Believe it or not, what catches your eye in every coffee shop, besides the unique decor, is the variety of espresso machines, each showcasing the distinct character of the shop!
Although the machines come in all shapes and sizes, their operation is very uniform—just a few simple steps are enough to bring us a rich, thick cup of coffee with plenty of crema! So, have you ever wondered while using one: who invented it?
Who invented the espresso machine?
Before the birth of the espresso machine, people had always used moka pots, pots, and various drip tools to extract coffee, but without exception, all of these required a long wait!
Someone always grows tired of waiting, and one such person was Mr. Angelo Moriondo of Italy. So he began to devote himself to research, proposed the concept of a coffee machine, and in 1884, at the World's Fair held in Italy, he unveiled the body of the coffee machine!
This machine had two boilers, a main one and a secondary one. The main boiler produced hot water, and the secondary boiler produced steam. When someone needed to extract coffee, the steam from the secondary boiler would carry the hot water from the main boiler through the coffee grounds, and the extraction was complete! Although this machine was not yet an espresso machine, its appearance held epoch-making significance in the world's coffee culture!
Mr. Angelo invented this first-generation coffee machine, but he only applied for a patent for a "steam device for rapidly making coffee by steam operation" and did not put it into commercial production! You should know, this was the fastest coffee-making device of its time!
Time came to 1901, when a Milanese mechanic improved the original coffee machine, making it better suited for use by the general public! He then applied for a patent for a coffee machine that could be used commercially. Four years after the application, in 1905, Desiderio Cuo of La Pavoni bought the patent, improved it, and added a brewing head. With that, the world's first espresso machine was born!
Because the earlier original coffee machine only made black coffee, not espresso. So the original machine can only be called the world's first coffee machine, while this one is the world's first espresso machine!
The coffee machines commonly seen on the market today are all square and boxy, but La Pavoni's first-generation espresso machine did not look like that at all—it... actually looked a bit like a fire hydrant... This coffee machine had a 140°C high-temperature brewing head and 1.5 bar of extraction pressure, allowing coffee to be extracted within 45 seconds!
But if you talk about the taste of the coffee, it would inevitably be inferior to today's coffee—after all, besides the technology being relatively backward, the beans back then were not as refined as they are now, so there is no basis for comparison! But its appearance caused the word "espresso" to be included in the Italian dictionary in the early twentieth century, defined as "coffee made by forcing steam or water through ground coffee using a pressurized machine or filter!"
And the reason the coffee machines we use now can reach 9 bar is thanks to a Milanese barista in 1947! (So baristas back then were even more hardcore—not only did they have to make coffee, they also had to make coffee machines!) He invented the piston manual lever coffee machine, which made it possible to extract more coffee flavor with greater pressure, and at the same time, to obtain a greater amount of golden crema!
This patent was likewise acquired by someone, and the one who acquired it was Faema. They used this technology to release the "Faema E61" in 1961, and it successfully won worldwide fame! Because this coffee machine used a pump to raise the pressure to 9 bar, and its water temperature and extraction were all very stable in every aspect! So once it was released, it caused a phenomenal sensation and became famous overnight. Moreover, many modern semi-automatic coffee machines are researched and upgraded based on it! So it would not be an exaggeration to call it the father of the semi-automatic coffee machine!
Gradually, the coffee machine market became more and more abundant, and all kinds of novel coffee machines with various advantages dazzled consumers' eyes. Small household machines even appeared, allowing friends to enjoy a cup of rich, aromatic espresso at home. At this point, Front Street turns around and makes itself a cup, to quiet its long-craving mouth~
- END -
Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)
No. 10, Bao'an Qian Street, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
