A Brief History of Espresso

Milestones in Coffee Development Brought the Espresso We Love

Jul 27, 2008

The history of espresso begins with the story of coffee. According to the Kaldi legend, coffee was first discovered by an Abyssinian goat-herd lounging in the hot sun.

The goat-herd noticed his goats dancing about after eating some red berries, sampled the berries himself, and he too began dancing, revived and refreshed. He shared them with the villagers who became quite fond of the magical morsels. “Fanciful but unlikely,” says the International Coffee Organization, but “we know that coffee was certainly being cultivated in Yemen by the 15th century and probably much earlier than that.”

It is mankind's nature to do things faster. Travel (airplanes) and cooking (microwaves) come to mind, and it was no different for brewing coffee. Several inventions in the 1800s worked on brewing coffee faster, but it was not until 1901 when an Italion named Luigi Bezzera patented a machine that employed steam pressure to force water through ground coffee. It brewed faster and the resulting brew was also stronger in flavor. Plus there was an added bonus: The steam could be used to froth milk. Espresso and cappucchino were born. The machine was crude by today's standards, but it's dynamics are still employed today. But Bezzera was not a salesman, and the patent was sold to Desidero Pavoni who began manufacturing and selling the machines throughout Europe.

Espresso is not a type of coffee bean but rather “coffee brewed by forcing steam or hot water through finely ground darkly roasted coffee beans.” (Merriam-Webster) For all you would-be espresso scholars, below are some important dates in the development of coffee and espresso, courtesy of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne.

Important Dates in Coffee/Espresso Histoy

13th Century: Arabians begin roasting and grinding coffee before brewing it.

1475: Coffee cultivation increases. The worlds first coffee shop, Kiva Han, opened in Constantinople.

1607: Captain John Smith founded the colony of Virginia. It is believed he introduced coffee to North America.

1650: Baba Budan snuck seeds out of Arabia and planted them in India, where they flourished.

1652: The first coffeehouse opened in England. A cup of coffee sold for a penny.

1683: Coffee made its way to Austria. Franz Kulczycki opened the first Viennese coffeehouse.

1723: A French naval officer stole a seedling and transplanted it to Martinique, the start of coffee plantations in Latin America.

1773: Americans revolt against King George's Tea Tax. Coffee is declared the official national beverage.

1927: The first expresso machine was installed in the United States in 1927 at Regio's in New York. The “La Pavoni” machine is on display there today.

1938: M. Cremonesi developed a piston pump that forced hot, not boiling, water through the coffee This eliminated the burnt taste.

1946: Achille Gaggia began manufacturing a commercial piston machine. The resulting coffee had a layer of foam or “crema”.

Now that you're an espresso expert, see Espresso Drinks for recipes and a handy chart suitable for framing, or read about the coffee bean and its journey from the field, to the roaster, to your table. Remember, if the foam is gone, you took too long.

"Brewing espresso...unlike other methods of brewing coffee...IS rocket science." - Knox and Huffaker

The copyright of the article A Brief History of Espresso in Coffee is owned by Christopher T. Reilly. Permission to republish A Brief History of Espresso in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.