I’ve worked out a system where I bring water to boil in a kettle, and then turn off the heat. I let the water cool just as long as it takes me to fill the basket with grounds, and then pour the water into the moka pot. Then I put the moka on the lowest flame setting on the stove, and watch super carefully while the coffee comes out. Once it turns blonde, I take the pot and run it under cool water to stop the extraction. Usually, this uses only about half the water in the pot, but second half of the extraction isn’t worth drinking anyway.

Another note, I use a grind a bit finer than you would for a drip pot, but nowhere near as fine as espresso grind. It’s also important to fill the basket fully and level off the top. I then tap it on the counter ever so gently to compact the grounds just a tiny bit. When I follow this, it always results in a beautiful cup.

I'll have to try this. I normally use my Aeropress or French Press but Moka pots were on sale at Target so I decided to try one. I've tried it maybe 8 times and always the coffee has been incredibly bitter. Even using already hot water.

This is true, but not with moka pot.

You mean, pour it into a cup as it is coming out of the top of the moka pot? That won't make much difference. You should immediately pour when it's all out and in the top chamber, but the point of running the bottom under cold water is that it reduces the heat and therefore bitterness of the last 80% of the coffee coming out. It's not a huge problem for the coffee that's already come out to be sitting in the top chamber.

Once it's on the heat won't it have to boil anyway for the pressure to build up and make it draw up into the top chamber?

I usually turn off the heat about 5 seconds after I hear the loud bubbling of coffee going through. I like how it tastes.

Not tried using already boiled water though, I'll have to give that a go. How exactly would that make a difference?

That could be a factor, but I think it's mainly just over extraction. The same thing happens with an espresso machine if you keep extracting too long. Alternatively, you could put in less water so it naturally runs out before lightening.

1. Hot water. As well as making the temperature if the water that goes through the coffee more consistent, it also means your coffee isn't sat over a flame for 5 minutes while the water comes up to temp. I don't need to tell you why this is bad for your coffee.

2. Pick the right moment to pull it off the heat. I like to take it off just after coffee starts coming out if the top, the residual heat and pressure should finish the extraction, but your mileage may vary. Just don't leave it boiling and sputtering when it doesn't need to be. I leave the lid open to keep and eye on this. Walking away and just waiting for when you can hear it/see the steam is inefficient.

3. Stop the brew. When you're happy that extraction is complete, run the bottom part of the moka under cold water to stop the brew, otherwise you're getting the shitty part of the extraction into your coffee, no bueno!

4. Drink up! Get a clean, hot espresso cup and sit down with your delicious coffee and some biscotti. You're worth it.

Use preheated water so that you get water of a more consistent temperature going through the grounds, rather than it starting off with lukewarm water going through before gradually getting to hot water going through.

Edit: also use mild soap if any to wash the pot so that a) you don’t leave anything that might contaminate the taste and b) you don’t wash off too much of the coffee taste from the actual pot, too thorough a clean and you get the taste of aluminium in your coffee

The best results I’ve gotten have been using this method: start with water that is about 160F or just hot enough that you have to hold the base with an oven mitt. The beans should be between espresso grind and drip grind (though I usually prefer it on the finer end, this will vary between coffees). Once you pour in your water and screw your pot together, start it out over medium low heat (3 on an electric stovetop). Every minute or so, put your head over the top of the pot and inhale. Once you can smell the fragrance of the coffee, wait about 30 seconds and set the burner or heating element to medium. Take it off the heat before it starts bubbling and spitting and cool quickly.

It’s convoluted, but it makes some the best espresso-style coffee I’ve ever had.

Here's my process. Pour in hot water. Fill with espresso grounds. Put on high heat, reduce to medium/high after a couple minutes before percolation begins. Remove from heat and pour into cup once your brew is complete.

I think it's all about finding that burner temperature that's just hot enough.

This video is a bit old but gives you everything you need to know. But Moka Pots don't make espresso, just a strong coffee with great flavor if done right.

Over the years I've learned to make good moka coffee - just don't expect anything remotely similar to American style coffee, filter or Aeropress.

