.

Plans

I do intend to get a manual machine when I get my own place, probably the flair 58. I am enjoying making coffee and putting milk in it so far. I don’t really think I’ll be foaming the milk or anything even in the future though.