Espresso, 1900’s - today

We all love it so much, it’s part of so many peoples everyday routine. Whether you drink espresso, latte, mocha, flatty’s, pic’s, cap’s or many more, there is a good chance you are consuming espresso as the foundation.

How many of us actually know a bit about it’s history? This post isn’t about skills or techniques, it’s just a background and history into that drink that we all love so much.

The La Pavoni Ideale

The first patent for a concept of a coffee machine was registered around 1901 by a Milanese inventor named Luigi Bezzara (it is worth noting there is one earlier model around 1884 by Angelo Moriondo, however this machine did not have porter filters and groups so I have left this out as the first machine). Then in 1905 Desidero Pacino purchased the patent and started producing the first ever commercial espresso machine. This machine was named the La Pavoni Ideale.

Machines still had a long, long way to come before they would be anything like what we have come to know and love today. The early machines brewed at only around 1.5 bar of pressure, with group head temps around 140c and the espresso shots extracted from the machine were around 45 seconds long. Anyone that has spent much time around a coffee machine could imagine, these shots were much thinner in body and with less strength than today’s espresso. These coffee’s would have resembled today’s filter coffee’s, I imagine like something you would create with an AeroPress (although it would not have been as delicate, sweet or smooth as what we know as filter coffee today, with group head temps of 140c this would have tasted burnt and bitter)

Installation instructions for the La Pavoni Ideale.

Fast forward to the late 40’s, 1947 to be precise to when the great Archille Gaggia developed the Gaggia hand-pumped machine, changing coffee forever. These hand-pumped machines were capable of dispelling higher pressure throughout the extraction. Allowing more oils and colloids to be extracted from the coffee bed. These extractions at around 9 bar of pressure created the first crema to be seen on coffee. Now this crema was a phenomenon that no one had seen before or expected. The decision by Gaggia to market this as a favourable part of coffee, something to be desired, has to this day been engrained in espresso culture. Gaggia marketed these coffees as “crema cafe naturale” cream coffee natural, or natural coffee cream.

Archille Gaggia - Standing with one of the first hand pump espresso machines.

Move forward one year to 1948 and Archille Gaggia has sold his invention to Ernesto Valente, head of Faema (A brand many of you may still be very familiar with today).

Valente endeavoured to re-design this machine, attempting to produce it cheaper, opening up access to everyone not just high end establishments. In 1961 the birth of the modern coffee machine that we know today happened, the Faema E61. This was the first ever semi automatic machine, having a horizontal boiler allowing for the barista and customer to interact, kickstarting the social, buzzing neighbourhood coffee bars that have shaped so many cafes to this day.

The Faema E61

By the 1970’s migration from Italy to other nations around the world like Australia and America has seen the globalisation of the drink we love so much. Espresso machines were starting to dominate these areas and before we knew it, it was the basis to the majority of coffee beverages.

By the 2000’s espresso based coffee, and it’s culture has skyrocketed around the world. Specialty coffee shops have started popping up in all areas of the world. Baristas, roasters and growers experimenting with all areas of coffee. Different processing methods, roast profiles and many many different recipes and techniques have come out in these times. Espresso has become refined, systematic and quality focused in majority of the world. Interestingly enough the one place this still hasn’t become so common is Italy. They have stayed traditional, true to their roots if you will. Some say this has preserved their culture and traditions with espresso. This is definitely true, in my opinion it may have also limited the quality of the espresso they drink, but ask anyone that has spent time there, the atmosphere, vibe, passion and traditions is what makes it oh so special for Italy.

I am very lucky to live in Australia, with an Italian & Finnish background (by the way Finland is actually the highest coffee consuming country in the world per capita). So as you can imagine I’m coffee crazy, I’m blessed to live in a country that values quality and innovation within coffee and have some connection to the traditions of the old world coffee too.

So what is next for espresso? Personally I hope to see us push our experimenting with espresso further, strive for development with equipment and grinders to help aid in extraction, educate each other to build knowledge and most of all focus on small scale roasting with increased transparency in coffee buying. Hopefully with more awareness about the coffee we buy, we will see people move towards sustainable buyers and away from the large scale roasters, which in my opinion are hurting the future of coffee.

Wherever this special method of brewing coffee moves in the future, it’s safe to say it is ingrained in our past and will continue to be a special part of a lot of our days well into the future.

I hope this post has taught you something new about espresso and conveyed just how special this drink is and how far it’s come.

To finish here is a few random facts about espresso that are just cool to know (who knows, you may be able to use these as conversation starters at your next coffee catch up with friends).

• The term Espresso was derived from esprimere meaning to express or to press out. Meaning to express or press coffee out using pressure (originally steam pressure).

• The term Barista came about around 1938. Prior to this the word barman appeared to have been used, this was changed as barman seemed too American. (This was around the time of Mussolini)

• The term pulling a shot refers to the lever espresso machines, where you literally pulled a shot.

• Espresso coffee, like many things was born out of necessity. Originally the concept was invented because people were looking for faster ways to make a coffee. (Some history suggest this is another reason the term espresso was coined, express as in fast).

• As of 2015, espresso is not only a global drink, but also a galactic one, with espresso being made on the international space station with an experimental machine for the astronauts.