jpender wrote:Nothing. The Brikka is a modified moka pot by design. It's basically a Moka Express 3 with a slightly wider exit tube and a valve at the top of that. The coffee grounds get saturated early on with relatively cool water (~50°C) and then the valve stops the flow until the pressure builds to a certain point. Then the coffee flows out very quickly. The result is a brew that takes place at a lower temperature on average than a regular moka pot. You also get some foam as the coffee is forced through a small orifice. It's pseudo-crema but part of the marketing of the device. More important to me was that I never had to play any games to keep the brew from overheating like is usually necessary with a standard moka pot.

I see, that's interesting, it's the value that's making a difference versus a standard moka.

jpender wrote:In addition to the efficiency difference (you'd essentially throw away 1/3 of a bag of coffee using an Aeropress to make a 6-7% concentrate) the taste was different between the Aeropress and Brikka. I wouldn't say that one is better than the other. But I had a preference and it wasn't simply due to the economics. As a one off the extra coffee required isn't that big of a deal. And an Aeropress is less expensive and simpler. But in my opinion neither is as good as a well-made espresso that is either pulled to 1:3 or diluted to that concentration.

For the rare occasion that I do want strong coffee I'm happy and willing to take the hit on waste, but I do agree with you that it's not going to be the same as a decent well pulled espresso, I'm under no illusion on what I'm giving up!

Another idea worth at least thinking about is a Picropresso. From what I've read it makes a pretty good espresso, at least with roasts that don't demand high temperatures. It's very small, doesn't have feet so no footprint. It accepts 18g doses. I use an Aeropress when I travel but I have to say I've been tempted to get a Picopresso for that purpose instead.

yes this is what I was thinking about when I referred to the handheld espresso devices in the OP.

I think for the cost I could just give this a go anyway to be honest.

Just found this thread...better late than never.

A more intense 'extracted' brew can be had from a moka pot via...
- Grind, fine. I grind the coffee very fine, not quite as for an espresso machine but fine.
- Tamping. Again, nowhere near as much as for an espresso machine, but you can gently tamp down while loading the basket. I use the backside of a spoon.
- Coffee to water ratio. I load the basket but don't fill the water chamber all the way. The exact ratio depends on the ttye of coffee, roast, flavors and so forth..sometimes I do as much as a 2:1 ratio, of coffee to water. Most people add too much water when using a moka pot. Treat the moka pot like you would any other brewing equipment, experiment with coffee to ratio. Do not just blindly fill the water chamber and basket...consider coffee type, grind, and other parameters like one would with any other brewing equipment.
-Moka pot size, small. Go small - in my expierence the smaller pots delivery a stronger extracted coffee. Those little iddy biddy 3 cup moka pots can delivery a very strong bew with considerable depth. Remeber the pressure to brew the coffee depends from below...better to have a smaller chamber that can really build up some pressure...rather than one that is too large.
-Water. Preboil your water in a separate pot, then add to the chamber and assemlbe the pot. Do not just add cold-lukewarm water to teh chamber otherwise the coffee will bake while the water comes to boil.
-Brewing. I start out with full heat until the coffee starts percolating to upper chamber..then I back off the heat to manipulate extraction speed. Again this depends a lot on the type of coffee and roast. A thinner more delicate lighter roast coffee I might dampen the heat so as to achieve a slower extraction while a darker roasted coffee might require slightly more heat to drive water through those finer dark roast grounds. The coffee stream should be dark and have some crema like qualities during extraction...meaning it should have streaks of golden crema. Yes I know it is not real crema but nonetheless it still indicates a nice rate of extraction.

Note: Often the moka pot extraction will pause briefly about 2/3 -3/4 of the brewing process - this is normal. Having said that, moniter in case you need to adjust heat. Sometimes that last 1/3-1/4 of the brew either builds up a lot of pressure or else, pardon the pun, looses steam and a little dash of heat is needed/ The end of the brew is indicated by a put put type sputtering at which time the heat can be turned off and the coffee either poured right away or the pot left on the burner for a few seconds longer. Again play around figure out what works for which coffee, roast, and grind.
Note: Stove Ranges. A gas range is a thousands times easier to work with than electric ones. The latter rarely heat up enough to get a really good extraction, and are very to manipulate for fine heat adjustments.

This is not an end all list...just some ideas. I grew up using moka pots (we called them espresso pots back in the day) and still use one for my daily cup. It remains, hands down, my favorite way to brew coffee. Having said that, there is a lot of bad info regarding moka pot brewing becuase too few people really use them...preferring espresso machines or their steam toy variants for strong coffee. This is a shame because moka pots make fabelously strong coffee that merits its own class instead of being relagated to the poor man's espresso. It is hard to find good brewing techniques which is another reason people tend to shy away from moka pots. Just remember that many a bad brew has been made with a full blown commerical grade espresso machine. Any brewing tool requires time, observation, and practice.and a large degree of creativity.

Echoing support for aeropress. May not be your best option but certainly the cheapest and easiest. Honestly everyone should have an aeropress kicking around for travel or for when you've only got 8 grams of a good coffee left.

I had good results with ~1:2.5 ratio in my aeropress at work with just regular paper filters. Espresso-fine grind, expect to lose about 1-1.25 grams water per gram coffee. Right-side-up brewing, I swirl or stir after adding water, about 30-45 sec to steep and then press.

I drank it twice daily at work for about a year and enjoyed it. While not as strong as espresso, it was better than plenty of lousy cafe espressos I've had.

Randy G. wrote:Turkish?

Turkish isn't normally brewed anywhere close to 1:2 - 1:3 ratio. I suppose you could try it. With an Aeropress you lose a gram or more of liquid coffee per gram of initial dry grounds, making it inefficient for ratios like this. You'd have the same problem with Turkish but it would likely be worse since it isn't filtered.