Hello, All!
I am fairly new to home brewing espresso. In fact, up until 6 months ago I hadn't touched the stuff in over 10 years; though in my teens growing up in Seattle suburbs during the espresso boom of the 90's I was a coffee junkie. I have low blood pressure that causes headaches so my doctor recommended I start drinking coffee to boost my blood pressure. I started with a drip maker but then renewed my teenage obsession with cappuccino and have been trying to make it at home with an IKEA Bialetti knockoff pot and an Aerolatte battery milk frothing wand.

Anyhow...I mostly buy coffee from a gourmet market here in NJ (Fairway), and the coffee tastes mostly ok. Except no matter what brand of coffee or what acidity level or how light or dark the roast, it always comes out tasting burnt. I turn the flame on my stove as low as it can possibly go without the flame dying, turn the pot off at the first little sound of sputtering, and I don't pack my grinds into the basket.

Any idea why my coffee might be tasting burnt? Do I just need to pony up and buy a real Bialetti? Will that make a difference in the taste? I'm a more-than-broke PhD student, so inexpensive options are always best, though I might be willing to splurge on good coffee.

Thanks!

You might try following these Moka pot brewing guidelines and see if that helps:

http://stumptowncoffee.com/brew-guides/moka-pot/

If not, I'd search out different coffee. Ideally, you want to work with coffee that is freshly roasted. So look for a date stamp, and try to buy your coffee a few days post-roast.

Change the coffee. Experiment with different grind (if that's an option).

You will probably never make a not-burnt stovetop "espresso." I used one for most of a year. They are designed to send water through the grinds at too high a temperature. You can do all sorts of tricks to try to keep the temp down, but they probably won't work! I would recommend literally any brew method except stovetop (bacchi being an exception)! I should qualify this by saying that I have only used bialetti makers, and I didn't own a grinder when I was doing this experimenting 6 years ago, although the shop owner changed the grind for me.

bostonbuzz wrote:You will probably never make a not-burnt stovetop "espresso." I used one for most of a year. They are designed to send water through the grinds at too high a temperature. You can do all sorts of tricks to try to keep the temp down, but they probably won't work!

It's possible to keep the temperature down. Lots of people can do it. I embedded a temperature probe in a moka pot to see what it was doing and that made it easier to avoid overheating. I think a built-in thermometer of some sort should be standard equipment.

I like my moka pot and the coffee it produces, but as a brewing device moka pots are sort of retarded.

Hi Amanda,

I'm experimenting with moka Pot since Oktober last year. It was an interesting experience. We made a small tutorial/how to video about this. I'm starting a new topic now. There you can see the small movie. You"ll be surprised I think.

Kind regards

Gábor

I'm very interested to see your video. I see the problem as one of design. To make a good coffee you have to struggle against the design problems. Maybe a stainless steel moka pot with a teflon break gasket could work. Or maybe the water path would have to go around outside and cool off before hitting the coffee, or heating the base to boiling before securing the top, etc. Hence the bacchi, which is a very refined design.

bostonbuzz wrote:You will probably never make a not-burnt stovetop "espresso." I used one for most of a year. They are designed to send water through the grinds at too high a temperature. You can do all sorts of tricks to try to keep the temp down, but they probably won't work! I would recommend literally any brew method except stovetop (bacchi being an exception)! I should qualify this by saying that I have only used bialetti makers, and I didn't own a grinder when I was doing this experimenting 6 years ago, although the shop owner changed the grind for me.

This is incorrect. The technique is quite simple and is provided in the link above to the Stumptown instructions. The point is to stop the brewing process when the pot is partly full before the water has overheated. Here's James Hoffman's guide.

http://vimeo.com/2905947

Funny. Actually this video was an inspiration for me to look closer... and we exchanged on this topic with James

Read this:

The secrets of the moka pot - How to video