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The Blue Bottle Moka Pot

Ann Binlot
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blue bottle moka pot
Back in the 1930s  Luigi De Ponti created a stovetop espresso maker for Alfonso Bialetti. His invention, which  was named Moka pot, and today it remains one of the most iconic espresso makers in history, its silver design even being exhibited in museums like the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, it comes with three chambers. One is the filter, the other is for water, and the last is where the espresso comes up. Simply load the filter with espresso, pour water into the bottom chamber, put it all together, and then put it on the stove, turn up the heat, and let it boil. A few minutes later, like magic, the water goes through the filter, and out into the top chamber for a few cups of some espresso.

The folks over at Blue Bottle Coffee had had enough of the muddled and murky cups that could come out of the Moka pot, so they decided to take matters into their own hands. They came up with the task of reinventing the Moka pot, so they turned to industrial design Joey Roth to do it. He added a longer brew spout, to cool the water to the perfect temperature, a cork handle that allows users to pick up the pot without burning their fingers, and a steel base so that the heat will be distributed evenly. The new version works pretty much in the same way as the original; pour water in the bottom chamber, the coffee in the second, and when it heats up, it flows into the top ceramic chamber. Did we mention how cool and modern, yet still thoroughly classic it looks? Brew it with Blue Bottle Three Africans, Bella Donovan or Hayes Valley Espresso. We hope this one becomes just as famous as the original.

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The Blue Bottle Moka Pot, $100 at bluebottlecoffee.com.

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