The point about the newer Bialettis being cheaper is absolutely true. My mother has an old (>10 years) Moka that feels heavy and sturdy. A couple of years ago, after accidentally leaving it on the stove for too long, the bottom chamber and the filter basket got a permanent burnt coffee taste, and we bought a new one to replace it. That one was lighter and came with a significant thinner filter basket, which I also attributed to either being counterfeit or just they shipping cheaper versions of the product to Brazil.<p>Then, a couple of months ago, I was on vacation in Italy and decided to get a brand new one as a gift, directly from an official Bialetti store. To my surprise, the Mokas in the store felt exactly like the lower-quality one we had bought in Brazil. I didn't even buy the gift.
Such a cool idea, and attractive images. However I’m kind of disappointed they mostly picked things that are fairly simple, transparent or openable, and look exactly the way you’d expect them to inside. I assume some combination of cost & size drove this.<p>A vintage espresso machine with 1 group head would be more novel, for example.
Interesting images and a very well put together page.<p>But a little off topic, I was struck by this:<p>> With the powerful 1200 W heating element<p>A typical European kettle is at least 1800 W, comfortably less than the power deliverable from a 10 A, 230 V circuit. A typical UK kettle would be more like 3000 W, such as this one (it seems that all the kettles on that website are 3 kW):<p><a href="https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9363195?clickPR=plp:1:72" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9363195?clickPR=plp:1:72</a>
CT is the wrong imaging tech for Moka pots at least - they're much cooler looking if you're doing neutron imaging and can see the water:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VESMU7JfVHU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VESMU7JfVHU</a>
I got a kick out of this passage:<p>> At times, Fourth Wave innovations verge into the realm of obsession, making you wonder how much real difference all of this precision makes to a cup of coffee. At the end (or beginning) of the day, coffee is a ritual. More than mere caffeine delivery, these technologies enable a multi-faceted sensory experience. Exploring the complexity of its flavors and aromas has transformed coffee from an article of consumption into an open-ended object of scientific and aesthetic experimentation.
Incredible scans!<p>> Removing used coffee immediately after brewing and storing the AeroPress with the seal pushed all the way through the chamber (as shown) can help minimize wear by reducing compression to extend the gasket’s life.<p>But, that's not what's shown. Pushing the gasket all the way through isn't possible unless the filter head is removed.
> <i>"With the powerful 1200 W heating element (the thin coil wire), the kettle reaches optimal temperature very quickly — in under three minutes."</i><p>Europeans (and other countries with ~230V household sockets) would consider this quite poor performance for a kettle. 3000 W kettles are not uncommon here in the UK!
Related, but not as fancily presented, the startup I’m at just scanned a coffee bean in our micro-CT that we developed. It’s especially good for low-Z (like carbon and silicon) based samples in contrast to normal X-Rays that see right through it (think x-ray images of a broken arm where the tissue is invisible).<p><a href="https://exciscope.com/applications/food-and-packaging/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://exciscope.com/applications/food-and-packaging/</a>
Just reading the headline I was like "why X-ray them? Couldn't they just take them apart to see what's inside". But clicking on the article made me go "Oh, I get it now. This is damn interesting and very informative."<p>Well done!
Slight sidenote, but today I've reading about Dual-energy CT tech in airports [1], which will finally force airports to unban liquids above 100ml.<p>Some call the 2006 liquid explosive terror plot a failure, but it's been one of the most effective ever IMO. The economic and environmental effects [2] of the ban have been massive, likely resulting in thousands of lives lost.<p>[1] ECAC EDS C3<p>[2] At London's Heathrow Airport alone, approximately 2.2 tons of liquids, aerosols, and gels were confiscated every day in 2017.
A few days ago I accidentally put wife's beloved Bialetti Brikka pot in the dishwasher. The aluminium lost its anodized coating due to chemical reaction with the detergent (alkaline I think), and the pot turned dull/dark gray. Scrubbing the surface left some gray mark on fingers, which got me wonder if aluminium is actually safe for making coffee? Bialetti also sells stainless steel pots, and I wonder if they're safer to use.
