No matter if you are making your coffee in a Breville home machine or a multiboiler three group commercial machine, the principle of how that espresso coffee is made is the same. You are pushing hot water, under pressure, through a bed of coffee held in a filter basket.
Where does the name espresso come from?
Espresso is the Italian word for “expressed”. The idea being that the coffee is forced or “pressed” out with water. There is an alternative school of thought that espresso is named because it is “expressly” for you and fast!
How was espresso coffee invented?
The answer is by a gradual improvement of a process begun in 1884. This was when the first patent for a steam-based coffee machine was granted to Angelo Moriondo in Turin, Italy. Interestingly, this coincides with the spread of trains throughout Europe.
Why did espresso come about?
Speed and money. The need to make more coffee and fast.
To brew coffee with a paper filter or a percolator takes several minutes, while to make an espresso takes around thirty seconds. Customers wanting coffee at busy new train stations couldn't wait, or they might miss their train. Busy restaurants at train stations realised that the faster they could make coffee, the more they could sell.
It also became clear that the finer you could grind coffee, the more coffee you could make from a given amount. Coffee is expensive, but brewing coffee with a fine grind made the process even longer, and the coffee often became bitter.
Steam for your coffee and for your train
The earliest espresso machines used steam to force hot water through the coffee. It was literally the golden age of steam! In 1901, Luigi Bezzera added groups to the original design, and Desiderio Pavoni commercialised the resulting machine.
The espresso revolution was off and running.
One great leap for coffee
Then in 1947 Achille Gaggia introduced a spring and piston system using a lever to produce much higher pressures on our coffee bed. Allowing coffee to be ground finer and producing the signature “crema” or coffee cream, the brown layer of emulsified oils on top of the espresso coffee. This produced a smoother and stronger coffee.
Coffee and cafe culture really took off in Italy from this point. Standing at the bar, drinking an espresso became part of Italian life.
Along comes the E61
Lever and piston machines were great but hard work for the barista and required a lot of barista skill to make a good coffee.
In 1961, the Faema coffee company introduced a turning point in coffee machine design, the E61. It used an electronic pump to deliver a consistent pressure to the coffee, and it had a “heat exchange” system to maintain an even water temperature. It also saw the introduction of the E61 group head, which many commercial and high-end domestic machines still use today.
More ease and more consistency
In the 70’s and 80’s, we started to see volumetric controls, the modern touch pad that measures out a set amount of water to flow through our coffee.
Then along came multiboiler machines, thanks to La Marzocco and even more consistent water temperatures during peak periods.
For all the tech in new coffee machines, they all still use the same espresso principles of pushing hot water through coffee that started back in 1884.
We love our old antique coffee machines here at Fish River. We have two three-group lever machines in reception. A 1956 Gaggia and a 1957 Faema. They are both in working order and make a cracking espresso coffee!
A 1922 Italian poster promoting espresso at the train station.
Our Astoria lever espresso machine from 1956.
Our Faema lever espresso machine from 1957.
