Technivorm Moccamaster

The Moccamaster is the Dutch filter coffee machine that coffee people tend to recommend: a tall, square, brightly coloured brewer designed in 1968 by engineer Gerard-Clement Smit and still made by hand in Amerongen, the Netherlands. It’s built around a copper heating element that brings water to the boil and drips it through the coffee at 92 to 96°C, a design shaped by years of work with the Norwegian Coffee Association. Here’s how it works, how much coffee to use, and how to look after it.

The short version

• 55 g of coffee per litre, medium grind, pre-wetted paper filter.
• Copper element boils the water; it drips through the coffee at 92 to 96°C.
• Designed in 1968, launched in 1969; the classic KBG 741 followed in the 1970s.
• Handmade and tested in Amerongen, with a five-year warranty.
• Descale every 100 brews, and never with citric acid.

How does a Moccamaster work?

Wikipedia describes the classic KBG 741, which has 137 parts:

1. Water from the reservoir drips into a heater in the base.
2. When it reaches boiling point, it bubbles up a tube in the centre of the reservoir.
3. It’s delivered over a cone-shaped coffee basket.
4. The coffee drips into the carafe at 92 to 96°C, considered the ideal range.
5. In premium models, the coffee passes through a destratification tube that delivers it to the bottom of the carafe, so it mixes evenly.

Moccamaster says the copper element, the shape of the brew basket and “everything in between” were designed from research with the Norwegian Coffee Association and the European Coffee Brewing Centre (ECBC), which the association founded in the early 1970s.

How much coffee should I use?

Moccamaster recommends the “industry standard” of two tablespoons of ground coffee per 6 oz of water, or 55 g per litre, roughly 1:18.

That works out at about 28 g of coffee for half a litre of water.

Moccamaster’s other advice:

• Pre-wet the filter to rinse out paper particles and help it stick to the basket.
• Use white, oxygen-whitened paper filters; brown filters can taste of cardboard, and permanent mesh filters can clog with oils and make the basket overflow.
• Use fresh tap, filtered or bottled water, not reverse-osmosis or distilled water, which can damage the boiling element.

How do you clean and descale it?

Moccamaster EU recommends descaling and cleaning every 100 brews, about one pack of filters, using Durgol for descaling and Cleandrip for degreasing. Limescale builds up in the heating element and makes the water reach the coffee more slowly and less hot.

Don’t use citric acid descalers. Moccamaster warns that citric acid reacts with the copper heating element and leaves a lasting bad taste, and that damage from the wrong descaler isn’t covered by the guarantee.

Where does the Moccamaster come from?

When	What happened	Source
1968	Gerard-Clement Smit designs the Moccamaster	Wikipedia, Sprudge
1969	It goes on sale as the Moccamaster 69	Wikipedia, Sprudge
Early 1970s	Exports to Scandinavia begin; it’s still the biggest market	Sprudge
1974	The KBG 741 is developed, reaching the market two years later	Sprudge
1988	Technivorm is a founding member of the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe	Sprudge
2017	The 10-millionth Moccamaster, presented to Smit in September	Wikipedia, Sprudge
2018	Smit dies in January, aged 87; the original returns as the ’68 Jubileum	Sprudge

According to Sprudge’s factory visit, all Moccamasters are still constructed by hand and individually tested in the Netherlands, come with a five-year warranty, and are easy to repair with replacement parts. At the time of Sprudge’s visit, Technivorm had just made more than 500,000 machines in a single year for the first time. Its sticker reads “approved” by the ECBC; several models are also in the SCA Certified Home Brewer programme, Wikipedia notes.

Not everyone is convinced: Wikipedia cites a Consumer Reports review that found the coffee excellent but the brewing process not worth the high price.

General guidance only. Unplug the machine and let it cool before cleaning, and follow the descaler’s instructions.

Moccamaster vs other methods

• Automatic drip: the wider world of filter coffee machines.
• SCA-certified home brewers: machines that pass the SCA’s brewing standard.
• Batch brew: café-scale filter coffee.
• Melitta pour-over: the paper filter that started it all.

Explore every pour-over method in the pour-over chapter.