Tuesday, August 15, 2023

I'm Cuccu for Cuccuma

A few months ago, I picked up an Imusa Moka pot Expresso 3-cup coffee maker. It wasn't vintage, but it's something I always wanted to try.  I'm actually surprised I didn't write about it.  Anyway, it works great and makes good coffee, although it's a little involved and doesn't make a lot of coffee.

So when I saw this at a recent estate sale, I assumed it was another similar coffee maker.

And I bought it on that assumption.  When I got it home, I discovered the method was a little different.

Rather than the water boiling and rising via pressure into the brewing chamber, this coffee maker is a little more manual.

Googling it, I found the actual name is a "cuccuma" and it's one of the oldest methods for making coffee, invented in 1819, and predates the Moka pot by decades.

It brews through a simple gravity-drip process.  The unique up/down design of the pots is to allow you to boil the water in one chamber, then invert and allow the water to drip over the grounds in the brew basket, filling the other chamber with coffee. 

The official instructions:


After filling the bottom with water (up to the pressure relief hole), place your coffee in the brew basket (don't compact it) and screw the filter top back on.


Similar to my Moka pot, I have to put a grill over my burners because they are too wide apart to accommodate the coffee pot.


When inverting, a small amount of water will shoot out the pressure-relief valve, so watch out.

The drip process is slow, but isn't terrible. The worst part is it's difficult to tell when it's done.  I saw in a Youtube video where someone simply removed the top pot, leaving the brewing chamber in place, but I have yet to successfully do that and don't want to risk spilling boiling water all over myself.  So I generally just wait about 5 minutes.


And another successful cup of coffee brewed.



Despite it's name, the Neapolitan Coffee Maker's inventor was French.  His love for a Neapolitan girl lead to the naming. Ah, the French, such romantics.  The name "Cuccuma" translates to "copper" and is for the material of which the pot was originally made.  That changed to aluminum by the 1880's.

5 comments:

  1. wow, i've never seen the like, and i thought i had all the various ways of making coffee covered as far as coffee makers go. we love our little Mokka pot. it's perfect for a pick-me-up on a weekend afternoon. i love the style of this one. cool score!

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    1. Thanks. Yeah, the design is "crazy go nuts" as we used to say.

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  2. I would worry that the handles would melt as they look like some kind of plastic. Did they get hot?

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    1. Maybe they are bakelite, and not as susceptible to melting like regular plastics?

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    2. No, the pot is not that old, the handles are made of plain old plastic. Lady M, I was worried about them melting too. I put it on my smallest burner and keep the flame well under the pot. It didn't seem to have any affect on the handles.

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