It looks like a chemical laboratory installation element, James Bond makes his coffee in it and Illinois Institute of Technology (USA) considered it as „one of the best designed modern times items”. What is it? It's a Chemex coffee maker!

Glass jug with top widening neck and wooden handle fastened with a leather strap - a very simple, yet so charming and timeless device, that New York city's Musem of Modern Art presents it at the permanent exhibition. Chemex was designed in 1941 by dr Peter Schlumbohm and is produced in a small Chicopee city in state of Massachusetts by Chemex Corporation till this day.

Chemex is a pour-over style coffeemaker - it doesn't use pressure (like Bialetti percolator and AeroPress do). It's so called „drip”, which means a method where water flows through grinded coffee placed in the filter and liquify into the container. Using the appropriately grinded coffee and good paper filter, make the water „collect” only the best properties of the coffee and under the influence of gravity flows down to the container from where it can be poured into cups.

How to use a Chemex coffee maker?

1. Put the paper filter into the top side of Chemex. Boil water and pour it through the filter. This will get rid of papery taste and heat the jug, so the coffee won't cool down by touching with cold glass. Repeal the filter a bit and pour the water out.
2. Grind your coffee! Of course you can use pre-grinded coffee, but I always recommend investing into your own coffee grinder. Using fresh grinded coffee gives the coffee at least +50% quality and taste. Grinding for Chemex shouldn't be either too fine (like for pressure coffee maker) or too coarse (e.g. for French Press). After a few tries, you will find the ideal grinding level.
3. Put the coffee into the filter and pour with water (it shouldn't be scalding, so wait half a minute after the boiling). Pour the water so it barely covers grinded coffee. Wait a moment and slowly add more water. This can take a while, you shouldn'y hurry. 
4. At the end take the filter out and pour the coffee into cups/glasses/mugs. All done!
5. How much coffee? How much water? It's always hard for me to answer these questions. Everyone has their own taste. Coffee from Chemex is quite delicate, so someone who likes stronger „black” coffee should use more coffee and less water.  I think that in the case of coffee/water proportions, everyone should experiment and find what they like best.

Produced since 1970s, Chemex has become an icon in modern books and movies. Ian Fleming, the author of James Bond novels, in his book called „From Russia, with Love” describes agent 007 making a coffee with the use of Chemex. Chemex is also used by Rosemary from Roman Polański's movie „Rosemary's Baby”, Don Draper from popular tv series „Mad Men” and I also noticed that it was used in last years blockbuster „Interstellar” and I can see it everyday in my kitchen and I sincerely recommend you to buy one!

Turkish coffee, a coffee prepared with a specific method, which I describe below, known for over 500 years. It's not that popular and is a bit harder and more time consuming than making a regular coffee, but has an intense and original taste.

Before we get to making Turkish coffee, let's go back in time. First notes describing Turkish coffee come from 15th century from Yemen (by the way, coffee travelling to Yemen was sent through harbor named Mokka, coming from the name of coffee). Over the next few hundred years, coffee spread across the whole Ottoman Empire: Cairo, Mecca, Damascus nad Constantinople. First cafes started to appear and the black drink gained many admirers. The name „Turkish coffee” isn't popular in Turkey, Turks usually refer to it as „coffee”. If you ever visit Turkey, then ordering coffee will most likely result in getting this coffee.

And how is this coffee made? First of all, it's a boiled coffee. Most of you probably use coffee machines. Some of you maybe use alternative brewing methods, e.g. dripper or AeroPress (you can read more about it here). You boil it in a small pot - called cezve. It has to be very finely ground, even more finely than for espresso machine. The beans must be ground to a very fine powder. Most of house grinders can't grind them that finely, that's why it's better to ask a shop or coffee roastery to do it for you.

Cezve should be half filled with water, then you pot coffee in - traditionally 1 spoon for 1 cup. The drink will be strong and aromatic. You can also add (depends on personal preferences) sugar, some spices, like cinnamon or cardamon. Next you have to mix everything together (this is the only moment, that you can mix it, you shouldn't mix it later) and put cezve on small heat. Turkish coffee should be heated slowly, until you can see foam forming on it's surface. Stopping the heating too early results in lack of the foam, which is important for the taste. Heating it for too long results in the foam falling down and the coffee being too bitter.

