Ditched my fancy espresso machine for a $25 moka pot last month

I used to be that guy with the $600 Breville setup, pulling shots and obsessing over grind size down to the micron. Then my machine broke, and while waiting for parts I dug out an old moka pot I got at a thrift store in Portland. Twenty bucks of gas station beans later, I made a cup that tasted just as good as my usual $5 latte. Has anyone else downgraded their gear and actually liked the result more?

2 comments

2 Comments

drew_park1mo ago

My old man gave me his 1970s percolator a few years back, the kind with the glass knob on top. First time I used it I thought I'd ruined it because the coffee was black as motor oil and bitter as heck, but it grew on me after a week. Now I actually look forward to that sludge on Sunday mornings, especially with a splash of canned evaporated milk. Funny how sometimes the cheap stuff just hits different, even if you can't explain why.

julia_miller241mo ago

Funny you mention that, because I just read something about how percolators actually work and why they make coffee taste that way. It said the boiling water keeps cycling through the grounds over and over, which pulls out way more of the bitter stuff than a drip machine would. That explains why yours ended up black as motor oil, haha. I had a friend who swore by the same setup with evaporated milk, said it smoothed out the bitterness. Kinda makes me want to dig around for one at a thrift store just to see what all the fuss is about.