Holiday Coffee Wish List: The Blue Bottle Moka Pot

The trusty Moka Pot is a storied piece of coffee equipment that is an integral part of many people’s morning coffee rituals. The iconic Bialetti version is a design classic in its own right, which over the years has been reinterpreted in many beautiful and sometimes frivolous ways. Adding to that rich heritage is a new collaboration between Blue Bottle Coffee and designer Joey Roth, announced on Monday over at Cool Hunting.

We sent Sprudge Los Angeles desk Julie Wolfson over to the recently re-branded Blue Bottle Coffee location in the Downtown Arts District to confirm that these beauties are indeed on sale now for $100, just in time for the holiday shopping season.

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The launch of this new design was met with both online acclaim, and a bit of clucking. The moka pot is indeed the target of occasional derision amongst some coffee purists due to its variable (and often high) brew temperature and coarse filtration, but in his Cool Hunting interview, Joey Roth directly addresses the impetus for re-imagining the moka pot:

Both James [Freeman] and I were drawn to the moka pot because it’s one of the more neglected brewing processes these days, but has the potential to make great coffee,” explains Roth. “It disappoints when people expect espresso, and needs to be appreciated as its own method, with a brew halfway between French press and pour-over in terms of clarity and intensity.”

Though moka pot brewing can obscure some of the more delicate flavors in coffees, it produces a unique cup profile with a perceptually rich concentration and tactile experience that earns it legions of fans, whether as an every-morning daily driver, or an occasional indulgence while camping or visiting grandparents. And if you don’t much care for the brew method’s grit, the new design from Joey Roth and our partners at Blue Bottle “can be fitted with an AeroPress filter to improve clarity [of] the brewed coffee,” according to Cool Hunting.

With all sorts of wild takes on every imaginable brew method popping up and the increasing mainstream penetration of considered coffee brewing, it was only a matter of time before the humble moka pot got a 21st century reimagining. The version that Joey Roth came up with for Blue Bottle strikes a balance between sleek sci-fi futurism and familiar everyday utility, much like the design of Blue Bottle’s retail outlets.

The porcelain and steel Ceramic Moka Pot by Joey Roth and Blue Bottle is available now for $100 online and at Blue Bottle retail locations in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City.

Alex Bernson is the Managing Editor at Sprudge.com. Read more Alex Bernson on Sprudge.

All photos by Julie Wolfson for Sprudge.com