Storytime: Our lovely Airbnb host in Bogliasco, Italy decided to take the “bed and breakfast” part to the next level by offering us a delicious traditional homemade breakfast. We had never tried coffee in Italy before so we were very excited! The night before, she told us she would leave the coffee on the stove and all we had to do was heat it up. We knew that Italy has some of the best coffee in the world so we were excited to try to make it ourselves! Well, lo and behold, the next morning, the coffee pot, also known as a Moka, was on the stove, but there was no liquid in it at all! We tried to pull it apart to investigate, but it wouldn’t budge. We couldn’t even look it up because we didn’t have any internet.
Feast your eyes on the delicious breakfast and confusing coffee maker:
Luckily, our Airbnb host took pity on us and made us coffee the next day. We knew that making Italian coffee was an art, but it wasn’t something we easily figured out! It wasn’t until we were in Imperia and, had a chance to Google it, that we even knew what was going on. We want to save you the embarrassment of not knowing how to use such a simple mechanism, so, without further adieu, we present you with:
How to use an Italian Coffee Maker Without Crying!
Yeah, there are fancy words for all these parts, and even for the maker itself (Moka), but we are going to break it down in layman’s terms. The Italian coffee maker is split into three parts. There is a bottom area, a middle area [the silver line], and a slightly larger top area. Don’t try to pull this thing apart because it won’t budge.
If you open the lid, you assume that you just pull up by that middle area and the bottom will come out, revealing more about the pot…right? WRONG! Dead. Wrong. You can pull for 10 years and you won’t get that middle part out. That middle part is actually where the coffee ends up!
In order to access the other parts of this mysterious device, you must simply unscrew the part where the bottom/middle silver area meet the top.
Like magic, the area where you put the coffee bean grounds is revealed! [Again, so much easier than pulling for years on the interior stem that isn’t meant for pulling!]. Before you put in the grounds, simply lift out the fancy mesh area and fill the bottom with water.
Once the bottom is filled with water and the middle area is filled with grounds, screw the coffee machine back together and turn on the stove. The water will boil so fiercely that it will go up through the grounds and into the originally empty area of the pot, creating coffee! Why? Because science.
It took us far too long to figure out, but with these super easy instructions, you will be enjoying your steaming Italian coffee fresh from your Moka in no time!
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