Since it came as a gift basket, I actually didn’t get any instructions. However, researching it online, I found several blogs that said do some practice runs first with stale/old coffee to get it going.

As far as the ten minutes, found a couple places that was the time to aim for with this sized moka pot to get the best tasting results. I could probably shorten it a little and not lose anything, but when I turned the heat up even more, it definitely threw the flavor off for me. Of course, I’m still playing with it, which I think is part of the fun with coffee equipment.

I’ll play around with the water temperatures. I think that’s the only variable that I didn’t play too much with.

I was just debating trying some other coffees to try in the moka. So far, I’ve been sticking to darker roasts that are finely ground. It looks like I have some more work to do in the lab.

Anyway…glad to see you got one of these finally!!!! yay! I need one. One thing I wanted to point out…does your instruction manual tell you to make 3 pots or so and throw the results out? Because my Bialetti Muka Express cappuccino maker DOES. You have to like, “season” it by doing that, kind of you like you have to season cast iron cookware. So yeah, every time you make it gets better, and your cook time will shorten. Ten minutes for espresso??? That’s crazy. You probably don’t have the heat high enough. My cappuccino gets made in like, 2 or 3 minutes. I have gas stove, so it’s easier to get a perfect temp for it. I can’t imagine that the Moka would take that long…I mean, mine has to brew the espresso too…hmm…what does the manual say? Mine actually says that it should only take 2-3 minutes; however, mine only makes enough for 2 people. So if you’re making 4 servings of espresso…it would take about 8 minutes???? Keep playing with it. I swear, it really does get better every time you use it.