It is one of the best coffee makers for making quality coffee at home, but some people don’t like it because they notice a ‘burnt aftertaste’. This is something that can be easily avoided.
Let’s not be fooled, with low-quality coffee beans and water you can’t make a coffee that looks like a specialty coffee. Similarly, even the most expensive coffee beans and the best water in the world are no guarantee that we will enjoy a delicious drink if we don’t prepare it correctly.
Making a good coffee involves taking into account the details of the preparation method used, as it is not the same to make coffee in an espresso machine as it is to make it in an Italian coffee maker or a filter coffee maker. There are a number of parameters that we will have to adjust depending on which one we are going to use and, if we do it right, we will be able to make a very tasty coffee without the need for an expensive coffee maker.
The cheapest coffee maker for making good coffee
We don’t have to be expert baristas to make good coffee at home. A simple Italian coffee maker, used properly, will enable us to make outstanding coffee with the brand we already have at home.
This coffee maker, also known as a Moka pot or Moka coffee maker, is one of the cheapest and many people have one at home. It was invented by Alfonso Bialetti in 1933, an Italian engineer and businessman, and his invention revolutionized the way coffee was prepared in homes, first in Italy and then in many other countries.
Bialetti’s invention meant that anyone could make good coffee at home quickly and easily, without the need for expensive or difficult-to-use appliances. Its economical and easy-to-use design made it easy to enjoy a full-bodied coffee with an intense flavor similar to espresso coffee, without having to go out to a café or invest in a professional espresso coffee machine. It was the beginning of a revolution in the world of coffee that would soon cross borders.
Compared to other coffee preparation techniques, such as traditional espresso coffee, the Italian coffee maker uses a more efficient heat source, initially a gas fire and, nowadays, also electric thanks to glass-ceramic and induction cookers. This allows for a quick extraction of the coffee with minimum energy consumption, but it also means that a series of steps must be followed to prevent the coffee from overheating, losing some of its aromas and acquiring other, less pleasant ones.
As a matter of interest, the Italian coffee maker, especially the Moka Express model created by Bialetti, became a benchmark in Italian coffee culture. Its unmistakable shape, with an octagon-shaped base and a truncated pyramid body, is not only an icon of industrial design, but has also inspired a multitude of works of art.
Mistakes that make coffee not taste good
I’m sure it has happened to some people that they have bought a more expensive coffee whose label indicated that it was “special for espresso”, thinking that they would get a better coffee and they were disappointed to find that the result was even worse than with a normal coffee. That is one of the mistakes we tend to make and it leads to a coffee with a more bitter and burnt taste. When that happened, my father used to say that “the coffee tastes like ink”.
The reason is that the right coffees for espresso machines have a finer grind size than those that should be used for an Italian coffee maker and this means that it takes a long time for the water to pass through the coffee, causing what experts call “overextraction”, which is what happens when coffee is exposed to heat for too long.
Other frequent mistakes that lead to over-extraction are filling the coffee maker with cold water, as the coffee will reheat as it warms up in the water; compacting the coffee in the filter as we see done in bars, as this also hinders the passage of water and heats the coffee more than necessary; turning the heat up very high to make it faster; leaving the coffee maker on the heat until all the coffee comes out instead of putting it aside when the coffee starts to bubble so that it finishes coming out with the residual heat or leaving the coffee inside the coffee maker instead of pouring it into a serving jug are the main causes of what we usually call “burnt taste”.
Other mistakes that also affect the quality of the coffee once it has been prepared are using a coffee maker that has not been completely cleaned, because if it contains residues from previous coffees, undesirable aromas and rancid nuances will be transferred. It is also common to close the lid when making coffee, something that can lead to a weaker coffee as the water cannot evaporate properly, but instead condenses on the lid and returns to the coffee, making it lose intensity. In addition, closing the lid also causes a higher temperature inside the top of the coffee maker, which could contribute to over-extraction or a burnt flavor.
The barista’s trick for making the perfect coffee without making too much mess
As we have seen, the coffee should be subjected to a high temperature for the shortest possible time, which is why a common piece of advice, which appears in books on the subject, is to fill the coffee maker with hot water, something that will then allow the coffee to start coming out sooner and better. This means that we have to use another utensil such as a saucepan or a kettle to pre-heat the water.
But there is a simpler and faster way that is also more efficient, as it further reduces the time that the coffee is in contact with the hot water. It consists of filling the base of the Italian coffee maker with water up to the safety valve without going over it. It can be tap water if the water is not very hard, or filtered water if the tap water is too hard, but it does not need to be hot.
Then we heat only the base with the water over a medium heat until the water is hot, but without letting it boil vigorously, and it is at that moment when we place the filter and, with the help of a kitchen cloth or an oven mitt to avoid burning ourselves, screw on the top of the coffee maker. This way we don’t need to use another accessory to heat the water and the hot water won’t lose any of its temperature when poured into a cold coffee maker.
Once the coffee has been added and the coffee maker is fully assembled, we will make the coffee over medium-low heat with the lid open so that the coffee rises slowly without overheating or condensing. If, when a large amount of coffee has come out, we see that it starts to splash, we can close the lid, but not before. As soon as it starts to bubble and sound louder, we will take the coffee maker off the heat, wait for it to finish rising and transfer it to a jug or a thermos if we want it to stay hot.
