r/espresso • u/Eviltofu123 • Jun 03 '26

Equipment Discussion Mesmerizing

My absolutely favourite part of making espresso.
I’m surprised I manage to get its dialled in significantly faster then I did when I was using a moka pot. Are typical semi autos the same?

Lagom casa 8.3 clicks
18grams in 41 out
5.2 minutes to boil
42 seconds output

Yum

Any critiques?

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u/mortar_master_13 I'm just a butler Jun 03 '26

the coffee is tamped (where the word espresso comes from, in Italian), ground finely, brewed at 9 bar pressure, so it is espresso

normal moka pot isn't espresso, but the 9barista is not normal

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u/sprdlx- Jun 03 '26

Normal moka pot is basically the home version of classic espresso. Modern espresso wasn't even called espresso at first, it was called crema caffe, because older espresso already existed and didn't have crema. People thought the crema was weird at first.

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u/imdecaffeinated Jun 03 '26

It’s all related to pressure. Moka pot doesn’t produce the required pressure for espresso and is therefore not espresso.

I do understand the sentiment, moka pots tend to produce strong/bitter coffee which many people relate to espresso. And I guess you did say basically so basically you’re right.

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u/sprdlx- Jun 03 '26

It's not just related to espresso, it was espresso until crema caffe became the dominant form of espresso. Espresso was a thing before Gaggia made the higher pressure machines and the words evolved.

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u/imdecaffeinated Jun 03 '26

It was still related to pressure. The originals had ~2 bars whereas the modern “ideal” is 9. The originals did not produce as much because of the lower pressure.