The way I do it:

• medium grind (tricky to convey this, but a bitcoarser than a regular espresso); 8g for a 1 cup Bialetti; 12g for a 2 cup; 20g for a 3 cup Bialetti; 34g for a 6 cup
• boil water in a kettle
• put coffee in the reservoir, don't push it down, only pour it in there and shake the reservoir to even it out but in no way do you touch the coffee! the top should be flattish but no higher than the reservoir's edge
• put in boiled water (right when it's boiled) into the water reservoir, fill it so that it only touches the bottom side of the inside pressure valve, it should not go higher than that
• assemble everything and put it on stove, on low heat and do not change the heat through the process - go with the lowest setting at the beginning and increase with experience to find the sweet spot
• wait for it and leave the pot's top open while waiting, so that you can observe the process
• when the coffee starts pouring out into the pot, be vigilant and once you see the first signs of foaming or bubbles on the top, take the pot off the stove and run cool water over the bottom part of the pot to cool it down and stop the brewing process
• serve slowly and let the bottom slush stay in the pot
• enjoy

If you decide to try this, let me know how it turned out.

I’ve had success with putting an aeropress filter on top of the coffee grounds. Cuts out most of the mud and makes for a cleaner moka pot brew.

1. The grind may be too fine.
2. High heat works better because pressure builds faster, brew time is shorter, and less chance coffee gets cooked (personal experience).
3. Put the bottom under cold water the moment bubbling happens to stop brewing process and prevent overcook.
4. Make sure no steam escapes. Need tight seal and proper working gasket.

A bit of residue is inevitable so there's that.

Sounds like the grind is too fine if you're getting that much residue in it.

For what it's worth, I've never bothered with any complicated technique for it and have always loved the strong, dark, full bodied coffee it produces.

I used to use room temp tap water, but since we moved to a place without drinkable tap water, I now use chilled bottled water from our dispenser.

As for the grind, if buying preground I go for a medium. Recently I've been grinding with a terrible Cuisinart blade grinder and get somewhere between medium and coarse, and both seem to work.

For about two years what I've done is:

1. Fill reservoir with chilled water
2. Fill funnel with loosely packed medium-coarse ground coffee
3. Assemble and put on burner
4. Turn burner heat to high
5. Turn off heat as soon as I hear a bubbling sound
6. Remove from burner and pour once bubbling sound stops

Well for one thing, yes, it is what it is. It's going to be very strong, certainly on the bitter side, and muddy in the sense that it's much closer to opaque than translucent when pouring. You probably shouldn't be getting much in terms of grains slipping through.

Choice of coffee matters a lot, a lot of the latin "brick" coffees are the cheapest kind that's literally meant for this kind of preparation, such as Cafe Bustelo (my favorite) as well as Cafe Caribe and Cafe Supremo. I've never tried a standard drip bag like Peet's or Trader Joe's, let alone something like Folger's - and would not expect it to work out ideally. When I ground better coffee into it, I'd do a pretty small "near espresso" grind and it came out great as long as I didn't burn it.

So to enjoy: don't burn, choose the right coffee, and then finally serve according to the coffee. The latin brick brands or a dark roastI think are best served with plenty of whole milk and sugar to taste - very rich, warming, earthy, and indulgent. If you have a good medium to light roast, it might be delicious straight, but also might work with just a pinch of sugar to brighten it up.

The whole boiling water thing is new to my ears. I live in Italy where a Moka is standard and I don't know anyone who boils water first. That being said if you like it go for it. Long live the Moka pot

A lot of newbies, myself included, have to start somewhere and it usually means you try someone else’s recipe as a starting point. I was frustrated with my results for months but I was not discouraged. Through trial and error I believe I’m getting better. It’s a wonderful journey and I’m learning a lot. I give most of the credit to my fellow moka pot enthusiasts here on this sub Reddit as well as YouTube. Their insights have been invaluable

I boil the water first simply because I'm lazy and I don't want to wait for my coffee. Using boiled water simply speeds up the process and has no effect on the actual coffee drink IMO

That's the learning curve with any brew method. We've all been there. We've all had horrible coffee and tried again and again and again...

I dread to think how many Moka pot videos I watched before I cracked what I was really happy with. For me, it's all part of the fun.

From the OPs post, he clearly isn't new to coffee. He's been through the experimental stage, as I read it, and is now offering advice to others.

