Bialetti is an Italian coffee brand founded in 1919 by Alfonso Bialetti in Crusinallo, in the Piedmont region of northern Italy. It is best known for the Moka Express, the octagonal stovetop coffee maker launched in 1933 that brought espresso-style coffee into ordinary homes and became one of the most recognised coffee makers in the world.

Origins: A Metalworker in Piedmont

Bialetti's story begins with Alfonso Bialetti, who spent around a decade working in the aluminium industry in France before returning home to Italy. In 1919 he opened his own metal workshop in Crusinallo, a small town in the Piedmont region, making semi-finished aluminium goods.

The idea that would define the company came from an unlikely place. Alfonso watched how local women did their laundry using a sealed tub called a lisciveuse, which heated soapy water and forced it up a central tube to spread over the clothes. He realised the same principle, water pushed upward by steam pressure, could be used to brew coffee. That observation became the Moka Express.

What Made Bialetti Famous: The Moka Express

In 1933, Alfonso Bialetti launched the Moka Express. The name Moka is a nod to the Yemeni port city of Mokha, historically famous as a centre of the coffee trade, while Express signalled the promise of café-style coffee made quickly at home.

The design was distinctive from the start: an octagonal body in cast aluminium, an Art Deco-influenced shape that also happened to be practical, diffusing heat evenly and giving a firm grip. That shape has barely changed in over ninety years, which is a large part of its charm.

It has, however, been reinterpreted. The Moka Express Italia wears the Italian tricolore on the same classic body, while the Bialetti Rainbow puts the familiar octagonal silhouette into a range of colours. The engineering underneath is the 1933 design in each case, which tells you how well Alfonso got it right the first time.

Early production was modest. The Second World War, and the rising cost of coffee and aluminium, kept output small, and for years Alfonso sold his pots largely at local markets around Piedmont. The Moka Express was a good idea waiting for the right moment to reach the world.

The Man with the Moustache

That moment came after the war, when Alfonso's son Renato Bialetti took over the business in 1946. Renato was a marketer as much as a manufacturer, and he turned the Moka Express from a regional product into a national icon through mass production and clever advertising, including a memorable presence on the Italian television slot Carosello.

In 1953 came the finishing touch: l'omino con i baffi, the little man with the moustache, a cartoon caricature of Renato himself created by illustrator Paul Campani. He still appears on Bialetti packaging today, one of the most recognisable mascots in Italian design.

What Bialetti Is Recognised For Today

Bialetti's place in coffee history is secure. Hundreds of millions of Moka pots have been sold, and it is often said that the vast majority of Italian households own at least one. The Moka Express sits in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, a rare honour for a piece of everyday kitchenware.

The brand is recognised above all for one thing: making genuinely good coffee accessible. Before the Moka Express, espresso-style coffee meant a bar and a large machine. Bialetti put a version of it on the home stove, affordably, and did it with a design so right it never needed changing.

Adapting to the Modern Kitchen

The one thing the 1933 design could not anticipate was the induction hob. Cast aluminium does not work on induction, which is why Bialetti developed stainless steel alternatives. The Bialetti Venus is the best known, an induction-ready stainless steel pot that brews the same concentrated coffee. The Moka Induction splits the difference neatly: the classic aluminium octagonal top sits on a stainless steel base, so it keeps the original look while working on any stovetop, induction included.

The other quiet advantage of a Bialetti is that it is built to be kept rather than replaced. The gasket and filter plate are wear parts, and a fresh gasket and filter kit is inexpensive and fits in a couple of minutes, so a tired seal never means a new pot.

The Bialetti Range at Buna

We stock the Bialetti range at Buna, from the classic aluminium pots through to the induction-ready models and the spare parts that keep them going. A few of the most popular are below, and you can see the full Bialetti collection alongside our wider stove top and moka pot range.

Frequently Asked Questions