The Moka Pot is a staple in coffee making.
Especially for those who love a strong, dark and bold cup of coffee that’s almost like espresso. Although it is not espresso.
It was my personal go-to coffee maker for about a year straight.
But Moka Pots are notorious for becoming dirty and getting kind of nasty after a while.
The fact of the matter is, keeping your coffee equipment clean is pretty important if you want to make great testing coffee consistently, no matter what kind of brewing method we’re talking about.
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The thing is though, keeping your Moka Pot clean is super important because a dirty, grimy Moka Pot can be a disaster waiting to happen.
They have a high pressure environment in the bottom chamber where the water boils, so it’s good to keep the safety valve clean to avoid a messy – or dangerous – explosion.
In this article we’ll look at how to clean a Moka Pot, quickly and easily, to ensure that your coffee experience with this wonderful brewer is a good one.
We don’t want any explosions in your kitchen now, do we?
Let’s get into it!
How To Clean Your Moka Pot
These coffee makers can more easily get calcium buildup and mineral deposits.
If you’ve used one for any amount of time, you’ve probably noticed that.
And it’s not very pretty or fun to take care of.
First off, here’s a routine you can do every time you use your Moka Pot.
After using it, wait until it’s cooled off enough to be safe to touch and handle.
Of course, you should always do this if you’re cleaning it or just moving it. They get so hot that they can be dangerous to the touch right after brewing.
So after it’s cooled off, start by rinsing it thoroughly, including the filter basket and every chamber.
Don’t get lazy with this.
And make sure all the grounds are gone. Also, take a quick look at the little safety valve in the bottom chamber to make sure that’s clean and free from grounds too.
Since these coffee makers are usually made out of aluminum, they can be prone to rust.
Make sure your Moka Pot is dry after you rinse it with water.
Many Moka Pots also have a thin coating inside that keeps the coffee from having a metallic taste, so because of this you shouldn’t put them in the dishwasher or clean them with steel wool or other such abrasive materials.
So, taking just a short time after you use your Moka Pot to rinse it and dry it after each use is a very good start make sure your brewer stays safe and keeps dishing out great tasting coffee.
Diving Deeper… Descaling
This next step is one you don’t need to do every time, thankfully, but is important to do occasionally.
If you do this every couple months, you should be fine.
It takes about three hours, although most of that being to just let the Moka Pot soak, and probably only about five or 10 minutes of active cleaning on your part.
What you’ll need is 1 tablespoon of vinegar and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.
Here’s how to descale:
- Fill the bottom chamber with water
Put enough water in to where the bottom chamber is almost completely full, but leave enough room for the vinegar and lemon juice.
- Add 1 tablespoon of vinegar and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
After you add these, give it a quick stir.
- Let it sit for about three hours
Three hours is the sweet spot. It should be at least two but not longer than four.
- Pour some out
Dump enough of it out to where this mixture is below the safety valve.
- Brew it
Brew the mixture like you’d brew a cup of coffee. This will cleanse all the areas of the Moka Pot.
- Rinse thoroughly
Rinse all the parts of the device very thoroughly, at least a few times. You definitely don’t want any lemon or vinegar flavored coffee.
In Conclusion
Moka Pots just have that tendency to get very dirty, limey and kind of nasty after a while.
It’s probably because there’s so much metal involved.
On the other hand, they make really delicious, rich coffee, so it’s well worth it to keep yours nice and clean.
If you’ve ever had one that’s gotten dirty to the point where there’s white, limescale residue lingering in it (like I have), you know that it’s no fun to have to deal with that.
And trust me, it’s much easier to take care of the problem before it even starts.
Something like this vinegar by Heinz is great for cleaning, although you can of course get vinegar at any grocery store to use for cleaning.
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I hope you found this article and tutorial very helpful, and please let me know in the comments section if you have any questions about it!
Coffee cheers!
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