bonVIVOMoka Pot - Intenca, 300ml, Stainless Steel Espresso Maker w/Silver Chrome Finish - Stove Top Italian Coffee Maker - 6 Cup Coffee Pot - Gifts for Men and Women

After 18 months I'm giving this pot an extra half star, purely because I've learned how to use it to make a really good cup of coffee. Still not as kosher an espresso as the best (and most expensive) machines can deliver, but as good as any mocha pot IMO. And never a failure (in contrast wo Bialettis and inferior copies).It does take some weeks of use for the faint taste of metal to completely go away, and from that point you have the potential to make flavoursome coffee. The method? It's a labour of love, but worth it.- Choose your beans from a selection of the highest quality you can afford. This is the single most important factor in making your perfect coffee every time.- Grind the beans fresh every time, using as good a grinder as you can afford (I use a Eureka Mignon).- First grind at medium until you've got a thin cover of grounds at the bottom of the filter, then top up with a fine, but not finest, grind size your grinder will do (on the Mignon size 1 works well, though I finish with a short burst at 3 because otherwise the burrs can clog up).- Don't fill right up to the max, leave a slight gap.- Heat the water on a medium hob, keep an eye on it, and turn the heat down a notch or two as soon as you hear or see liquid arriving in the upper chamber, so the liquid is produced slowly to extract maximum flavour from the grounds.- Remove the pot from the heat as soon as you hear full-on bubbling - prolonged heat will generate steam which overheats the grounds and produce a sour and cloudy brew.- Give the pot half a minute to settle before pouring.Happy days.Original review May 18:Took a bit of a punt on this moka pot, but quite pleased.The practical design and quality finish redeem the quirky looks (which I get, though my wife does not).While the base is bombproof heavy-guage stainless steel, the upper chamber and lid feel flimsy in comparison. Though no dents incurred yet, and the low C of G makes for easy handling.Does the Inteca make good coffee? Yes, depending on your yardstick.In its favour, this pot makes a consistent brew and never fails to deliver (some similar pots have off-days).Just don't expect a true Espresso. For that, fresh-grinding good quality beans in a good quality grinder is a minimum requirement - even so, with the Inteca the flavour of the brew doesn't go deep enough and there's no crema on top. Not to worry, that's par for a moka pot, and it's a good deal closer than any cafetiere can manage.For this type of coffee maker the benchmark has to be Bialetti, who patented the first moka-pot design in 1933. In my experience the aluminium Bialetti is capable of delivering a better brew than the Inteca or any other stainless steel pot including Bialetti's own. Perhaps it's down to the metal, or rather the Al2O3 coating inside the Bialetti, perhaps to the chamber/ filter design, but the original Bialetti somehow extracts more flavour from the bean and yelds a more satisfying drink.The Inteca though can be used on an induction hob, and for me that was the clincher.

Looks great. Easy to use and clean.Good quality.

I am a lover of extremely fine espresso coffee. So the 1st and most important thing about using this coffee pot is to ensure that you use a very low flame and give it time to do its work if you turn it up to rush it you will not get the flavour that you will expect to get, but those of you out there who like fine coffee will know that already.Design (taken into account as I've said in the title, I am pedantic when it comes to design)Almost perfect (I will get to the one component that sadly lets the design down at the end as a lot of people probably wouldn't even notice it) the feel and quality of it the weight it demonstrates quality stainless steel. The handle has a delicate yet commanding reassurance that it's not going to move in your hand. I deliberately chose the colour black as it's a colour I particularly like I must admit I did think about it for a while because the picture gave it an all over silky look and I wondered if that was going to be too much for my taste but a pleasant surprise happened when I got it, because of the conical base that leads up into the straight pot chamber spout (That does not drip or run back as you pour your coffee) the handle as the light reflects on it you have what looks like the conical section being almost a silk black paint gently blends into the straight pot chamber spout and handle you get the look of a soft and subtle change into a matt black finish with a soft silk black lid which really looks very Refined.But sadly herein lies the one component that spoils the espresso pot and that's the lid hinge it sadly throws the lid out of line with everything else which so much time and effort has gone into really perfecting the look, You have the heavy beautiful conical base that holds the water to start with that they have gone to a lot of trouble lining the main chamber so that when it screws down it's perfect all the way round, it has an absolutely lovely symmetrical finish. Then you have the handle and its position on where it emerges straight out from the espresso pot almost exactly centrally lining with the top and the bottom of the spout section, the handle then Takes a firm 90 degree turn downwards with a subtle outer curve to the turn and an even more subtle In a curve and if you follow the curve of the handle further down it's almost an opposing curve to wear this pout curves out and finishes at the joint between the conical base and the straight coffee chamber.So going back to the hinge we have all of this really nicely worked lines and then it says if somebody suddenly forgot we need a hinge for the lid let's just whack it here and it throws the lid completely out of sync I photographed it from the front I'm from both sides both sides you've got a nice tiny it's only a few millimetre’s but it's a lip over the edge but then when you look at it from the side the back of the lead is directly at the start of the main chamber and the front hangs over twice the distance.Some people may say look it's just an espresso pot why does this matter well it matters because they've gone to the effort of using such beautiful quality materials they've lined everything helps up really nicely they've thought about how this bout and the handle looks with balance to each other the way they threaded the conical chamber at the bottom to the main espresso pot and how well that lines up but then a lid who's just been thrown on top I know it's not a piece of art but if you're going to go to that much effort then the hinge would have been a very easy and simple to have fixed it that extra couple of millimetre’s back To give the pot that final finish and personally the little lip that allows you to flick the lid up I would have praised that around the top or I would have built it into the lead rather than just placing it on top.But as I said it the beginning I am rather pedantic about quality and engineering and in my belief if you going to go as far as they have with the design of this espresso pot why not finish it with the last tiny little piece of detail I think it said that they didn't put that final piece of detail.

We've been using this to make espresso for about 3 weeks. It's easy to control the strength by adjusting the amount of coffee added - it's worth experimenting with your preferred bean. The 6 cups capacity would be for short espressos. The way we use it, It provides generous servings for two with a second helping for one. The top needs tightly screwing to the base after carefully making sure there are no coffee grounds in the thread that would break the seal, otherwise it lets off steam in all directions – which is also appealingly dramatic to watch if you prefer. The steel handle stays cool. The only small downer is the lid hinge feels a little loose. It's a quality piece of equipment at a fair price. We reverted to a stove top espresso maker after trying a self contained machine with milk steamer that looked more barista-friendly but which proved disappointing in flavour and soon developed a fault and was sent back.