The company behind the iconic Italian stovetop gadget is in financial difficulties – is that because there are now better ways of making coffee? We put the most popular methods to the test

Italians may find their morning espresso tastes awfully bitter this week, as the Bialetti group – the maker of the iconic stove-top moka coffee pot – struggles to stay afloat. The popularity of pod coffee machines, along with a sluggish Italian economy, has put the mockers on the moka, with Bialetti, a reported €68m (£60m) in debt, negotiating a bailout deal with the American hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management.

Invented in 1933 by Alfonso Bialetti, the affordable aluminium Moka Express was meant to mimic espresso-quality coffee at home. Water boils in a bottom chamber and is forced up through the grounds to produce an intense hit of caffeine. The pot was once so popular that, according to a 2016 New York Times article, 90% of Italian households had one. Were they on to something? Or is there a tastier, more practical and sustainable way to make coffee at home?

Moka pots

Yes, they’re cheap (John Lewis is selling Bialettis for £20), but the coffee is often hugely bitter and over-extracted rocket fuel. Priming the chamber with coffee that is ground to the right size is fiendishly difficult and coffee should not be boiled. For maximum character, brew at 90C-96C (194F-205F).

Takes practice: 5/10

Bean-to-cup machines

Good ones can set you back £2,000 (look for at least 15 bars of pressure; De’Longhi’s PrimaDonna Deluxe is impressive at about £800), but, indisputably, domestic bean-to-cup machines offer the closest in quality – freshly ground beans, correct serving temperatures, convincingly textured milk – to the coffee at your local hipster-barista hangout.

A prohibitively expensive 8/10

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gritty … a cafetière. Photograph: Getty Images/EyeEm

Pod machines

There is nothing suavely George Clooney-like about scalding yourself while removing the pods in a rush. The hunt for a quality capsule and idiot-proof machine (Nescafé’s Dolce Gusto pods or Magimix’s Nespresso range) can be a sisyphean task, and all that plastic and aluminium waste is indefensible. But the coffee? Pretty impressive.

An ecologically unsound 7/10

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Filter … the best home option? Photograph: Getty Images/Westend61

Cafetières

In theory, this should be a sustainable and superior option to the moka. In reality, it is impossible – blame steeping it too long, your juddering plunge action, a misjudged grind-size or the way the filter bends at its edges – to produce cafetière coffee that isn’t flat in flavour, full of bitter grounds or both.

A gritty 4/10

Instant coffee

Much derided but super-quick and cost-effective. The rise of upmarket instants such as Nescafé’s Azera Americano (they include 5% to 10% of ground coffee alongside the usual freeze-dried soluble granules) mean there are now instants out there that have some body and depth.

An improving 3/10

Pour-over filter coffee

Accept that espresso coffee is best left to the professionals. At home, pour-over filter hits that sweet-spot in terms of cost, quality and (if you use unbleached filters and compost them) sustainability. Keep a stash of single-origin beans in the freezer, hand-grind them for each cup and, using a Hario V60 “funnel” or similar, you can quickly master coffee of real character. Connoisseur’s cup: 9/10