The Coffee Hardware Story — From Age Of Steam To The Internet Of Coffee

Coffee History Interlude: Legendary origins

“Kaldi woke up early in the morning and was in the fields with his goats just before sunrise. Morning chill started retreating giving way to the sunshine. It would have been just like any other day, but Kaldi kept a closer eye on his goats today. He wanted to make sure his observations before were right, that his goats did behave differently after eating those red berries. He watched them calmly grazing on the fruit and moments after it happened again. His goats were jumping around like possessed. Kaldi approached the bush and picked up a berry, its skin felt smooth and hard. He looked around as if someone could be watching him, then put the berry in his mouth…”

(Source: National Geographic “Coffee Legends” )

… and the world was never the same again, as this is how coffee was discovered. At least Kaldi’s story is one of the many legends surrounding the birth of our daily brew. This young Ethiopian boy had what it takes to be an entrepreneur — curiosity and a willingness to try something new. Though if you had coffee in Kaldi’s time — 9th century Ethiopia — you would not recognize it. One of the earliest ways of consuming the beans was mixing them with animal fat and eating it as “power balls.”

Note: Sadly, you can’t order a raw bean with fat power ball at Starbucks, at least not yet, though a White Chocolate Mocha might hit the spot!

As a matter of fact, you would not recognize our daily cup of joe for ages following from the times of Kaldi. For hundreds of years people simply added coffee grinds to water and whatever black slur came out of it was coffee (“cowboy coffee” in the US). Some inventive individuals a few hundred years ago decided that they wanted a more fancy drink and it is thanks to them that we have our coffee the way we do. Thus, brace yourselves for a story of coffee hardware.

The first part of this story covers:

A quick overview of coffee machine invention history, seeing what ideas lead to better prototypes.

Insights from some contemporary coffee hardware entrepreneurs about their ideation and prototyping journeys.

Insights from factories about coffee machine prototyping and manufacturing processes.

Coffee Hardware: Prototyping

A good machine is as important for perfect cup, as good coffee beans. The goal was inventing a machine that can extract the goodness of the coffee (a.k.a. caffeine) while leaving out the bitterness. Due to this pursuit, we have had a lot of gadgets to make our coffees and eventually the great espresso machine was made. But before the machine, there was a prototype….

The Steam-Driven machines

The first machine for making espresso was built and patented by Angelo Moriondo of Turin, Italy, who demonstrated a working prototype at the Turin General Exposition of 1884.

First patent (16 May 1884) of the espresso coffee machine (Source: Wikipedia)

Not much more is known about the inventor apart from his design. After Moriodino, Luigi Bezzerra and Desiderio Pavoni continued the innovation. Jimmy Stamp named them “the Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs of espresso.” Bezzerra created the most effective espresso machine at that time and gained fame. But he did not have funds to expand this into a business, so he sold his patent to Pavoni. (Source: Smithsonian “The Long History of the Espresso Machine“)

Pavoni made a small improvement to the machine by adding a relief valve. But where Pavoni actually excelled was marketing. He called his machine The Ideale, the drink Caffe’ Espresso and revealed it to spectators at the Milan Fair in 1906. His branding worked well. (Source: La Pavioni “An Ideal Beginning with “Ideale”, the first Espresso Coffee Machine“)

His machine (pictures and patent design below) was also a product of the age of steam. It had a large chamber where water is heated until it pushed water and steam through the ground coffee. The mechanism also lowered the water’s temperature while it was passing through, to take it from 250°F (120°C ) in the boiler to the ideal brewing temperature around 195°F (90°C). With this machine your cup of espresso is ready in few seconds. (Source: Smithsonian “The Long History of the Espresso Machine“)

Luigi Bezzera’s coffee maker patent assigned to Desiderio Pavoni (Source: Google Patents)

Machine Model Ideale — La Pavoni (Source: mumac.it)

Ideale in action (Source: Mixpresso Coffee)

Another coffee machine pioneer Pier Teresio Arduino shipping his coffee machines in Venice (Source: commons.wikimedia.org)

The Piston-driven machines

When Milanese inventor Achille Gaggia invented his machine, surpassing the barrier of two bar pressure brewing, it was big. Really big! The equivalent in sports was when Roger Bannister breached the “four-minute mile barrier” for a 1 mile run. Gaggia added a spring-piston lever to the machine that baristas could use to press hot water mechanically, as a result decreasing the size of the machine (no need for huge boilers) and increasing the pressure to 8 to 10 bars. (Source: Wikipedia)

Vintage Piston-driven Gaggia machines (Source: Espresso Machine Classics)

An espresso machine from West Germany, 1954 (Source: Wikipedia)

Pump-driven machines

Another improvement to espresso machine was added by Faema E61 in 1961. It was motor-driven pump that relieved baristas from having to use manual force to press the piston-lever and it became the most popular design for commercial use.

Innovation in coffee machines slowed down after the mid 20th century giving the scene to large corporations and large scale manufacturing.

Coffee Industry Giants and the Hardware Innovators

Until recently the commercial space of coffee machines has been dominated by giant companies like Eugster, Schaerer, Jura, WMF, and a few others. The good side of it is that mass manufacturing made coffee makers cheap and easily accessible for all people. Now you can have the coffee goodness in your home, in your office, and on the go. However, commoditization of any technology obstructs innovation. Without innovation we as coffee consumers (or coffee addicts as in some cases), are stuck with conventional ways to enjoy the brew, while there is so much more that can be done to extract the goodness from the coffee beans.

Coffee hardware entrepreneurs back in 19th and early 20th century had financial incentives to invent and promote new methods of coffee brewing. This has not been the case in the last half of 20th century, as there was almost no way for individual inventors to make a profit (unless by patenting and licensing their product to big companies, but that is not a hassle-free road).

The hardware revolution nowadays can be comparable to the surge of innovation in the Age of Steam. Probably the most famous machine in recent years has been Keurig and the whole K-cup paradigm that shook the industry (read up on what hardware creators can learn from this business model on the Bolt blog).

Currently, many other traditional vendors have their own versions of single-serve coffee machines. But they are not the only ones innovating. We got to talk with some of the new inventors about their coffee hardware journey.