My son has a Breville (Sage) which breaks down, I have 4 Moka Express Bialetti. I simplify as much as possible, no paper filter, room temperature water and... pre-ground coffee (Lavazza Oro at the moment). We get along well 🤗

Hey, i had that same moka pot for a few months till it went bad and I had to get a new one. A few tips I learnt of this are as follows-

1. Do not tamp
2. Try brewing with lightly warm water, warm water and cold water and see what tastes the best to you
3. I have had the best success with medium-dark, dark roasts but I've seen people make good cups with lighter roasts too
4. Might be controversial but chicory blend if you get them to grind mokapot size goes hard
5. Most of the times it brews enough to make two cups or one very strong cup
6. The slower the flow better, let it come to temp on low using a pan as a hit conductor or a grill (that my mother uses for bhuno bharta). Remove the mokapot from direct flame as soon as the flow starts, take it back on the flame once the flow goes down. Maintain slow but steady flow
7. Incase this breaks down for you as it did for me, invest in a bailetti. I have been getting FAR better results from it. Not to say you can't get good results from this, just my exp.

Happy brewing

A small tip. Do not tamper/press the coffee. I try to gently hit the sides to ensure the coffee is evenly settled.

A tip I took from this sub was to avoid angry plsputters.. so low to medium heat works well ans gives slow and smooth extraction.

Really nice colour though!

One thing that helps a lot: don’t pack the coffee too tight, just level it off gently. And yeah, take it off the heat once it starts bubbling to keep the flavor smooth. What beans are you starting with?

I have been using a moka pot for a while now. Some tips from my side -

1. do not use a very fine grind as that will seep into the boiler after extraction and you might be left with some muddy coffee water in the end

2. pre heat the water (not boiling) before putting the pot on heat

3. start with high heat for like 15 seconds and then switch medium low heat to get the best results

4. this one is optional - use induction instead of stove top to control the heat

that's a beautiful piece! how much did it cost?

And that’s why you don’t put hot water in. Manufacturer suggests normal water.

By far the consensus is to use room temperature water. Don't rely on the online community for these matters. I'm in Europe, travelled a lot in Italy and elsewhere and never heard of anyone using boiling water except in online forums populated mostly by Americans. There's nothing wrong with that, and as mentioned by someone else, this is mainly useful as a way to compensate for light roasts, which benefit from a higher brew temperature (and also to speed things up).

not the consensus at all, there is about a bazillion people using cold water (as it should be with mid to dark roasts). They arent just all over the net saying that if Hoffmann does it then its law

Just so you know: Bialetti doesn’t recommend putting hot water into their moka pots. All they recommend using is ambient water. This is one big reason why.

Another is more complicated and related to the way the moka pot works.

When you fill a moka pot with water, it’s bit filled all the way to the top. There is a pocket of air above the water as well, and as everything heats up the air pocket expands as well, giving you an initial push to start your brew cycle at a slightly lower water temperature.

If you use hot water down below, it heats up the air pocket above it, making it less dense before you seal the moka pot. During the brew cycle that air pocket doesn’t expand nearly as much, and your brew temperature is slightly higher.

use an oven mitt or towel or something like that

Moka pots can make some great coffee but it is a bit tricky in the beginning. Personally it took me around 10-15 cups to start making more decent results and much more to be consistent. Now I still have some bad batch here and there with a new bean but it is more rare.
Some important things i've noticed and might be helpful to you too:

​

- Experiment only with one thing - grind, water, filling the basket, temperature.
- Personally I think that the most important things are the grind first and the temperature second. Starting with hot vs cold water might make a difference but tbh I can make a good cup with both and the difference is not that big if any.

- when filling the coffee basket, don't fill it too tightly, especially you grind finer. I've made and experiment - using the same grind and same bean - filling the basket super tightly (no tamping but tapping on the sides a little) and more loose. The tight one chocked the moka, while the loose one produced nice coffee. The Moka creates some pressure...but really it is "some" so everything packed too tightly makes it hard for the water to pass properly.

- experiment a lot with the grind. Buy a cheap bean and spend 2 hours grinding and brewing after that. It will give you a much better understanding about moka pots and the coffee they make. Much better than any internet tutorial that is basically recycling the same advises. Personally this is what made me really get what is going on in the Moka even tho I spend hours reading forums and watching videos before that.

I use a Hario Skerton grinder and use a 6 click from zero grind setting. It's definitely not an espresso grind. Start with a bit more coarse/medium grind and see how much you Moka can take before it starts producing burned coffee or chokes.

- don't worry if you end up with a small shot - moka pots generally use better like that. Out of my 3 cup I usually get a 80ml shot. I can go for 90 but then I risk burning it.

