All right, guys.
Let's make some coffee.
Today, I'm super
excited, because we
have our good friend
James Hoffmann, who's
an amazing coffee expert.
He's going to walk
us through how
to use one of the most common
coffee gadgets-- a moka pot.
And I actually first
was making coffee
on one of these back
when I lived in France
and I had a tiny apartment.
And I actually enjoyed
them quite a bit.
They're great.
Maybe, like me, you hated
this thing for a long time.
You bought it, used it once,
you thought it was disgusting,
you put it in the cupboard.
Dig it out.
Because, actually, it's
probably underrated
and does delicious things.
They make a coffee that's
a kind of halfway house
between espresso, which is
super strong, and drip coffee.
GRANT CRILLY: Yeah.
However, they have
a bad reputation,
because it's pretty easy to
make bitter coffee with them.
We're going to do a
couple things today
to show you how you
can really produce
something super delicious.
GRANT CRILLY: OK.
First things first.
As with all the
brewing techniques,
grind size is pretty important.
And actually, this
is where most people
make their first mistake and
produce a lot of bitterness.
We don't want it
ground like we would
for an espresso machine, which
is super fine, like table salt.
We want to go just a
little bit courser.
So, once you've ground the
coffee, just take this,
fill it, but don't push it down.
GRANT CRILLY: Just level it off?
Yeah.
What you will
notice here, though,
is this one is
beautifully clean.
There's a lie that
floats around that having
a buildup of old coffee
in these things is good.
That old, stale,
rancid coffee is
going to contribute a little bit
of bitterness to the cup, too.
So you want to keep
it nice and clean.
The other bit to worry about is
this little rubber gasket here.
One, you want it clean
so it seals properly.
Two, when you
store it, you don't
want to store it done up tight,
because that adds pressure,
and that'll age out the rubber.
So just store it
loose, not too tight.
So, what we're
going to do now is
we're going to start on
the bottom with hot water.
The down side of cold
is that, while you're
heating your water, you're
heating up your coffee, too.
I've always made
mine with cold water.
Right.
And heating up the
coffee means it's
going to taste a little bit
more bitter when you do so.
So, hot water from a
kettle, easiest way.
Just fill it up to right
below the safety valve.
All right.
So, I keep going, and it's right
under the little valve guy.
JAMES HOFFMANN: There we go.
GRANT CRILLY: I can pop this in?
Yep.
So, when you put
it together, just
grab a towel, because the
bottom is going to be hot now.
Sealed nice and tight.
Done.
And you actually
want to go straight
to the burner pretty quick.
Yeah.
The water in the bottom is
going to start to evaporate,
but it's trapped, so
it's going to build up
a little bit of pressure.
GRANT CRILLY: Oh, I
can hear it going.
JAMES HOFFMANN: It's going to
apply pressure to the water
and push it through the
funnel, through the coffee,
and that's going to
do the brewing for us.
Once your coffee starts to
flow, it'll look nice, look
super delicious.
Listen and wait.
And, as soon as you start
to hear a gurgling sound,
you want to cool it down.
Take it off the stove.
Just run it under your
cold tap in the sink.
It gets rid of the steam,
stops the brewing process dead.
GRANT CRILLY: So, we
made your moka pot.
Super delicious.
But, when I used to make it,
I would take a French press
on the side, heat up
some milk, froth it up,
and pour myself a latte.
It looks like it
doubled in volume, huh?
JAMES HOFFMANN: Yeah.
Tap out those little bubbles.
Here we go, huh?
Aah!
Ooh.
Check it out.
Moka pot lattes.
I made that one.
James Hoffmann made that one.
So, there it is.
Put good coffee in, you use it
right, get a delicious drink.
And then, French press to hand,
a whole array of delicious
drinks.
So, super flexible,
delicious, underrated,
go and play with it.
The moka pot.
