Using a moka pot to make Cafe du Monde Coffee and Chicory requires a few special steps. And don’t forget to accessorize properly for optimal results.
There’s a trick to making it work
Love making my morning coffee with a moka pot. (We have a fully-automatic espresso machine, a french press, a pour-over setup, and a drip machine, but deploying our trusty old-world moka pot named Paolo imparts a special character.)
And I was delighted to find cans of Cafe du Monde’s Coffee and Chicory at a little grocery/everything store in Waialua called Waialua Fresh. (My favorite place to buy papayas and apple bananas and butter lettuce and arugula and mint.)
A moka pot works best with finely ground coffee, whereas Cafe du Monde canned coffee is quite coarse (and can be a little bitter).
Since the canned coffee is so coarse, and a bit bitter, there are a couple of “hacks” that I have found work pretty well:
- Fill the moka pot up to the safety valve with very hot water (just shy of boiling) which will help prevent over-heating the grounds during the brewing process, which will reduce bitterness.
- Go ahead and over-fill and tamp the grounds in the filter basket (normally a moka- pot no-no, but in this case it is needed due to the coarse grind)
- Use as low a heat on the burner as you can get away with (so the coffee comes out of the spout in a thick black drizzle), and remove it from heat the second it starts “gurgling” towards the end of the brewing.
- Even if you normally drink black, as I do, consider a little sweetener to counter-balance any bitterness. (I like condensed milk, which lasts forever in the fridge if kept in a lidded pyrex bowl.)
- (optional, but recommended) For a more authentic Cafe du Monde experience, enjoy your coffee while wearing Mardi Gras beads.
