Hey everyone, I’m looking to expand my coffee gear and am planning on acquiring a moka pot and an aeropress. Which should I get first? I’m planning on getting both, but one not for a few months.
I have both, and I think the aeropress makes much nicer coffee. I find mocha pots make overly-strong and bitter shots, but maybe that’s just my preference.
Aeropress is more of a faff though.
Moka is definitely a very robust brew. If you find you’re getting bitterness, try tweaking your extraction with a larger grind size, higher temp (thus faster brew time), or both.
I’d say Aeropress for sure based solely on versatility, as it can make something similar (not identical, but definitely similar) to both a moka pot and a French press, especially if you pick up metal filters for it. Moka pots are great, but touchy, and will likely never be brought out again if you ever get an espresso machine.
I own both. I daily use my AeroPress. I use my Moka about twice a month. They’re both great brewers, but the Moka isn’t for making a good daily cup or espresso. The coffee you get from it is unique. If you make a lot of milk beverages, I think the Moka is a decent way to make coffee for that use, but you’ll also need a good way to froth and steam your milk.
I’d go with an AeroPress and check out the various brew methods available to achieve your desired results.
The AeroPress is a lot more “fun.” It’s interactive, versatile, portable… and it makes some fantastic coffee.
Like most other replies, it really depends on your usage and taste. I personally prefer a Moka pot over an aeropress. But I also like my Hario V60 for filter coffee, so the aeropress iszcloser to that. Hence the choice for a Moka pot is clear, it’s a bit more of a difference.
So weigh your options as what you already have and like.
I can’t get enough of my aeropress. For me it’s mostly the convenience of it in terms of cleaning. With the aero press you barely even have to.
It’s fun to karate-chop the grinds and filter off the plunger into a can. It’s one of my favorite parts of brewing the cup.
The same can be said of moka pots. Every time you let soap touch a moka pot, an Italian sheds a tear.
Clean your moka pot. Rancid coffee oil tastes bad.
This. I switched to stainless. No aluminum or rancid oil, both of which I think negatively affect flavor. I even pour my La Croix into a glass because I don’t like the taste of the can. Maybe I’m just sensitive but I love a clean moka pot. I have at least one moka everyday.
Aeropress is the superior coffee method for 1 cup at a time. Quick, easy, effcient, and clean up is a breeze.
That being said, if I’m making any more than 1 cup at a time, I go for my my Moka Pot. Moka gets closer to that espresso experience, IMO, and is great for making lattes/cappucinos/americanos at home if you dont want to shell out hundreds for an ok espresso machine, or $1000+ for a really good one.
I used to own a moka pot, but it got lost somewhere. I find it difficult to get a good cup out of it, although recently I got to play with a small one in Italy and that produced a really nice espresso sized cup.
Aeropress is my daily driver and it produces the nicest cup for relatively little work. It’s a forgiving system and easy to experiment with. I would definitely recommend this over a moka pot.
The tiny Bialettis are adorable.
Recommend the Aeropress first. I’ve used both for a long time now, and the Aeropress is more versatile, faster, and easier to clean up. It can also basically cover the moka taste.
I love my moka pot. I have an induction cook top in the kitchen so I have a stainless steel moka pot. I like a big mug of coffee so I went with the 6 cup size. Easy clean up. No paper filters to buy. Never used an aeropress but I wanted to avoid another plastic coffee tool so moka pot was the choice.
I wish I had bought an Aeropress at first and never bought anything else. It’s a fast and forgiving way of making yummy coffee ranging anywhere from moka-level strength down to drip level strength. It is trivially easy to clean, too.
Something I love about it is that you can start the kettle and while that’s happening you can grind the coffee and get the Aeropress ready, which saves time. With a moka pot you are forced to do the coffee grinding and the water boiling in strict sequence, which unnecessarily increases the time from “I want a cuppa” to “This is delicious!”.
I boil the water directly in the moka bottom while grinding, then carefully drop in and screw on the top after it comes to the boil.
I tried doing things like that and found it unnecessarily risky, particularly when an Aeropress avoids the problem entirely.
To be fair, you can make a big mess with the Aeropress while you push down on the plunger, so maybe I shouldn’t praise its safety either.
I boil the water in a kettle and then put it in the bottom and on the stove with the rest of the apperatus. I’ve never had it be finnicky since I’ve started the brew from warm.
The real issue with the Moka is that the metal superstructure gets overheated and it causes the coffee to scorch. I’ve had that problem my entire life and never cared enough about coffee to go and try figure it out, but after speaking with some of my friends we found that starting from warm was the key to a foolproof Moka.
My daily coffee is an Aeropress and I don’t think I’d even consider a Moka pot just because of how flexible the Aeropress is.
To make the Aeropress work you need hot water, ground coffee, filters.
I liked the idea of the aero press, but ended up just going back to a French press.
Just started my coffee journey 2 weeks ago with a Timemore C2 grinder and an aeropress. I’ve been having the best time with how easy and versatile the aeropress is.
Same here! Both great purchases.
I’d say that it really depends on the sort of coffee you like. Both are great and I’m glad that you’re going that direction. Here’s my recommendation:
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If you like French press coffee, go for the moka pot first. To me, it’s somewhere between French press and espresso; somewhat acidic and strong but not extracted with enough pressure to be espresso. Also, like espresso, moka pot coffee is best served in small portions.
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If you prefer drip or espresso, go for the aeropress. Depending on technique, you can get some good crema and nearly proper espresso as you can generate much more pressure than a moka pot.
A couple of other thoughts: make sure that you have a good grinder, I like burr grinders. Also, if you really want stovetop espresso, something like Bialetti’s Brikka might be worth checking out. I’ve but tried one yet but, they use a similar weighted valve system to old-school pressure cookers that allows the coffee maker to achieve proper espresso pressures.
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