COFFEE HISTORY

Coffee is the world's most popular beverage. It is actually a commodity that is at the moment second only to oil. More than 400 billion cups are consumed each year. It is because people around the world love nothing more than to start their day with a steaming cup of coffee. The smell, the taste, the caffeine lift and the shared experience of coffee have became a staple of the modern life culture.

That is why it is good to know about the origin of the drink, its history and its social meaning.

There are several legends referring to the origin of coffee. The most popular of them is the account coming from a monastery in Yemen, according to which one of the monks decided to prepare a drink with some new-found berries in order to stay awake and pray for longer. He was told to do so by a shepherd called Kaldi who noticed that his goats and camels were more energetic also during the night after eating this particular type of berries.

Nowadays Indonesia and South America are the sources of most of world's coffee; however it actually originated in the highlands of Ethiopia and did not reach Europe for another thousand years. It arrived in the 16th century from the Middle East where it was already well established as a drink, with the first coffeehouses opened in Istanbul.

It was the Venetians who were responsible for bringing the strong aroma of coffee into Italy as they relied heavily upon trade with the Muslim east. Around 1580 the coffee made its appearance there together with tobacco.

The person who owns the merit of coffee introduction into Italy is Prospero Alpino, well-known botanist and doctor from Venice who came across a "black beverage which tasted rather like chicory" while visiting the Italian Consul in Egypt. He decided to obtain some bags of coffee and bring them to Italy. After having observed the plant's characteristics, he dedicated a piece called "De plantis aegypty", to the North African plant he discovered.

In 1624 and 1650 large batches were shipped to Venice and it was the Venetians who were the first to appreciate the drink as the first coffee shop was opened in 1640 in St Mark's Square, Venice.

Shortly coffee became a highly appreciated product. New shops were opened throughout the city and in 1763 Venice counted 218 shops, which served as meeting places for general conversation or to discuss business issues.

Venice new custom of coffee drinking was soon followed by many other Italian towns, among them Rome, Turin, Genoa, Milan, Naples and Florence which then became popular and important cultural and meeting places for scholars, writers and politicians.

In Italy, similarly as in other countries, coffee introduction came into conflict with some Church members' beliefs. It reached a point where some fanatical Christians wanted Pope Clemente VII to prohibit the "devil's drink", as they called it, to the believers. However, Pope himself took to the drink and approved it. Thanks to that coffee multiplied its success.

Nowadays the Italians drink coffee using two main brewing systems. They drink two main types of coffee – espresso, made with espresso machines and caffé made with Moka express machine.

ESPRESSO AND MOKA MACHINE HISTORY

Espresso machine

In Italy the history of espresso coffee starts in 1901, when an engineer Luigi Bezzera designed and patented the first model.

Bezzera simply wanted to make coffee faster so he introduced pressure to the coffee brewing process, reducing the brewing time. The resulting new machine turned out to make coffee faster and better that any other machines and that is why it was named "Fast Coffee Machine" - espresso means "fast", or more precisely "quickly made to order" in Italian. It was a column-shaped machine and with its imposing design for many years it set a standard for all the other Italian constructors.

A faster brewing time allowed for the best qualities of the "Italian coffee beans blend" to be achieved, avoiding some of the unfavourable qualities associated with over-extraction. However, there were still some flaws to Bezzera's invention. The steam and boiling water that was forced through the machine gave the coffee a burnt flavour. This changed when in 1938 Cremonesi introduced a piston pump which forced hot water of around 90 degrees through the coffee rather than boiling water and steam.

In 1903, Bezzera sold his patent to Desiderio Pavoni, and in 1905 the Pavoni Company started to produce machines based on Bezzera's design. The "La Pavona" machines became an immediate success throughout all Europe.

The modern day espresso machine dates back to 1947, when Gaggia started manufacturing commercial piston pump machines and introduced their Gaggia Crema Caffe model, the first machine able to consistently force pressurized water (8 BAR or higher) through the coffee. The resulting beverage had a layer of light coloured foam on the top known as "crema." Before that, espresso machines were steam operated and for this reason, more similar to the modern day moka pot.

An important advancement to Gaggia's machine was done in 1961 by M. Faema. The electric pump was introduced to force the water into the coffee instead of hand operated pistol. Faema machine starts the new era of the pump-driven machines as all current espresso machines originate from it.

Moka machine

Moka Express was invented in 1933 by Alfonso Bialetti. It was made of aluminium and was quite similar in shape and design to normal coffee services popular at that time at homes. Bialetti put together modern technology with the Italian tradition and the resulting machine was not only elegant but also a good example of craftsmanship. The Moka machine was simple and compact but able to make coffee similar to espresso made by an espresso machine in a bar. Bialetti's idea was that without requiring any skill people could enjoy an espresso at home just like the one in a bar.

Today the moka pot is well-know and commonly used all around Europe. It became an icon for its design, displayed in modern art museums. Moka machines are all the same but come in different sizes, from one to eighteen 50 ml cups. Italian blends and roasting.