By Rachel Hergett EBS COLUMNIST
Last year, in an effort to improve my coffee game, I spent a solid week researching types of coffee makers and the result improved much more than my morning brew.
My personal preference in this area leans toward European-style coffees. I want that almost syrupy texture created when an exceptional brew manages to integrate the maximum amount of coffee solids and oils. I like my coffee thick.
With this in mind, I considered my options. I really did not want to add another appliance to my already cluttered kitchen, so was mainly focused on pour-over or stovetop methods.
Maybe I needed more coffee, rather than a different brewing style. Should I find a larger French press, going for greater quantity with my familiar system? No, it was more than that. Pour-over methods didn’t quite create the syrup I was after.
People seemed to have a love-hate relationship with percolators, which can be used on a stove and force water up through the center straw where it essentially rains over the coffee grounds using the gravity. The brewed coffee then mixes with the water below and the process repeats until the coffee is the desired strength.
I eventually landed on a moka pot, which promised stovetop ease and syrupy coffee with the added bonus of a classic aesthetic. Designed by Alfonso Bialetti almost 100 years ago, moka pots are slightly different from percolators. They rely on pressure to force water through coffee grounds enclosed in the center of the pot. The brewed coffee is then collected in a separate basin at the top. It’s rich and, yes, quite thick.
I may have also been swayed by the version of Bialetti’s Moka Express that I found in a loud chartreuse—one of my favorite colors. According to an article by Sarah Whitman in the New York Times’ Wirecutter, the angular octagonal design dating to the early 1930s was inspired by art deco architecture and women’s skirts. I recommend her article if you want to know more about the pot and its brewing process. We’re moving on.
Let’s talk about meditation. Now, some of you may already be preparing to tune out. I understand. Many of my university students have the same reaction when the topic arises. Yes, we know the health professionals all say meditation is good for us. Benefits include reduced stress and improved sleep quality, both of which contribute to overall health. “But meditation is hard,” we say. We seem to have an all-or-nothing attitude here, believing that to meditate, we must be seated in a lotus position and be able to clear our minds completely. This is frankly unrealistic.
Meditation, I tell my students, happens anytime we still our minds and focus on that stillness. Many active pursuits naturally create this mindspace. Maybe you find it in the repetitive motions of running or swimming, or maybe you find it on the mountain. Think about the peace of a gentle wind on your face as you glide down the slopes on a bluebird morning. Lean into that peace, take a deep breath, and tell me it’s not meditation.
For me, this is also where coffee comes in. It sounds counterintuitive to talk about slowing down as I am brewing a morning pick-me-up, but this seems to be the true benefit of my moka pot. My morning coffee has become ritual.
Moka pots are not hard to use. They are quite simple, actually, but they do require one key thing: attention. Once all the water from the lower chamber is forced up through the grounds and fills the well up top, the moka pot makes a quiet gurgling sound that tells you it needs to be taken off the heat or the coffee will become bitter.
My moka pot makes me slow down and listen. The gurgle isn’t loud. I’ll miss it if I’m out of the room or if I’m zoned out scrolling on my phone. I’ll miss it if I turn up the music or am rifling through cupboards.
I have learned to use the time the moka pot gives me, to lean into the stillness. Here is a precious 10-ish minutes in the morning for me to sit and gaze at the mountains out the window, or to slowly and quietly putter around the kitchen. Here is 10 minutes without the noise and distraction. And, really, that is meditation.
Rachel Hergett is a foodie and cook from Montana. She is arts editor emeritus at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and has written for publications such as Food Network Magazine and Montana Quarterly. Rachel is also the host of the Magic Monday Show on KGLT-FM and teaches at Montana State University.
