Sipping a hot cup of espresso in the morning is a heavenly delight few other things in life compare to. Previous to the pandemic, I used to enjoy occasional espresso’s in my office. Being suddenly locked at home for 2-3 years, I had to find an alternative.

I balked at installing a large coffee machine. They look unsightly, take up valuable counter space, and require constant upkeep. One day I ran into Aeropress, and marveled at the small form factor and simplicity of the design. However, I am not a fan of French pressed coffee, and much rather prefer the frothiness of an espresso.

Researching some more, I found Bialetti Moka Express, an Italian coffee machine. It was invented in 1933, and the highlight for me was that it could brew up an espresso on a gas stove top. The Moka Express was priced at $35, which was a far cry from $800-$1000 range for other automated espresso makers. It just sounded too good to be true!

I pored over thousands of reviews I could find on amazon, and they unilaterally praised the little espresso maker. Some coffee purists were concerned about the lower steam pressure of the Moka Express, but other connoisseurs did not mind it all.

The Moka Express espresso maker has five parts in totality (plus a safety valve). A trick that coffee connoisseurs (and I) use is that we fill up hot water from the start. This ensures that the coffee grounds don’t burn for too long, while the water gets heated up.

Another problem that I had to solve was frothing milk. Again, initial searches pointed to purchasing and installing bulky equipment. Armed with the confidence in my ability to simplify, I found and bought a $10 portable Frother.

My five minute morning ritual rundown:

  1. Wake up, brush my teeth, wash eyes with cold water to really wake me up, and comb, tidy my hair
  2. Pour some water in my electric kettle, and turn it on
  3. Pour some cold milk in my coffee cup from the refrigerator
  4. Dab some cinnamon and half a teaspoon of French vanilla in the coffee cup
  5. Microwave the milk for 2 minutes
  6. In the meantime, the water in the kettle gets heated up
  7. Fill the water in lower part of Moka Express
  8. Put two teaspoons of ground coffee in Moka Express, and close the top part using a towel (as the water heats up Aluminum body very quickly)
  9. Put the Moka Express on the stove
  10. Take out heated milk from the microwave
  11. Froth the milk inside of the cup, and wash it immediately afterwards
  12. In a minute or so, the Moka Express starts to steam, and make telltale gurgling sounds. Take it off the stove top, and pour over the espresso in the coffee cup with the frothed milk.
  13. Enjoy! ☕️