Brew superb smooth espresso without an complicated espresso machine.

The eponymous Bialetti is the original Italian stove top espresso maker. If you don't have one in the back of a kitchen cupboard, you've probably seen one somewhere. A shiny, angular metal pot - sometimes coloured - with a black knob and handle. They come in loads of shapes, sizes and colours but they all work the same way. Importantly, they are really easy to use and make great espresso available to everyone with a hob, a hotplate or even a camping stove. You could even buy a Bialetti shaped electric heater if you fancy a new gadget!

The Bialetti consists of the top part (with a lid with a knob, handle, and pouring spout) - this part will contain your freshly brewed coffee.

Then there's the lower part, which is the water tank and usually has a small pressure relief valve on one side. The upper and lower parts screw together with a rubber gasket in between to prevent the steam escaping. Also between the top and bottom parts is a perforated metal 'basket' with a long spout. This is where your ground coffee goes - see image below 

Once on a heat source such as your hob, the water in the lower tank heats up and produces steam. The pressure of the steam pushes the hot water up through the coffee contained in the basket. The liquid coffee continues to be pushed up the upper spout and runs down into the top jug part. That's it - I told you it was simple!

There are a few do's and don’ts to get the best result and here's how we do it:

 

Use the right coffee: the golden rule is - the right coffee means the best quality you can get you hands on - it's the only way to produce fabulous coffee, however you brew it. Use freshly roasted, freshly ground coffee - ground correctly, eg, BlindMan Coffee ground for Aeropress fine. You'll find this grind option on every coffee product page (and grinding is free).

What is the correct grind for a Bialetti Mocha Pot?: suing the correct grind is super important as the coffee itself creates a buffer to prevent the pressurised steam escaping and allows the hot water to pass through it at just the right speed for the best possible extraction of flavours. We advise not to rely on supermarket coffee that say "Suitable for all coffee makers" on the packet because that's impossible nonsense.

BTW - We grind your coffee for free and recommend selecting "Aeropress Fine" as it's very slightly coarser than "Espresso" and best suited to a Bialetti. 

How do I make espresso in a Bialetti mocha pot?: unscrew your Bialetti and tip out the 'basket' part that sits in the top of the lower water tank. Pour just boiled water into the lower water tank to just below the safety valve you see one the side. BE CAREFUL FROM THIS POINT as this part will now be very hot; use a tea towel or oven glove to handle it. 

Using a teaspoon, add freshly ground coffee to the 'basket'. Be careful not to compact the coffee too much, just very lightly encourage the coffee to the sides and bottom corner to fill any gaps. You want the basket to be evenly filled to the top. At this point we level-off the coffee with the back of a knife. Carefully place the filled basket back into the top of the lower water tank (now filled with just boiled water to the pressure valve) and screw the top and bottom parts together again just until you feel some resistance from the rubber seal. 

Place your Bialetti on a LOW hob or flame setting (our electric hob has a 1 - 5 setting and we set it at 1.5) with the lid up so you can see what's happening. How quickly things start happening depends on how hot you have your hob. Keep it LOW so the delicious ground coffee isn't scalded and the hot water has plenty of time to extract the full flavours. Try to be patient and keep a close watch on it! Beautiful golden caramel foam will start to emerge from the spout. Then dark, flavour packed espresso. 

When the flow turns to a splurting time's up and your espresso is ready to drink and enjoy. Coffee's up!