Bialetti Moka Express

The Bialetti Moka Express has been making stovetop espresso in the same octagonal aluminum body since 1933. Barely changing in 90 years says more about its success than any award could. Alfonso Bialetti designed the original based on the shape of a washing machine lid he saw in a laundromat. Origin story is so perfectly Italian that it almost sounds made up. Pot works by pushing boiling water through coffee grounds using steam pressure. That gurgling sound when the coffee starts rising into the upper chamber becomes a kind of comfort signal over time. The little mustachioed man on the side, drawn by Bialetti's son Renato in the 1950s, is one of the most recognized brand mascots in Europe even though most Americans have never seen it. Three-cup size is the right one for a single person and it produces about 6 ounces of strong, slightly bitter coffee that tastes nothing like what comes out of a Nespresso machine. Aluminum conducts heat unevenly and purists will tell you the newer stainless steel version extracts more consistently. The original has a warmth to it, both literal and visual, that the steel 1 lacks. Bialetti sells about 10 million units a year globally, and the Moka Express is probably the most successful coffee device ever made if you measure by units rather than revenue. Bakelite handle gets hot if you leave it on the burner too long. Flaw has survived 9 decades of production and somehow adds to the character rather than detracting from it. Mine cost $30 at a kitchen store and the packaging was a plain cardboard box with the same typeface they have used since the 1950s. That consistency across generations of product is a design discipline that almost no modern company has the patience to maintain.