Caring For The Kontessa Espresso Pot

How To Maintain And Clean The Kontessa Espresso Pot.

The Kontessa espresso pot is a fabulous accessory – useful in that it makes coffee, but also beautiful to look at. It should be under glass in a museum, but in your case, the Kontessa espresso pot is on your kitchen counter. The least you can do is treat it like the classic coffee brewer it is.

One way to keep your Kontessa espresso pot looking new all the time is to provide it with the proper maintenance. Make sure you wash all of its parts with hot soapy water after each use. Make sure to clean the gaskets, too, on a regular basis. That way, the gaskets could last as long as a year. Use a dull knife, or small screwdriver, to take out the gasket. Anytime you see that your gasket is dried or cracked, it’s time to replace it. You can also tell that you need a replacement gasket when some steam escapes from in between the top and bottom pieces of your machine. You can order replacement gaskets right from Kontessa.

You can get the overpressure plug on your Kontessa espresso pot to last for years to come if you take proper care of it. Never press down hard on the coffee grounds when tamping them. Instead, smooth the coffee, lightly knocking the funnel downwards to help even out the grounds. This plug is a safety mechanism to open the way for steam to escape when you over tamp coffee grounds.

You should always keep the heat under your expresso pot on the low setting. Place it directly under the pot, which will help you from getting bluish discoloration on your Kontessa. Especially with smaller Kontessa models, keep the handle away from the heat source, no matter if the machine isn’t perfectly centered on the heat. You can even try a diffuser. It will limit heat exposure.

One thing with coffee pots, is that they often become stained or discolored due to the nature of coffee. You may not be able to avoid all discoloration on the inside and on the outside of your Kontessa espresso pot. This is normal and unavoidable. Repetitive heating and minerals in your water supply will do that to it. Your goal is to limit it as much as possible, as well as get rid of the heat spots as soon as they appear. You can clean some with silver polish.