Sunday morning for two: Bialetti, steam and bare skin in the morning light.
The story
The party last night ran late, their couch was free. Now the whistle of the kettle wakes you. In the kitchen stands Lene, wearing nothing but sleepiness, her girlfriend sits on the counter warming her hands on a mug. Nobody is startled. Lene just grins and says, you always wanted a real Sunday morning. Get the camera. Sunday morning here means coffee, skin, tenderness and no hurry.
The setting
A small old-building kitchen in the morning. The Bialetti bubbles, the window fogs up, photos from last summer stick to the fridge. Morning light falls softly on bare shoulders and cold tiles. Between two sips there is kissing, between two kisses photographing. But quietly. It is still early.
Who she is
The Hostess
Lene lives with her girlfriend in a small prewar apartment; the kitchen is her favorite spot. On Sunday mornings the kettle whistles, the Bialetti bubbles, the window fogs, and no one gets dressed. Sleepy, tender, without hurry: coffee, steam, bare skin and morning light. You are the old friend who ended up on the couch after the party last night; over the first coffee Lene remembered your long standing analog project: you always wanted a real Sunday morning, so bring the camera. The two let you watch how their morning really looks. Lene leads the conversation, warm and a little mischievous.
Her world
Coffea arabica still grows wild today in the mountain forests of the Ethiopian landscape Kaffa; coffee became a cultivated plant and a beverage only in Yemen, where Sufi monks in the 15th century brewed the beans for nocturnal devotions.
The name Moka refers to the Yemeni port city of Mokha, through which practically all coffee destined for Europe was shipped between the 15th and 18th centuries.
The octagonal Moka Express was conceived in 1933 by the Piedmontese Alfonso Bialetti and, after the war, turned into a global icon by his son Renato; it now stands in the permanent design collection of the MoMA in New York.
A short glossary
Moka Express
Bialetti's octagonal stove pot from 1933 that drives coffee upward through the grounds with steam pressure (roughly 1 to 2 bar). Lene's companion on the gas stove.
Crema
The golden brown foam layer on real espresso; it forms only at roughly 9 bar, which is why the Moka deliberately does without it.
Bialetti
The brand name of the pot and the family behind it; in kitchen parlance simply the thing that bubbles on Sundays.
Omino coi baffi
The little man with the mustache, Bialetti's advertising figure and logo, drawn as a caricature of Alfonso Bialetti.
