Bialetti Moka Pot

Agave syrup is virtually pure fructose. As a sugar alternative it's ... not that great. The insulin response is fairly low, true, but the high fructose content carries its own risks. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/agave-nectar-is-even-wo... > Stevia would be a non-sugar-based sweetener, though it does have a distinctly different taste. I'd learned to drink coffee with milk/cream, no sugar. With decent beans (Trader Joe's Bay Blend, e.g., nothing fancy) and a Moka pot that's more than sufficient.

Technically interesting and possibly useful at an industrial scale, but I think I'll stick to my moka pot/french press setups. Both are good enough and easy enough for me.

Moka pot is more finnicky by far, but it also tastes way better than pour over (including Chemex) to me. I know all the tips to make good pour over. It even beats a crappy ($200-300 range) espresso machine, or at least the one I had. It's only when you get into the many hundreds of dollar range that espresso machines start to beat the pants off of a moka pot for flavor. But pour over is far more fool proof. A bad pour over tastes much better than a bad moke pot brew, plus it's easier to not mess up in the first place.

"It depends". Someone who prefers a slightly bitter coffee might enjoy slight tamping that slows the rate the water passes through the grounds and creates bitterness. But your point is accurate: everyone has a slightly different way. I'd argue irrespective of the exact variation, the Moka Pot outperforms most other mechanisms for making coffee (other than cafe espresso machine). Funnily, if you'd asked me at 6-monthly intervals for the ideal way to use a Moka Pot, I'd have given slightly different answers (i.e. each time I would have thought I'd mastered the technique, but by doing little experiments, and sometimes accidentally, I'd found slight improvements over the years).

I just received a Moka Pot for Christmas. After spending a few weeks taking notes and adjusting the grind size and amount I am very happy with it. I found that the 7 setting on my Induction stove leads to very little bitterness. I think that the Moka pot on the induction range to be a nice demo of induction's benefits over gas or electric(resistant) ranges. Extremely accurate and reproducible heating, decently fast, and basically no waste heat. Instant off as well without needing to move the pot.