我的新玩具：意大利 Mocha 咖啡壶

一直听闻用炉子烧出来的 espresso 有独特风味。今天终于忍不住，在 Benix 买了一个意大利 Moka 式咖啡壶。吃完午饭，兴冲冲地打好咖啡粉，放入壶中，架在电炉上，焦急地等待喝咖啡。烧了二十多分钟，只有几滴咖啡，不成功。用冷水把咖啡壶冷却下来，才发现咖啡粉放太多了，把过滤网都堵死了（太贪心！）。另外，壶子也拧得不够紧，漏气。

不甘心。倒掉咖啡渣，洗干净咖啡壶，重来一次。这次，我稍微平整了一下咖啡粉，拧紧了壶。只需两三分钟便听到了咖啡滴进壶里的声音。再过了一分钟，掀开盖子，一杯香浓的意大利 espresso 便已经做好。尝了一口，味道跟我办公室里的 Krups Espresso 咖啡机做出来又很不一样。

以下关于 Moka 咖啡壶原理的说明引自http://www.foreveritalia.com/cultura.php?nav=3&lingua=2&sel=5&sel2=4

MOCHA COFFEE-MAKER: THE REVOLUTION

The origins of this coffee-maker date back to the beginning of the 20th century; many people claim its paternity with several patents filed in many European countries. Since the second half of the 20th century, this coffee-maker has spread everywhere, especially in Italy and Spain, where it replaces any other domestic device for coffee making. This product is very successful due to the association of several reasons, such as being easy to use, extremely reliable and able to prepare an unequalled drink in terms of taste and aroma and, what’s more, at a reasonable price.

The Mocha coffee-maker can be considered as a real revolution since, before its launch, all the other coffee-makers obtained coffee through water boiling. Conversely, in a Mocha coffee-maker, due to a specific thermodynamic phenomenon, water goes from bottom to top at a pressure higher than that of the surrounding environment, something that enables it to beat the force of gravity and the resistance opposed by the coffee in the filter, but at a temperature lower than the boiling point. These are the ideal conditions to extract the aromatic substances and the oils contained in coffee, thus obtaining the inimitable drink that we all know.