Cold Espresso with moka pot

Question

I bought a moka pot few moths ago and I've enjoyed brewing "espresso" with it. I wonder if it would be possible to make cool my espresso so I can drink it the next day. It would be handy if I could just brew espresso and take it the next morning and drink it at school so that I don't need to do the brewing in hurry before school.

I've seen some tutorials or guides, but they don't seem to utilize moka pot. Instead they brew the coffee just by throwing coffee to water and put it to freezer for 12 or 24h.

I've tried simply putting a shot of espresso to freezer and it tasted horrible the next day. I sealed the shot glass with plastic wrap...

So my question is if there is a way to make cold espresso that would taste good after cooling it down.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The moka pot is by design unsuitable for a cold brew. In a moka pot, the water in the lower compartment is brought to a boil and the resulting steam pushes the hot water through the grounds in the middle basket into the upper part of the pot. So no steam, no pressure, no "espresso".

A cold brew works by playing with another factor of the main parameters of chemical coffee extraction (concentration/surface area, temperature, duration), namely the significantly extended extraction time. But changing the parameters will also alter the ratio of the compounds in your final brew, also known as flavour profile. Cold extractions are famous for their lighter, more floral nuances - which in an espresso roast will be overpowered by the darker roast, hence lighter roasts are typically preferred for cold brews. Also, the grind for espresso/moka is a lot finer than for cold brew.

The conclusion:

• If you want to try cold brew, find a suitable roast, grind it accordingly and follow a "recipe", at least in the beginning, until you gain some experience. You can also search this site for Q/As tagged "cold-brew".
• If the moka taste in a cold version is what you are after, you could simply prepare a serving, store it in a suitable container (think mini jam jar or similar) until the next morning. Decide whether the flavour, which will change somewhat overnight, is to your liking. And our taste buds react differently to hot or cold food.- But apparently you ran that experiment already.
• If both versions are not really "your thing", you can save at least a bit of time by preparing the moka pot before you go to bed. Then, see if you can alter your morning routine so that you are using the n minutes it takes for the moka to sputter for some other task.

Answer 2

Chilled moka tends to work well only if sweetened slightly (even if you don't normally sweeten yout coffee). A trick that came from my grandmother (along with my moka pot) is to make a pot and chill it, to serve with ice cream (like an affogato but all cold). This is delicious on a summer day but not what you're looking for. However, the chilled coffee didn't taste great on its own.

Of course, chilling it then reheating in the morning would be a good way to make bad coffee. It is possible to make americano with cooled espresso (or strong moka) but only if you like your americano lacking in strength and/or temperature.

What I would do, for drinking hot, is brew it in the morning and transfer to a small flask. Small flasks don't hold the heat very well so preheating the flask is a good idea (and the flask should be full). For drinking cold, try adding a pinch of sugar. It will still be a different drink, but hopefully one you enjoy.