So, a little while back I posted about my frustrations with trying to make a consistently good cup of coffee with my French press pot. I've come to the conclusion that the process may just be too finicky for me to be able to manage reliably before my first cup of coffee in the morning. You see the problem here.

So, I went looking for a technological solution to the problem: i.e. a new type of coffee maker. It's not clear to me that the problem really needs a technological solution: Daniel's father makes Damn Good Coffee by chucking grounds into a plastic filter cone lined with a paper filter and pouring boiling water through. But then again, he's had years of practice and qualifies as some kind of kung fu master of coffee.

We went to Peet's Coffee & Tea on Saturday, and in addition to stocking up on tea (Masala Chai and Gunpowder Green, mmmm), I picked up one of those stovetop espresso pots (sometimes also called a moka pot, or a machinetta). It's a rather elegant looking aluminum thing, with a lower chamber for water, a top chamber where the brewed coffee collects, and a filter funnel thing in the middle where the coffee grounds go. It was fairly cheap, at least as coffee brewing equipment goes, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I had Peet's grind me a half pound of Sumatra for the thing. (Turns out it uses a coarse grind, just like a French press pot.)

I've brewed coffee twice with it so far, and the initial verdict is: I like it. It produces a really nice strong thick cup of coffee (roughly espresso consistency) that is not bitter and that can stand up to having milk added to it. And it's pretty idiot proof in operation - fill bottom chamber with water, fill filter with coffee, set on stove over medium heat. Coffee's done when the pot starts to gurgle. No worrying about water temperature or steeping time.

It's not quite the perfect cup. There's an elusive quality to the very best cups of coffee I've had that I haven't managed to reproduce with the machinetta - some kind of balance of the earthy, acidic, bitter and sweet notes in the flavor. Tinkering with the beans a bit might help with that - I should try it with an espresso roast or a mocha java.

And besides, I love the way it gurgles when the coffee's ready. Happy gurgling machinetta.