Turks treat coffee like English treat tea (it's a steretypical comparsion, but it only shows how seriously they treat coffee). They drink coffee when they meet with friends, on buisness meetings and during social rituals. Not that long ago, a fresh married wife could let her in-law parents know, what she thinks of their arranged marriage by making a coffee in a certain way. If the coffee was sweet - she was very pleased, if it was bitter - she was discouraged. Serving a coffee with salt meant insult and objection. French diplomat from the end of 18th and beginning of 19th century, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand said that coffee should be: "black as the devil, hot as hell and swee as love".

Over 220 millions machines sold. Industrial design icon, presented in museums of modern art and design all over the world. One of the symbols of Italy. Bialetti percolator is a device produced for over 80 years. It allows to quickly and easily make a good coffee. 

Invented in 1933 in Italy. Inventor Luigi de Ponti patented percolators project, working for Alfonso Bialetti, industrialist producing kitchen equipment. At first sales were slow. Up to 1940 only 70 000 percolators were sold, but future years sales were constantly growing and elevated Bialetti comapny to the position of kitchen accessories producing leader. The most important factor that contributed to this success was the owners son - Renato, who in 1946 took control of the company.

He decided to reduce the amount of accessories that the company offered (Bialetti produced pots, pans, cutlery and any other kitchen equipment), he also initiated a large scale marketing company, including the still new television spots. „l'omino con i baffi", which means „short  man with mustache" became a symbol of the company. It's a caricature of Alfonso Bialetti, who keeps his hand rised with a gesture of extended finger, that translates „one espresso, please!". Soon after a highly advanced Omegna factory has been built, it was capable of satisfying the rapidly increasing demand. At the beginning of 21st century, the total sale of Moka Express percolators was estimated at over 220 millions copies.

Bialetti percolator is very easy to understand. It consists of three main elements: bottom water container, filter and top container, into which coffee is liquified. The water poured into bottom container should be hot (or at least very warm), thanks to that coffee won't be gradually heated, which is not good for it, but instead will immediately start brewing. Ground coffee is being put into the filter, that is then placed on the bottom container.

The coffee shouldn't be whipped or pressed - you can just level its surface and be sure that it's not on the edge, that is later pressed against the top container gasket. The last element is the top container. It's being tighten to two other elements of the percolator, after that you can put it on the burner. If you use hot water, as I do, the brewing will start very quickly and the coffee will liquify in the top container. 

What to look out for?

- amount of water: the safety valve located in the bottom container sets the maximum limit. It should never be poured with water!

- amount of coffee and its grinding level: the amount of coffee is up to you. I usually fill the whole filter, equally with the sieves edge. I don't press it, but gently level its surface. The important part is the grinding level: it can't be too finely grinded as it will clog the sieve. On the other side, too coarsely grinded coffee won't brew in the right way and will result in a very low quality coffee. The coffee should be grinded more coarsely than for pressure coffee machine, but more finely than for an AeroPress. If you have a grinder, you will find the right grinding level after a few tries

- turning of the burner: after the coffee starts to liquify in the top part of the percolator, the burner should be either turned of or the fire should be significantly reduced.

- induction hob - if you have it at home, the standard Moka Express won't work with it. You should choose a model, that is designed for induction hobs.

What will be the result?

Capacity of different Bialetti percolator models is determined by amount of espresso, e.g. 6 espresso. Basic espresso is 25 ml (I already wrote about it here), which means that the mentioned model can brew around 125 ml of coffee. Personally, I don't think that Bialetti is a good choice for making espresso, but it's great for making big black coffee. The brewing method conditions what coffee beans you should use to a certain extent. It's better if you use dark (Italian) roasted coffee as it will result in a classic, strong black coffee. The coffee I usually use for my Moka Express Brazilian Santos. It's a good arabica, which if dark roasted and brewed in a percolator, gives a slightly bitter, strong, nutty-chocolate notes. It's worth to mention that this kind of coffee also composes with milk very well, so if you don't consider yourself a grand conservative person and don't think that milk for coffee should only be heated with steam from the nozzle up to 68°C, then you can freely experiment with coffee from Moka Express.