Ever wondered if ground coffee can be used in your stovetop espresso pot? The short answer is: it depends on the grounding. But read more to learn more!
If you run out of the stovetop pot coffee but you really need an espresso you might wonder if you’re the coffee you grounded is ok to be used for the purpose. It’s a good question to be asked, in fact everything depends on the right blend and type of coffee: each one is appropriate for a specific tool.
So what about coffee with the moka (stovetop pot) using ground espresso?
We’d suggest you avoid it. And there’s a good reason for it! In fact, using this kind of coffee in the moka, would make the coffee taste unpleasantly bitter and with a burnt aftertaste. You certainly don’t want that from your coffee.
This kind of taste happens because o the coffee grind. Read on to know more – and to make sure to always have the best flavour out of your espresso moment: coffee it’s a pleasure!
The Coffee grind
We call “grinding” the process of turning roasted coffee beans into “powder”, which is a very important process for the characteristic we want our final product to have.
Whe you grind coffee, you can have it in 3 different ways: coarse, medium or fine. When you pick one of those options, you are also affecting the way coffee is extracted and its reaction with water in the making of your espresso.
The best coffee grind for Espresso machines
If you are using a coffee machine for your espresso, the coffee you use will undergo a high-pressure process, powered by the motor of the machine. For this kind of process, you will a coffee that as a higher resistance to water and this would be a fine grind.
The best coffee grind for stovetop pot (or moka)
If you want to use the moka (which is what we almost exclusively use in our homes in Italy), the process will be characterized by a light pressure. And that’s the reson you should not use ground coffee in the moka, but you want to select a coars one. If you’d use a fine grind, a little bit of it will pass trhough the filter in your stovetop pot and would end up in your cup!
But be aware: not to coarse! A coffee too coarse would not appropriately react with water, and you’d end up with a watery coffee.
But remember the number one rule: if you want to have a great, authentic espresso: choose Caffè Aiello!