- find a good bean - there are plenty of beans for Moka Pots. Personally I stay away from light roasts because they are pretty tricky with the Moka. I also generally stay away from blends with a lot of robusta since even a little over-extraction can give me a terrible cup.

- start with a lower temperature. My induction has 10 settings and I use 4. I have had good results with 5 too, but i've also had many burnt batches.

- don't give up too fast. I know that there are plenty of people who will tell you that the Moka Pot is useless. When I bought one I also had a French Press and people were constantly telling me to leave it and use the press instead. I'm so happy I didn't do that. I love the Moka Pot coffee and honestly on a good day and with a good bean I prefer it waaaaay more than most espresso shots I can get out there. I like it much better than the Press too.

Don't listen to the guides that tell you to stop brewing when the stream sputters; this is too late and the coffee is already over extracted.

I recommend that you weigh your dose of coffee in the basket and aim for a certain yield ratio, as you would for other methods. I prefer to keep my ratio below 3:1, e.g. 16g coffee grinds in, ~45g coffee out. Yes, it's not a lot of coffee but it's meant to be similar to espresso. An easy way to gauge your yield is to put your desired yield into the top part of the Moka, e.g. 45g of water; this is the level where you want to stop the brew. When you actually brew, fill the reservoir to the pressure release valve; this prevents the water from being too hot or steaming while you brew.

With a 16g dose and 40g output, I aim for a brew time of ~30 seconds (time starts when coffee starts coming out the top). Grind should be medium fine so adjust accordingly to achieve a similar brew time. I remove the pot from heat about 10 seconds after coffee first comes out; if done correctly there will be enough residual pressure in the pot for the coffee to continue brewing. Best way to stop brewing is to submerge the bottom of the pot in some cold water. There should be no sputtering with this method, there should be water remaining in the reservoir.

Not much on the internet but I did find a coffee forum post from 10 years ago. Apparently this is a steam powered coffee maker and not exactly an espresso. Not 100% on that at all.

I would personally take it apart and clean it.

Try putting boiling water in bottom, smaller flame

Little bit of food for thought.

Moka pots use steam trapped in the chamber to force the water down which in turn forces it up the basket right? Well, water doesn't need to really boil to create this pressure. Just needs to steam! The most common cause for poor moka use is too much heat causing the water to "scald" the beans, which in turn means the water gushes through quickly so people grind finer to restrict it. The moka ends up darker, over-extracted and burnt. Coarser ground, lower heat.

Pre-fill the basket. Pre-boil the water. Rapidly assemble and put on low heat. Usually good to cut the moka short when it's about to start gushing clear liquid or spurting (which it does at the end) by taking it off the heat and running the lower chamber under a cold tap or dumping into a pot of cold/room-temp water. Stop the excess crappy stuff from coming through.

Are you tamping or packing down the coffee? The basket should be filled all the way and leveled off without pressing the coffee down at all.

What do you use to grind the beans? A grinder or a hammer?

The course grind wouldn't be preventing operation.

Funnel could be blocked - remove gasket & filter entirely, make sure passageways are open.

Also, top may not be on tight enough, letting steam exit thru the middle seam. 

Update #2

GOOD NEWS - SHE WORKS!!!!!

Firstly thank you all for your recommendations, it's been an interesting 24hrs trying all of the different suggestions 😂

Best thing that worked? Sanding down the casting artifacts !!

I gave the threads and the outside a good sand, properly screwed it all together, and lo and behold I got some water through! Then the second run I got some actual coffee!!!

There are a few more tweaks to make but I'm so glad it finally works, thank you all again for all your help 😍😍😍

just noticed your photo shows the filter but no gasket - just to be sure, assuming you've got a rubber gasket for it?!

Your grounds could pass off for a French press lol

Grind finer and don't blast the heat

I used to heat up and froth some milk to make it like a little macchiato

I drink it straight, or the cuban way if I feel fancy

Americano style

I add a splash of milk and a dab of sugar, and then I sip it daintily from a tiny cup, because it makes me feel like a giant.

I don’t do this anymore but I used to: brew six-cup Moka pot, pour into 16oz keepcup, then add Oatly Barista up to the top of the rubber grip. Perfect ratio and it tasted really strong! I only stopped because it was way too much caffeine for me and it used a lot of beans.