The moka pot, done properly.

1. Boil the water. Hot water in the base means the pot spends less time on the stove, and the coffee turns out less bitter.
2. Fill the basket. Grind 15 g medium-fine, finer than for filter, far coarser than for espresso. Fill the basket to the top, tap it so the coffee settles level, and wipe the rim clean. Don't press it down.
3. Hot water into the base, 150 g or up to just below the valve, never above it. With dark roasts two thirds to three quarters full is enough.
4. Screw it together. Basket in, top on, and hold the hot base with a tea towel while you screw it tight.

Bialetti gives no grams for water or coffee, so weigh your own pot once. One example: James Hoffmann's 6-cup pot holds just under 300 g of water, takes about 30 g of coffee and gave him about 200 g of coffee. Never more than about two thirds of the water comes out as coffee; the rest stays in the base and the grounds.

No, even though it is often called stovetop espresso. Steam pushes the water through the coffee at about 1 to 2 bar; an espresso machine works at about 9 bar. Moka pot coffee is strong and full-bodied, just without the thick crema and the syrupy texture of a shot. It works well with milk: if you have no steam wand, here is how to froth milk without one. For real espresso there is the espresso guide.

Let the pot cool before you unscrew it, then rinse all parts with water only. Bialetti says no detergent and no dishwasher for its aluminium pots.

Sources: technique after James Hoffmann, "The Ultimate Moka Pot Technique" (28 January 2022); fill level, no tamping, gurgle, cleaning and induction from the Moka Express page at Bialetti; amounts per size and the first three pots from Bialetti New Zealand; pressure from Navarini et al., Applied Thermal Engineering 29 (2009), as cited in Wikipedia; total time from Kaffeemacher (2:30 to 4:00 min). All checked 6 November 2026.