A great Moka pot and a great way to make coffee. The Italians love it for a reason...
Positive Product Points
Wonderful workmanship, classy design, and all parts are stainless steel - no aluminum.
Negative Product Points
Care must be excercised when tightening the unit together as it will tend to get a little crooked. If it is not straight, the gasket will not seal properly and all you will get is a few dribbles of horribly burnt smelling coffee and a lot of steam.
Detailed Commentary
Having recently had my first Moka pot coffee, I was intrigued by the process, and had to have one of my own. I came across this one for a great price, so I picked it up. For a single person coffee household, it's the perfect size (my wonderful wife merely tolerates my coffee - she hates it). Test brews with water showed it to work just fine, but with coffee, the brew took much longer and all that issued forth was a lot of steam and a few splatters of nasty smelling coffee. I adjusted the grinder (Solis 166) up way coarse and got a decent, if thin, cup. Chris Schaefer came over one evening with his fleet of Moka pots and we did some back to back brews. That is when I saw the steam and water leaking from the gasket area. Once I took a bit of extra care to make sure the bottom was screwed on tight and straight, I was able to get a great cup out of it, and now grind about 3 clicks higher on the Solis from what Silvia uses.
I primarily use Tom's Monkey Blend, but have used just about everything I can throw at it with great results. Guat and Mexican coffees really come alive, and even Donkey Decaf. is good - better in the moka than in the Silvia. I'll have to try some Moka Kadir in it. I don't find any sense of overheating or over extraction due to the process, which pleasantly surprises me. It isn't much like espresso from the Silvia (didn't expect it, either), but I can get a bit of crema on the coffee and it's just a wonderfully smooth, strong cup, kind of a cross between vac pot and espresso.
