How to make REALLY GOOD
Stove-top Espresso!!

Stove-top espresso has been around for many years, and some of the very first stove-top espresso machines can sometimes be found at auctions, their price depending on whether they are still in working order or not.
The "Atomic" espresso maker is an excellent example of one such stove-top espresso machine which has held its value, when in original and working condition.

• the hour-glass shaped "Bialetti" style “espresso pot” ,
   

• and the small single- or double-pour  espresso makers,
   

How??

All work on the same principle: water gets heated and the expansion of the hot water builds pressure which forces it upwards and through the packed coffee.

With the "Bialetti"-pot the coffee is collected in the pot;  the single/double shot stove-top machine it pours directly into the cup and a percolator "percolates" the coffee through the grinds several times until you decide the coffee is strong enough.

Watch!!

The first two coffee makers need to be watched carefully; as soon as the gurgle/hiss indicates that the water supply runs at an end, the heat under the machine needs to be turned off.
That way the aromatic oils and therefore the flavour of the coffee is preserved.

A percolator also needs watching, unless you like bitterish, boiled coffee... as soon as the liquid bubbling through the looking-glass on top of the lid looks mid-brown, turn off the heat.
Any further heating will literally boil the coffee, burn off the flavoursome coffee oils and increase the bitterness.

Great tasting coffee??

As with all coffee making, Good Stovetop Espresso depends on the fresh coffee you use and way you grind the coffee.
Some stove-top Espresso makers, however, have an extra "secret" quality-factor which needs to be addressed: the way you clean your coffee maker.

Most other ways of making coffee have the final product, the coffee, end up in a separate vessel.
This could be the cup under the espresso machine, or the glass coffee pot under the drip-olator or cone-filter.
With the  stove-top espresso pot as well as percolators the coffee actually ends up in the heated container which earlier boiled away the water.
This means that, unless you clean the inside of the pot or percolator very thoroughly, immediately EVERY  time after you have poured your fresh coffee, you will get a build-up of rancid coffee-oils in the pot... and that makes for tainted coffee. Yuck!

Daily cleaning with very hot water and a brush immediately after making coffee, and weekly cleaning with a specialised (coffee-oil removing) Espresso-maker Cleaner will keep your coffee tasting like coffee, instead of burnt rubber.


If you can't find the  yoru favourite stove-top espresso maker, have a look in our Good Coffee at Home Store!