We can safely say that the moka has revolutionized the world of coffee at home. Before the invention of this device, coffee was prepared at home by boiling the powder in a saucepan and then filtering everything with a cloth strainer.
We are in 1933 in the village of Crusinallo (Verbania) when the foundry worker Alfonso Bialetti creates the first moka coffee maker in his small factory of semi-finished aluminum products. Bialetti's objective was to create a method for preparing a coffee as similar as possible to espresso directly at home without the need for professional machines.
The inventor stated that the inspiration to create the moka came from observing his wife doing laundry with a washing machine called Lisciveuse. This machine was equipped with a boiler, inside which were placed: water, detergent and dirty clothes, and a tube with a perforated upper end. The water was heated and, once it reached the required temperature, it went up the pipe to then cool and go back down. This whole process was necessary to dissolve the detergent and allow perfect washing of the clothes.
Speaking of design and operation, the moka is made up of four elementsaluminum elements: a lower boiler, a funnel filter, an upper boiler and a coffee spout. Added to these parts is a replaceable internal circular gasket and a Bakelite handle to make use more comfortable.
Over the years the moka has had extraordinary success all over the world, just think that over 300 million examples and many different models and varieties have been produced. This product has become so iconic that it is part of the permanent collections of the Triennale Design Museum in Milan and the MoMA in New York.
The Bialetti brand has become synonymous with the moka coffee maker, its logo with the mustachioed man has become popular everywhere. The consolidation and diffusion of the brand was also made possible thanks to the huge advertising investments in the Carosello TV program and the communication focused on the image of the little man with the moustache.
We can find the Moka coffee maker all over the world, Bialetti brand or not, often marketed under other names. In Spain for example it is known as "Napolitana", "Cafetera de rosca" or "Cafetera de fuego", while in Brazil and Portugal it is known as "Cafeteira italiana", in other countries it is called directly "Bialetti".
The name Moka was chosen to recall the oriental atmosphere of the city of Mokha in Yemen, one of the places where coffee began to be marketed in the past and still continues to be an area renowned for the production of high quality arabica coffee.
From 1933 to today, the moka has become a symbol of Italian culture and design, so much so that it is an indispensable element in all homes in the Bel Paese. It is an icon of practicality, tradition as well as being a ritual of sociality, sharing and conviviality.