The History of Espresso Coffee and Espresso Machines
The History of Espresso
If you are an avid coffee drinker then chances are that you probably know all about the varieties, types, flavors, and prices of various coffees that you drink on a regular basis. However, if you're not that familiar with espresso then you may be in for a surprise. Espresso is quite different from coffee products because there is a very different method of making the liquid. Here are some interesting facts about the history of espresso, though, that you may not have known previously.
The Development of Espresso
Did you know that espresso was actually developed more than ten centuries after the coffee beverage became popular? In fact, regular coffee and coffee beans weren't found until about the 9th Century. On the flip side, espresso was actually developed from the beginnings of coffee, but it wasn't until the early 20th century that people began producing a beverage that is known today as espresso! Indeed, espresso was developed in Milan, Italy around the early 20th Century and the drink was actually made by hand even though it was very time consuming to do so.
This resulted in a machine being made specifically for the creation of espresso beverages. In fact, workers in cafes and coffee shops throughout Italy who dealt with using espresso machines to make espresso were regularly known as "baristas," and becoming a barista was actually a job often given to young people, just as a job at McDonald's or another fast food restaurant might be considered a starting point for young people in America to work.
The Switch to Machines
As mentioned, espresso was originally made by hand. However, there are a couple things that lead up to the beverage being made in a machine. First, the spring piston lever was designed to emit pressure on a certain something, and this machine was used to make espresso since espresso was made through the use of pressure and hot water. Although before the machines typically made espressos beginning in the 1940s, steam pressure was mainly the culprit and the method that people in Italy used to make espresso by hand!
Needless to say, however, coffee beverages that didn't include espresso were popular long before espresso was being made. Just as there are all sorts of different flavors that coffee can be made with, though, there are also many different flavors that can be added to the espresso beverage. For example, some cultures usually add a bit of cinnamon to the espresso mixture and cinnamon is actually the most widely used spice for espresso as a whole. On the other hand, some of the other spices and herbs that are used with espresso include peppermint, mint extract, vanilla, and a brown sugar mixture just to name a few.
It's undisputable, though, that the finding of espresso totally transformed the popularity and consumption of coffee beverages worldwide! Granted, many people are thankful for this change, but the fact of the matter is that espresso and coffee are considered two different drinks altogether although one was derived from the other!
The History of the Espresso Machine
Even though it may seem like espresso has always been made from a machine chances are that some people think that way just because they know of no other way in which espresso is made. However, long before there were espresso machines to do our work for us, inhabitants of southern Europe and Milan, Italy, began making espresso as soon as they found out how! It wasn't until the mid 1940's that people and coffee shops all over began using espresso machines to make the beverage, at least in the United States that is.
On the other hand, espresso machines were popular in European countries quite awhile before the popularity of these machines came to the United States. You may be surprised to find out that the first espresso machine in Europe become known some 100 years before they were actually introduced in America. As the story goes, though, a man named Louis Bernard Babaut invented an espresso machine in the first half of the 19th Century. He also had a partner named Santais, but he was mainly responsible for the advertising of the espresso machine itself. But what kind of an espresso machine needs advertised? It would seem like if there was an easier way to make espresso in the early 1800s then people would have naturally flocked to the idea.
Nevertheless, Babaut's espresso machine was introduced to the world in the beginning of the 19th Century, but as many people could have guessed, the machine was not a perfect machine as no electronic device ever is! However, this is not to say that Babaut didn't have success with making espresso. Even though the purpose of the espresso machine, however, was to make espresso in an easier way, the machine still had to be handled by someone who knew what they were doing. On the whole, though, Babaut was successful and it could spit out espresso beverages just as quick as they could be consumed. Many people say that his first espresso machine could handle at least one thousand shots of espresso an hour, which is an impressive rate for the first espresso machine built!
Further down the road, though, another espresso machine made it into production and this time Luigi Bezzera was responsible for making it. He called the invention the "Voila" espresso coffee machine and even though he didn't get the popularity of the espresso machine off the ground himself, he found a man named Pavoni to do the marketing for him!
If you're interested in the automatic espresso machine, though, this concept was later introduced in the first half of the 1900s. An individual known as Illeta actually used compressed air to make the whole espresso-making process faster, which it was able to accomplish successfully!
There you have it: everything you have ever wanted to know about how espresso machines came into production! They are very popular in the United States and all over the world today, but we must remember that they were introduced by several other avid espresso drinkers just like us!
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