My perfect coffee:
- fill bottle of the same volume as my press with water.
- pour ~10% of it in the electric kettle, and start it.
- put two (or three) full teaspoons of light roasted fine ground coffee in the press
- the water boiled. pour it into the press.
- put remaining cold water in kettle, start it again.
- shake the press a bit so coffee hydrates and foams. Cover the press.
- grab a coffee paper filter (circle) fold it in "pizza-like" shape 4 times and cut the outer skirt, so the new radius is about 1cm larger than the press filter.
- rest of the water is boiling now, pre-water+coffee mix has no foam. Fill press with water.
- put the paper filter on top, and insert the plunger so that along all the inner circumference, the paper filter is between the press inner wall and the plunger.
- press the coffee very slowly, don't rush it at all. It will take you a solid minute or a bit more.
Now you have crystal, non acidic, and flavorful golden coffee. I usually pour a cup immediately, and put the rest in an all-metal insulated little bottle.
I divide the water in two parts to quickly get rid of the foam under the paper filter. Foam makes the pressing way slower. If you have time, you can immediately boil the whole water volume, but leave the coffee mix covered for 5-10 mins and the foam will be gone by then.
Awesome! Glad you like it! What model did you get in the end? The traditional moka or a venus? Was it an original Bialetti or a different brand? What coffee did you get? And did you use preheated water? Was the stove top an issue?
I went for the 3 cup Bialetti Moka Express. The coffee was Three Sisters by Kicking Horse. I think they’re Canada exclusive but I could be wrong. They’re probably not enthusiast specialty beans or anything but they’re available everywhere here, they’re not crazy expensive, and I like the taste. The one I had was very chocolatey, which I like in a coffee. Which is funny because I hate it in a beer.
For the stovetop issue, I followed a guide. Preheat your stovetop on medium heat, and while it’s heating boil the kettle. Then use the freshly boiled water in the moka, screw it together, and put on the centre of the burner. When the coffee first starts coming out, move it to the edge of the burner, so half (or more than half) of the base of the pot is off the heat, and as soon as it starts to sputter remove from heat immediately. The guide also did mention to run cold water over the base of the pot once it starts to sputter if it doesn’t immediately stop after removing it from heat, but I didn’t have that issue so I didn’t bother with cold water. It sounds unnecessarily complicated but it really wasn’t a big deal at all. The whole process was only a couple minutes.