Espresso
was invented in 1903 by Luigi Bezzera,
the owner of a manufacturing business.
He was not happy because his employees
were taking too long for their coffee
breaks! If only he could shorten the
brewing process used to make traditional
coffee, his employees would take shorter
breaks.
Bezzera
had the idea to introduce pressure
to the coffee brewing process, reducing
the time needed to brew. He called
his new machine the "Fast Coffee
Machine". Espresso means "fast"
in Italian.
Not
only did Bezzera's espresso machine
reduce brewing time from several minutes
to just 20 seconds, it made a better
cup of coffee! A faster brewing time
allows for the best qualities of the
coffee bean to be extracted, avoiding
some of the unfavorable qualities
associated with over-extraction. This
is where our story takes a sad twist,
at least for Bezzera.
Bezzera
may have been a genius at manufacturing,
but he didn't know beans from freeze-dried
about marketing. He patented his espresso
process and started manufacturing
espresso machines, but his marketing
efforts were unsuccessful.
In
1905, penniless and desperate, Bezzera
sold his espresso patent to Desidero
Pavoni. Pavoni paid Bezzera 10,000
lira - that's about $8 at today's
exchange rate.
Now,
Mr. Pavoni is another story.
Pavoni
not only successfully marketed the
espresso machine, his name became
linked with the process. Soon "la
Pavoni-Caffe Espresso" was synonymous
with espresso bar or kiosk.
At
about this time, Achilles Gaggia,
a barkeep who used a Pavoni espresso
machine in his establishment wondered
if a lever and piston for leverage
would produce more pressure in the
brew chamber than he could safely
get with the boiler.
Gaggia
took his idea to the Faema machine
shop where they developed a new espresso
machine with a manual lever. It wasn't
long until all the Pavoni espresso
machines were equipped with a lever.
In
1950 Faema perfected "erogazione",
an irrigation process that uses a
rotary pump and motor to produce pressure
for the espresso machine giving us
the beautiful and efficient la Pavoni
espresso machine that we know today.
Since
1905 there has been a constant expansion
of the coffee market for espresso
based drinks. Here in the United States
we are only just beginning the process
that has been deliciously repeated
throughout the world.
Ninth
Century: First record of
coffee drinking by the Mufti people
of Aden (Legend has it that the ubiquitous
bean made its way to Yemen from Ethiopia
by traveling merchants through trade
routes across the Gulf of Aden)
15th
Century: Extensive planting
of coffee in Yemen
Late
16th Century: Priests petition
Pope Clement VIII to ban the evil
drinking of coffee (he refuses--probably
a closet coffee lover)
17th
Century: First coffee house
opened in London (Trivia--coffeehouses
became known as "penny universities"
because a person could buy a cup of
joe for 1 cent and learn more at the
coffee house than in class! London
Stock Exchange grew from a coffee
house)
1656:
Coffee drinking prohibited & coffeehouses
closed in Turkey by the Grand Vizir
of the Ottoman Empire (penalty for
drinking coffee: a dunk in the Bosphorus
in a leather satchel!)
1669:
Coffee becomes popular in Europe after
Turkish ambassador to France introduces
Louis XIV to the magic brew
1674:
Women's Petition Against Coffee established
in London
1686:
First cafe serving coffee is opened
in Paris (Le Procope--it's still in
business!)
1690:
Coffee introduced in Java (pardon
the pun!)
18th
Century: More coffeehouses
in London than there are today
1714:
Coffee takes root in the Americas
(seedlings shipped to Martinique in
the West Indies)
1822:
First espresso machine made in France
1908:
Melitta Bentz, a housewife from Dresden,
invents the first coffee filter
1909:
Instant coffee first marketed
1940:
Coffee production quotas established
by an Inter-American Coffee Board
1962:
Coffee export quotas established worldwide
by the UN
1970s:
Coffee hits the big leagues as Joe
DiMaggio endorses "Mr. Coffee"
1989:
World coffee prices plunge
1991:
The origin of Java (The programming
language developed by Sun)
