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Today at The Coffee Shop, we'll talk about the history of the Moka pot , also known as the Italian coffee maker. The Moka pot was invented in 1933 by Luigi di Ponti. The machine was quickly put into production by a Piedmont machinist, Alfonso Bialetti, who transformed Di Ponti's so-called "Moka Express," an aluminum coffee maker with a pressure-oven lid, into one of the most famous and common coffee makers in the world.
Although it's essentially a filtration device, Bialetti legend suggests the machine was inspired by early washing machines, which used a heat source to boil a bucket of soapy water and force it out a tube toward the drain. Instead, the Moka Express forces hot water upward through coffee grounds and out a tube, meaning the brewed coffee doesn't have to go through any additional coffee filters as it remains below the final extraction.
By the end of 1933, Alfonso Bialetti had created the first "Moka" prototype for making coffee at home. The Moka was instantly recognizable, with its distinctive octagonal shape, and it revolutionized the way coffee was prepared at home.
Other home coffee options had existed, notably the Neapolitan coffee maker, but this newer model had some design firsts and produced much stronger coffee. To do this, it used a simple molded heater, an all-metal aluminum assembly, a distinctive eight-sided metal block for boiling water, a funnel-style tube filter, and a metal canister reservoir.
Culturally, the Moka pot marked a historic shift from espresso as a beverage exclusively for out-of-home drinking to one that could be brought into the home, which coincided nicely with Italy's economic recession of the 1930s. Considering that espresso made in commercial-grade machines is brewed with a much higher amount of pressure than boiling water in a pot on the stove can provide, these pots can produce an intense, concentrated brew that many home coffee drinkers enjoy as a substitute for traditional espresso. This democratization of a coffee style previously tied to the café or restaurant experience was one of the first revolutions in home-brewed creations.
The Moka pot is a symbol of Italy: of post-war ingenuity and global culinary dominance. It's featured in the Museum of Modern Art, the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, and other temples of design. It's listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's most popular coffee pot.
How does a Moka pot work?
The Bialetti Moka pot is an octagonal aluminum device with Bakelite handles. The device has three main sections: a lower chamber, a metal filter, and an upper collection chamber. To prepare coffee, the lower chamber is filled with water, and then the metal filter is placed in the lower chamber and filled with coffee. The upper chamber is screwed on, and the pot is placed on the stove. When the water boils, steam increases the pressure in the lower chamber and pushes the water through the coffee in the filter. The coffee then condenses and collects in the upper chamber. When the lower chamber is almost empty, steam from the water is also forced through the filter into the upper chamber, creating the characteristic gurgling noises.
For the next 60 years, the Moka pot would conquer the world. As of 2016, the New York Times notes that over 90 percent of Italian homes had one. It became so iconic that Renato Bialetti, when he died in early 2016, was buried in a large replica of the Moka pot. It spread to some countries with large Italian immigrant populations, becoming common in the Italian-American communities of Philadelphia, New York City, and Chicago and their surrounding areas. Argentina and Australia, which received large waves of Italian immigration in the 20th century, are also home to many Moka pots, and we also can't deny that in Latin America, many homes grew up with one in grandma's house.
Acquiring a Moka pot is like owning a historic object of modern art and coffee, and if after reading this article you're interested in one, it's a great idea to use this marvel with all the options we have in store for you.