Stove-top expresso pot testing

I had a customer in the other day wanting to return a stove-top espresso pot. I'm not the type who will question a customer as to whether they were using it correctly. He was a little disappointed that I didn't give him the third degree. The truth was, however, in all my time working in the coffee business, I have yet to use one of these devices.

So today I finally put his pot to the test to see why it wasn't working. Next time he calls up and asks, I'll have to let him know the reason.


There are a number of reasons why I'm not a big fan of the stove-top. The pot is made from aluminium. This is an excellent conductor of heat but it can interact with coffee acids to produce funny taste. The water is forced up through the coffee which means that you'll lose out on getting the crema layer which I love from my espresso. They also get very hot and can be tricky to handle.

Althought I've never been a fan, I manage to sell at least twelve of these each week. Most of them go to students who want to make strong coffee in their hall of residence. One thing the stove-top will give you is a strong expresso!

Anyway, here is a quick rundown on how they work:

1. Fill the lower chamber with fresh cold water. I like mine filtered cos I don't like chlorine in my coffee!
2. Fill the funnel basket with the ground coffee. Beleive me when I tell you I've had customers tell me they fill this with instant coffee...ohhh yum! Make sure you fill it up to the top of the basket.
3. Place the funnel basket into the lower chamber. If you have over filled the lower chamber then your grounds will get wet! Not a good start to your expresso!
4. Screw the top half and the bottom half together.
5. Place the pot on a medium heat stove. The water will start to boil and the pressure of the steam will force the water up through gounds and into the top chamber.
6. Make sure you take the pot off the stove straight away - no-one is impressed with the smell of burnt coffee - it'll also save your rubber seal for next time!
6. Yum. You should now have an espresso coffee.

Even after being tested by an expert (me?) the returned pot failed. Some simple testing proved that the pot was unable to produce enough pressure to go%2