ImusaUSA Aluminum Stovetop 6-cup Espresso Maker (B120-43V), Silver

I don’t ever write reviews on Amazon, but I felt there was a special need here for this. Like many people, I was skeptical about this because it is so absurdly cheap (I got the 3 cup one for less than $6) and because I often find Amazon reviews to be unreliable, especially when it comes to coffee products. Usually the people reviewing them are older people who are more comfortable with a cup of Maxwell house than of Verve or Stumptown.I decided to buy it anyways because it was just a few bucks. This thing is absolutely incredible. I use a French press normally and I used to swear by it, refusing to drink drip coffee or pour over. Ever since this came, it’s all I can drink. It’s super easy to make coffee with as it basically forces you to measure out a perfectly proportional mix of water and grounds, it’s self contained and compact especially compared to a French press which requires the auxiliary component of a kettle to boil the water, and it actually creates foamy, rich, delicious, extremely intense coffee that I would say tastes BETTER than espresso from a machine, and it only costs $6!I am sure that there are higher quality Moka pots that produce richer microfoams and have more pressure and better valves and gauges, but I honestly think this thing gets the job done 1000x better than you would ever expect for $5. If you’re new to moka pots and espresso and want an affordable, easy, delicious way to make espresso (it can also be used to make americanos by diluting the coffee with hot water, obviously), then this is so unbelievably worth $6 that I can’t even explain it to you. Pair this with a cheap $4 milk frothing wand you can get on Amazon and you’ll have better cappuccinos and lattes and whatever than you’d get at any coffee shop.I use this with medium-dark roast beans from Verve Coffee, and I’ve also used a few other roasts including French roast which was delicious to me but I’m sure it would be wildly too bitter and intense for a lot of people. Look for a medium-dark roast I’d say, or even some lighter dark roasts. But probably traditional “Italian” and “French” roasts wouldn’t be the place to start unless you know that’s your thing.

First off, this design has literally been around for a century and as such, there are few moving parts, very little complexity, and it doesn't require electricity. This makes it super easy to clean. Second, it is small. Unlike the one I remember my Grandmother using back in the day, this makes 3 cups of espresso, and espresso cups are small. I included a picture for scale.I used to have a regular drip coffee maker, then a smaller version of an espresso/cappuccino like you'd see in a fancy coffee shop, and then settled on a Keurig. That spanned about 30 years of my coffee making history. The Keurig is starting to have scaling problems despite every method I had tried to descale it, and before I bought another to replace it, I thought of getting something like Grandma had. I was skeptical that I was retiring a $100 appliance with a $6 one that could use regular coffee grounds.It's super simple. Unscrew the bottom and fill with water up to (but not covering) the safety valve. Place the funnel that holds the grounds in it and add 2-3 tsp of ground coffee. Screw the top on and put it on the stove. (I set it a little off-center so the handle doesn't get hot on my gas stove.) On medium heat it takes about 4 minutes for it to start brewing, and 30 seconds later you can hear it gurgling, which means it's done. If I'm in an espresso mood, I pour some into a little glass and metal cup. If I want Americano style coffee, I dump the entire contents into a coffee mug and add hot tap water to dilute it down to regular strong coffee.It's cheap to buy, cheap to operate, easy to clean, and easy to use. I no longer leave a Keurig plugged in all day on the chance that I may want a cup of coffee. I don't have to buy wasteful k-cups. I load this with water and grounds, put it under the fire, set the timer for 4 minutes, and go back to what I was doing. When the timer goes off I come back into the kitchen, watch for it to start brewing, and then turn it off a half minute later. Once it starts it brews quickly as the water only passes through the grounds once, unlike perked coffee.If you like a good cup of coffee at home, I suggest giving this a try!16 months later, it's still going strong. It doesn't look as pretty anymore - a combination of daily use for over a year, as well as someone putting it in the dishwasher when I wasn't looking. But it still works great. If I want to speed it up, I let the sink hot water run until it gets piping hot and use that to fill it. With that step I can get the cook time to just under 3 minutes. If you work form home and often just want to make a single cup of espresso or coffee, this is a great way to do it.