In Italy, if we go to a bar and order a coffee, we are automatically served an espresso. This drink, often associated with the concept of Italianness, is the most consumed product in the bars of the Bel Paese.
If we want to give a precise definition we must say that espresso is a drink produced by roasting and grinding coffee beans and the subsequent use of specific extraction machines. The product is obtained through the percolation of hot water under pressure which passes through a layer of ground and pressed coffee.
The history of espresso has its roots in Turin at the end of the nineteenth century thanks to the hotelier Angelo Moriondo who patented it in 1884 calling it "The Brazilian" but, for large-scale diffusion, we had to wait until the beginning of the twentieth century. Mr. Morondo he was the owner of a hotel located opposite the Turin train station; his customers were many and always in a hurry and he needed to serve them in the shortest time possible. From this need, espresso coffee was born (named after the fastest trains of the time), a drink prepared quickly and "expressly" at the moment of the customer's request.
Moriondo was an innovator in the world of coffee: he had built a brilliant machine, capable of radically changing the work of baristas, capable of producing multiple cups at the same time, but he had kept it for his premises without promoting it. What was missing in Moriondo it was an industrial mentality, a large-scale entrepreneurial vision.
For the spread of the espresso machine throughout the peninsula we had to wait until 1901 when the Milanese Luigi Bezzera revised the project in very small parts and presented it to the world. At this moment industrialists, operators in the sector and the press began to take an interest in Moriondo's invention.
In 1902 the patent for the espresso machine became the property of the Milanese Desiderio Pavoni, owner and founder of the company La Pavoni s.p.a. We owe to this company the diffusion of the machine on a large scale and the mass marketing of this innovative product which was baptized with the name "Ideale". The internal functioning was left almost intact, but some changes were made to make it easier to use and place inside bars. The machine consisted of a large vertical cylinder with a brass boiler kept under pressure by a gas burner. The groups, positioned on the side of the boiler, contained the ground coffee. By turning a tap, boiling water and steam from the boiler passed through the coffee with an extraction time of about a minute.
One of the most important figures in the history of espresso is Pier Teresio Arduino, who in 1905 understood the potential of the espresso machine when used in public establishments. Previously, it took at least five minutes to produce a cup of coffee, thanks to this invention the time is drastically reduced, the necessary staff is reduced and thus the costs are also reduced.
Arduino was also the first to dedicate itself to the aesthetic side of the machinery, applying precious inserts which added elegance and prestige to the product.
As the years passed, the success of the espresso machine continued to increase, so that other industrialists invested and dedicated themselves to the aforementioned sector. In 1938, the Milanese barista Achille Gaggia marked the beginning of the modern espresso era by replacing the gas-operated steam boiler with a piston mechanism that pushes the water through the high-temperature coffee powder. Thus the first pressure espresso machine was born.
After Achille Gaggia's invention, many patents began to arise for new professional coffee machines. From this moment on, a significant growth and diffusion of these devices began, which saw the 1940s and 1950s as a golden age where more and more products were created, costs decreased and diffusion among the general public increased.
The drink struggled to spread abroad and was almost unknown until the second half of the 20th century. We must consider that the machine was designed in a century that saw two world wars, moments in which no one had the time, way or strength to dedicate themselves to the pleasures of coffee. We had to wait until after the Second World War for espresso to cross Italian national borders.
From an artisanal and almost amateur concept born in Turin at the end of the nineteenth century, the espresso coffee machine has undergone numerous innovations and changes. It has become the focal center of every coffee shop, the indispensable tool for every barista.