Caffe' Napoletano Coffee Making by Michael Kacmarek

The process of Caffé Napoletano is not very well known and is more old school than the Cafeteria Bialetti you currently use… Why do/would you care? You’re a coffee lover: the Bialetti offers  wonderful “bright  strong” coffee flavor  whereas the Caffé Napoletano make “rich and very round” coffee and it is quite  wonderful. How does a Chicago boy know this? Easy, he falls in love and marries a wonderful Sicilian woman…..

The atttched PDF shows the process of making Caffé Napoletano, who knows, you may be able to show Colin a thing or two! This coffee pot is not well known outside of Italy. It’s Uma Uma (a secret amongt friends) as they say in Italy.

Caffé Napoletano 101

1) Unlike the Bialetti’s fine ground coffee the Caffé Napoletano should have a LARGE GRIND
 (think of the typical size of coffee going into a French press or Mom’s Peculator ….)

2) Your first pot of coffee goes down the drain (along with the awful metallic taste it is purging out
of the coffee pot) successive brews will “season” the coffee pot. If your “brand” of coffee pot is made
of aluminum, one will want to consider doing this “purge” more often if it is stored for a while
(not as important with stainless though).

3) When turning the coffee pot over to start filtering the boiling water, be mindful of water leakage
(insulate the hand turning the coffee). That way your scream will not be loud enough to wake Liz at
4 in the morning.

4) These coffee pots are like instruments, that is, if you want to make good “music” you must learn
 to play them right. Practice….

* Interesting fact
Some Northern Italians like to put a shot of grappa in their Café on cold winter mornings; this is
known as “Café Correcto” or Corrected Coffee. Sounds like a good way to take the “edge off”
off the Monday morning work week……