History of Espresso and Cappuccino
Espresso:
1800s - Coffee is a huge business in Europe with caffes flourishing
1884 - Angelo Moriondo (Turin,Italy) is granted the first patent for new steam machinery for economic and instantaneous confection of coffee created for Turin General Expo. 1901 - Luigi Bezzerra makes several improvements to Moriondo’s machine. 1st time coffee is brewed to order in seconds, however, produces inconsistent shots. 1903 - Desiderio Pavoni buys Bezzera’s patent and improves many aspects of the design: pressure release valve, etc. 1906 - Bezzerra and Pavoni work together to perfect their machine, calling it “Ideale” and introducing to the world “Caffe Espresso” at the 1906 Milan Fair. This espresso machine appears throughout Italy and evolves into the elaborate guilted contraption that looks like a hood ornament. These early machines produce up to 1000 cups of coffee per hour, relying on steam, which has the side effect of a burnt or bitter taste with max of 2 bars of atmospheric pressure. 1910 - Pier Teresio Arduino builds a marketing machine around espresso calling it “La Victoria Arduino” and commissions famous Italian graphic designer Leonetto Cappiello to create La “Victoria Arduino” per Caffé Espresso, the poster he designed for Italy’s espresso coffee machine manufacturer Victoria Arduino in 1922.Promoting the company’s classic “La Victoria Arduino” machine, the poster features a man in a bright yellow coat, leaning from the door of a bright green train to fill bright red cups with caffé espresso from the Victoria Arduino. 1922 - Pier starts exporting espresso machines throughout Europe. 1927 - Giuseppe and Bruno Bambi of Florence, Italy build their first espresso machine called La Marzocco after Donatello’s famous sculpture of a seated lion with a shield bearing symbol of Florence. 1939 - La Marzocco secures the patent on the first horizontal espresso machine. Patent expired after WWII. 1947 - Achille Gaggia invents “Classica” a lever driven machine using water pressure (not steam) which increases the water pressure from 1.5-2 bars to 8-10 bars, standardizing the size of espresso and discovery of foam floating over coffee liquid called “crema”. 1961- Ernesto Valente invents the Faema E62 which uses motorized pumps to produce 9 bars for brewing espresso which increases consistency. E61 introduces a heat exchanger to heat water used for brewing coffee. It is an immediate success and included in the pantheon of most influential coffee machines in history. 1970s - La Marzocco introduces first machine with two independent boilers. One for steam and one for brewing coffee. La Marzocco GS introduces continuous brewing system with a higher degree of temperature and stability. 1978 - US entrepreneur, Kent Bakke imports La Marzocco machines to the US and distributes. 1983 - A young man named Howard Schultz (Director of Marketing at Starbucks Roasting Co.) on a trip to Milan is inspired by Italy’s caffe culture. Schultz starts Il Giornale to bring Italian cafe culture to the US. He uses La Marzocco GS. 1987 - Shultz buys Starbucks, rebrands Il Giornale as Starbucks and begins to focus on retail expansion. 1990 - US is hooked on espresso. Starbucks is growing. La Marzocco introduces Linea suited for the US market and for Starbucks. It has a dedicated and enormous steam boiler and accommodates 12-16 oz cups. 2000 - World Barista Championship is founded. 2005 - La Marzocco introduces the most temperature stable (within 0.5 degrees) machine in the market called GB5. 2008 - La Marzocco introduces the GS3, the gold standard machine for a barista at home. |
Cappuccino
1600s - Milk is added to coffee throughout Europe
1700s - “Kapuziner” appears in Viennese coffee houses. Made of coffee with whipped cream,spices and sugar. Outside of Vienna, Kapuziner is referred to as “Viennese Coffee” or “Caffe Viennois”. 1930-40s - Cappuccino appears for the first time in writing in Northern Italy. It is made “Viennese” style with a whipped cream and sprinkled with cinaman or chocolate. Cappuccino comes from the Italian word, Cappucio = “hood”, “ino” ending makes it “diminutive” which means “little hood”. Story is someone calls the drink a “cappucino” because the color of the foam mixed with the coffee resembles pale brown color of the Capuchin monk’s hood. 1950s - With the widespread availability of espresso machines, people start making cappuccino with espresso instead of standard coffee. |