The Moka Pot Hack That Gives You A Cleaner Cup Of Coffee

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Moka pots are capable of giving you a strong cup of rich coffee. They don't make espresso, but they do use some pressure to brew. To some people, a potential downside of the moka pot is the muddy quality of the resulting coffee due to slight sediment and oils that get through into your cup. This hack is aimed right at that muddiness and creates a cleaner cup with more clarity, allowing you to fully taste all the flavors inherent in your coffee beans. All you need is a paper AeroPress filter!

The filter, designed to work with the AeroPress coffee maker, just so happens to also fit perfectly over most metal filters built into moka pots. Metal filters allow "bad" cholesterol-raising oils like cafestol and smaller coffee grinds through, while paper filters strain all that out. To use it, flip over the top part of your moka pot, place the paper filter over the metal filter, and wet it to help it stay in place. As an added benefit, the paper filter creates a little more resistance in the brewing process, increasing extraction. There is a chance this added pressure over-extracts your coffee. If this happens, just grind your beans slightly coarser.

This moka pot hack is intended to increase the flavor clarity of your morning cup. The AeroPress filter helps remove that muddled quality that makes your coffee taste flat, plain, and uninspired. Coffee is potentially one of the most diverse tasting experiences due to the hundreds of compounds that can be extracted from it. Acids, caramelized sugars, tannins, and many other organic compounds combine to create fun and unexpected flavors.

Flavor clarity refers to how apparent the different tastes within the beans are. When a package lists flavors you can find in the cup, such as cinnamon, chocolate, peach, or caramel, it's clarity that allows you to pick up on those notes. Every coffee growing region has a distinctive flavor profile based on its terroir, processing, and coffee plant varieties. For example, Ethiopian coffees are known for their big blueberry notes. Hopefully, this simple moka pot hack gets you on your way to tasting all the great flavors coffee can bring.