For how much love went into the imaging and description of everything, the actual coffee knowledge is maddening.<p>You want your water in your Aeropress to be as close to boiling as possible if using lightly roasted beans (which I'd wager is most of Aeropress usage)! None of that 80-85 degree celsius nonsense.<p>Similarly, their description of ceramic burrs is bizarre. Ceramic burrs are not considered "better" than stainless steel ones! If you look into high-end grinders sold for hundreds and thousands of dollars (both commercial and "enthusiast" ones), they will all have stainless steel burrs!<p>And don't get me started on their description of conical vs flat burrs...
This has to be a marketing exercise by the CT machine maker, right?<p>"We spotted casting issues with the new pot"
"We can see the density difference in the plastic"
"We found aluminum shavings"<p>For the right audience, this would definitely sell one of those big fancy CT machines.<p>Not that I'm complaining -- visuals, presentation, content is all thoroughly interesting, speaking as someone with an Aeropress, a Moka. Pretty awesome piece.
Very cool as always! If I may be pedantic about the lede:<p>> The history of coffee provides a rich index of global economic and cultural exchange going back thousands of years.<p>The history of coffee is less than 600 years old.
> Compared to flat burrs, conical burrs also create a more uniform particle size distribution, reducing the potential for clogs and jams<p>Well this is just...not true. Porlex musta sold them pretty hard on Conicals.
> There’s also a hidden game in the Stagg EKG and Corvo EKG kettles. If you remove your kettle from the base and toggle the F/C switch back and forth, you’ll unlock a snake-like game called Wormy that you can play using the dial.<p>Funny, how I’m finding out about that from a CT scan of my kettle :)
They picked boring things to look at unfortunately. Not a lot going on in Moka pot that you can't grok just by looking at and taking it apart. Throwing a whole all-in-one countertop machine might be cooler.
I'd be interested in seeing a show of hands - who else generally dislikes webpages like this that use the scroll wheel to manipulate the zoom, rotation, or displayed content of an object (like a CAT scan or 3D phone model) or otherwise makes scroll behave unusually (e.g. the Opera GX website has a point where scrolling down makes a list of cards move sideways instead of actually scrolling down)?<p>To be clear, I like the content displayed here; it's just that the way they chose to move between views of the CAT scan are a little annoying to me.
Are there any advantages to the aluminium version of a moka pot aside from tradition/aesthetics?<p>I switched to one of the (Bialetti-made) stainless steel ones ("Venus" shape) because at one point I lived somewhere with an induction hob. I immaculately saw that the stainless version was considerably easier to clean. Cleaning, afterall, is half the job of using one of these.<p>Visually, I prefer the aluminium shape of course, but they are a real nightmare to keep clean and presumably you're drinking a lot of that aluminium oxide.
Okay pretty cool but I have to give my two cents for the text.
A patina does not enhance flavour, that's basically rancid left-over coffee.<p>Also the plunger in the aeropress isn't pushed through and STILL compressed in the picture (as shown here). To push it all the way through the cap has to be loosened.<p>The scans are fascinating though :D
>There’s also a hidden game in the Stagg EKG and Corvo EKG kettles. If you remove your kettle from the base and toggle the F/C switch back and forth, you’ll unlock a snake-like game called Wormy that you can play using the dial.<p>It was fun to walk over to the kitchen and discover something new from a two-year-old appliance!
Is anyone here worried about pouring hot water into Aeropress plastic? I know it's polypropylene, which is BPA-Free but could there be things that we haven't properly researched yet?
It drives me crazy how V60 and Chemex are regarded as “modern” when the Chemex is from the 40s and the V60 is a knock-off of the Melitta 102 conical filter system, which was invented in 1936!
The website is beautiful expect that stupid cookie popup. Has anyone ever got any fines for not putting up cookie popup in their website?<p>Also, if you are into this, you might like the book:<p>Cut in Half: The Hidden World Inside Everyday Objects
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cut-Half-Hidden-Everyday-Objects/dp/1452168628" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.amazon.com/Cut-Half-Hidden-Everyday-Objects/dp/1...</a>
I thought X-rays do not pass through metal? Like it shows up opaque in clinical images. Suprised that they got a scan of the moka pot. Truly amazing stuff.
Nice images. It's probably too much effort, but for the grinder it would have been interesting to compare the now rather old Porlex grinder with the much heavier steel burr grinders you'd get recommended today. Those are very noticeably heavier and more massive compared to the Porlex, could be interesting to compare.