• 30 Posts
  • 179 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: November 19th, 2023

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  • From what I have heard, the Italians use milk/cream to cut the bitterness of their espresso and moka pots.

    I kind of hate the bitterness that I get out of my moka pot, so I can believe that.

    Otherwise, I find that a well brewed coffee (French press, aeropress, cucumella, moka pot) is so rich in oils, that they really don’t need anymore fat.

    Something like instant tho… Needs creamer desperately.

    But sweetener… I hate coffee without sweetener.


  • I managed to get a used Baratza Encore off Craigslist relatively cheap for $100, and there were other good choices that I could have gone with.

    As for K cups, it’s the gateway drug, but I sort of quickly moved on. A lot of people started there, so much respect to their marketing department, if not so much their product development and quality assurance.

    And the environmental cost of all that plastic…










  • Having both a moka and a cucumella, I like the brew from my cucumella more.

    It’s strong, but not quite moka pot strong.

    The brew tastes sweet, but not moka pot burnt, and it has a little viscosity to it, but doesn’t cling to the walls of my mug like a moka pot brew.

    I also like having a little volume to my morning coffee. The volume from my little 1-2 cup moka pot just feels disappointing and over too quickly.

    I also like the process of brewing from my cucumella better. The moka pot just seems fussy, because it actually requires boiling the water in the moka pot itself, and if you use the James Hoffman/Wired Gourmet on-and-off burner technique to reduce the burned flavor, it’s just too much work.

    Whereas I can just add pre-boiled water to my cucumella, flip it over, and it’s done dripping in about 1-2 minutes.

    In the longer term, there are no gaskets to replace on cucumellas, so less operating costs and worries later too.

    Cleaning my moka pot feels like a chore: Mainly trying to get that filter funnel out of the bottom is awfully fiddly. I’m working on pushing in the sides of the funnel so my fingers have someplace to lever it out.