right on. I can make an excellent cup with good water, fresh ground beans, a light fire, and my pot. definitely not espresso, but terrific in it’s own right.

The coffee machine doesn’t make without a human working it. Ever thought it was you? ‍♂️

Now I bought a “new” Brikka in 2021 and it is a lot worse.
The valve is simply a rubber membrane that is not sold as a replacement part, have fun with that I guess. So much aluminium dust and shavings everywhere, even in the valve, where the consumer should never look I guess. The paint on the bottom is even worse than on my old brikka.
And to top it all off, I am not even sure if that valve rubber is silicone or not (confusion with old Bialetti descriptions since the gravity valve Brikkas all had a clear silicone nozzle to constrict flow against the valve). The new valve rubber is white like the main gasket (which is natural rubber IIRC), so have fun when that gets icky and there are no replacements (it’s a rather complex moulding with a tapered inside ending in a slit which gets compressed by the top part of the valve).

Together with the new Brikka I got a small milk jug to fill with steamed milk from a bigger one…
What can I say? It is marred all over with black marks and even on the bottom inside (probably from forming it), the rest ist perfectly polished stainless steel. The printed logo is faded and not even all there, just terrible.

If you want “an original” you can still try Bialetti, but either buy from somewhere, where you can inspect first or send back easily.

I will get my 45€ back and invest that in a cheap espresso machine (I didn’t want to make 4 cups with my old Bialetti all the time, so this should be worth it).