The product launches continue here at Host Milan – up next is our second show debut from Marco Beverage Systems, whose JET Brewer we profiled at the start of the show. This new product is fun. It's flirty. It's called Splurty, a one cup brewer with a minimal counter-top footprint and a striking design profile. It sort of reminds us of an audiophile's analog turntable, something that would look perfect in a fine cocktail bar or cutting edge cafe.

Splurty has been in development for 18 months, and is housed under the umbrella of Marco's “Über Project“, an engineering led arm of Marco that focuses on exploration and research. It uses Marco's “Pillar technology” to dispense water from the company's Undercounter Ecoboiler, and was designed around – but is not limited to – Kalita filter baskets, which are held in place on Splurty's back panel using a magnetized basket holder. Water pumps up from the EcoBoiler into Splurty's recirculation chamber, and is then dispensed over the top of the basket at volume and timing standards selected by the user.

Splurty is relatively “simple,” perhaps deceptively so, as the degree of temperature and timing control it offers are the result of complex and carefully considered engineering. The basic specs for Splurty were originally drawn up by James Hoffmann – who is having a pretty big Host for himself this year, between Splurty and his work on the Victoria Arduino Black Eagle – and was then developed in Ireland by Marco R&D Manager David Walsh and the team of Marco engineers. Mr. Walsh summed the project up succinctly: “Splurty is a small counter-top brewer / font for single cup brewing without too much dicking around. It makes nice coffee, consistently, and it looks pretty cool.”

Fun fact: Morse code beeps spell out “Splurty” when the brewer is turned on.

The official line on Splurty is that what we're seeing here on Host is an alpha pre-prototype, with no definite plans for the Splurty being developed publicly. But the Marco crew all sort of had a sly smile as they told us this; you can see they're proud of little Splurty, that new device with a silly name that's making a big splash here in Milan.