Drinking coffee in Italy/1: Moka

Coffee is an important element of any Italian’s life. We are worldwide famous for our espresso, moka and cappuccino, which have been exported and proposed in many versions at Starbucks or made popular and trendy by the famous Nespresso advertising and stores.
But what does coffee mean and represent for Italians in their daily life? Coffee is for us not only a drink, coffee is a ritual, is a break during the day, a social moment, a digestive drink after a meal.
Today I will start talking about Moka, which represents the traditional home made coffee, prepared with the coffee maker of Bialetti, the famous brand with the man with moustache. There are copies and adaptations of the moka maker, but believe me, the best moka coffee is still the one made with the original aluminium pot of Bialetti called Moka Express.
In every Italian house you will find a moka maker. There is something ritual in preparing coffee with it. In our homes the aroma of fresh made coffee is the first sensation of the day, it has something cosy and comfortable in it, it’s the smell that announces a new day, the signal for the late sleepers that it’s time to wake up, the conclusion of a family meal.
I think the aroma of coffee prepared with a moka maker is particularly strong because it’s not a filtered coffee with water passing slowly through the powder, like with percolators. Here we pour cold water in the lower base, then put the aluminium filter inside and fill it with coffee powder. On top of it we screw the upper part, which has a thin aluminium pipe inside. Through this pipe we get coffee once the pressurized boiling water comes up thanks to the heat of the flam (we use gas cookers), passing through the filter. It takes only few seconds for coffee to come out and fill the upper part of the pot and during this operation a delightful flavoured steam spreads in the kitchen and in the whole house.

Moka coffee is served in small cups, purists drink it without adding sugar, but personally I prefer it with some sugar in it. And for my breakfast I add to moka-coffee some milk, that I separately warmed up: this is served in a bigger cup and it’s called caffelatte (literally: coffee-milk). In this case I don’t add any sugar.