Italian coffee, known also as espresso, it's quite an easy task if you think globally to Italian cuisine. As often occurs things are more difficult, and results not quite perfect, if you don't know how to do it. Another thing that occurs, possibly since Java programming appeared and USA coffee shops colonized the globe, everybody's playing the coffee guru.

What you need to make your Italian espresso

As a coffee aficionado, and Italian, I'll give you some hint (my 2 cents opininion, if you wish) on how to obtain your own espresso the Italian way and become your friends hero.

The coffee comes first

The first thing you need is some good coffee. I'm stressing good here because really this is the thing that really makes the difference. I won't dive in any geopolitical discussion, and just present two of the most famous Italian coffee brands (and the most likely easily available outside Italy). Again, leaving apart politics, a basic economical law will help you decide on the coffee brand: the best raws goes to the one that pays the most, the same that sell at the highest price, and it sells at high prices because there's an audience paying those prices.

My suggestion is: go for the top Italian brands and forget exotic-named selections from your local yoga store. The following are Lavazza Qualità Oro (by Luigi Lavazza S.p.A. - Torino, Italy) and Illy (by illycaffè SpA - Trieste, Italy). Both the above two coffee are ground, if you want to grind it yourself (think again) the whole bean version is available.

The Moka

The name coming from a city of Yemen, called Mocha (Al Mukha) from where coffee ships sailed for Europe, the Moka is the actual tool you use to do a coffee at home. Yemen was the first place where coffee was cultivated outside of Ethiopia starting from about the 6th century.

As for the coffee, my suggestion here is to go for something Italian, and something expensive. Possibly the top of the range in this field are moka made by Bialetti (in the USA you can find it at Bloomingdales or online), the brand known for the logo of the little man with mustaches (l'Omino in Italian).

Try to stay basic when choosing a moka, avoid the ones with hyper-technological features. You need a simple moka to make espresso coffees. Period.

Size does matter

In the above photo, the Bialetti moka is for 3/4 cups of espresso (depending on how long do want your espresso to be, and how much water you'll use (we'll see this later on). In the following images a moka for 1/2 cups.

Making the espresso: the process

Now the difficult part made easy. I'm assuming your moka is an ealthy state and you know how to open it, and close it again.

Fill the tank with the water

First thing to do is fill the little tank, the bottom part of the moka, with water. Forget bottled water, please, and use tap water. Just to be sure, I'll repeat this: use tap water. The level you have to reach should be just above the security valve (you should be able to see it from the inside of the tank). The level, by the way, could vary depending on the moka level so some try could be needed before reaching perfection.

Fill the funnel shaped filter with coffee

Now you have to add the coffee, this goes into the funnel shaped filter (into the flat holed part). Remember to first put the filter into the tank base. You'll probably use a coffee spoon for this purpose. Fill the spoon with coffee with no fear, you'll need to fill the filter until the coffee levels with with the top border.(see following images.)

When leveling the coffee in the filter it's ok to press the coffee a bit, do not press it hard making a compact thing. The coffee should be pressed smoothly so water could flow with ease.

Burn, baby burn!

It's now time to close the moka (again I'm assuming you know how to) and put it on a fire. The level of the flame should be a bit less than half its power. During its time, ideally the lid should be kept closed. This is an absolute for when the coffee will start to spill (or prepare yourself for some cleaning). You can open the lid to check what's going on, when the coffee will start to spill will probably hear a gentle blow and the water bubbling. When this bubbling will end, kill the fire.

The final touch

If you really want to be a perfectionist, before serving the coffee stir it a bit, while still in the moka, with a spoon. You are doing this because the first coffee spilled is stronger than the latest, and stirring it equalize its blend.

Now you are ready to serve it, I'm using a glass cup here for clarity. If you are looking for a coffee cup the Italian way, in the following images you can find three types of design. The one in the middle is the smaller one but with the thickest walls, the one usually found in traditional bars in Italy. The one in foreground is very similar to the above, it belongs to the Illy art series. The one in the background is from Ikea, taller and with a more contemporary re-design. Fill your cup for 3/4. Drink it black, or with 1 or 2 spoons of sugar. If you want to add some milk (or cream), the quantity should be aprox the same amount of 2 coffee spoons (take as a reference the cream dose you find in hotels).