Stove top is one of the most underrated coffee brew methods, particularly in a nation full of espresso lovers like Aotearoa. Don’t get me wrong – stove top coffee is not espresso coffee – but it does give some espresso-ish vibes so you can make a stove top version of all your café faves.
My old memory of stove top was a beaten up Bialetti in the back of the cupboard, complete with coffee build up caking the top’s inside, and resulting in a gnarly and bitter cup. But I have since fallen in love with this brewer – now that I have a clean one and am paying a little bit more attention to how I use it.
So, what’s so great about it?
Firstly, stove top coffee’s ratio between set up cost and end result is all good. The stove top coffee maker itself is around $100 (depending on the size), and this is all you need to get started. If you’re wanting that creamy café-style milk, you can use an old French Press as a milk frother or you can by a small electric stick frother for about $25 (unless Briscoes is having a sale). If you want to take it to that next level, you could by a coffee grinder – freshly ground is best – for around $100.
- Stove top coffee maker: $100
- Milk frother: $25
- Manual grinder: $100
- Maximum spend: $225
At a maximum of $255 for the set up, this is a lot cheaper than any half decent coffee machine.
Secondly, a stove top coffee maker is a lot easier to use than a coffee machine. A barista needs a lot of training and experience to get good, and those of us making a couple of coffees a day might not quite measure up, often resulting in all the gear and no idea! A stove top is a good introduction to making this style of coffee, where pressure is used to create the brew. You can learn some of the theories before graduating to espresso.
Thirdly, while stove top is not espresso it does have those espresso-ish vibes – a fuller flavour and texture than, say French Press or filter. This means it can cut through any milk or cream you may want to add and allows you to make stove top versions of your café faves – from lattes to iced coffees to espresso martinis.
And lastly, after drinking espresso all week, sometimes I’m after something a little more mellow. If I’m not wandering down to my local café in the weekend, I’ll often do a stove top. Half of which I’ll drink in the early morning, hot with cream, and the other a bit later on in the day, cold over ice (and more cream…).
