Articles >> Gaggia The true Espresso MachineGaggia The true Espresso Machine
There are stories that, before the war, Giovanni Achille Gaggia, a bar owner in Milan, born in 1895 in Milan, was experimenting with screw-type pistons to make coffee and that after the war he tried the lever piston and it worked.
Another story goes that Gaggia actually possessed a model of the screw piston and could show it to people. Yet a third story says that Rosetta Scorza, the wife of an inventor, came to Gaggia with an idea for a new machine.
The idea was a little primitive and when the inventor died, his wife sold it to Gaggia for a thousand Lira (a large sum of money in those days). Gaggia made some improvements and the true espresso machine as we know it was invented. The facts almost fit in with these stories.
Achille Gaggia
Achille Gaggia, set himself up in its coffee bar, where he became a dedicated barman.
He was not satisfied with the flavour of coffee coming from his existing machine, which scalded the coffee and made it bitter. Perhaps the coffee was over-roasted and burnt to compensate for the poor extraction. The ingenious barman met Rosetta Scorza.
Rosetta Scorza of Milan was married to Sr. Cremonese who was a technician in a coffee grinder factory. He made tests to see if the coffee was ground evenly and was responsible for introducing the cone mill to Italy in the 1930s. He patented the idea of a screw piston, which forced the water through the coffee.
Cremonese died and Rosetta Scorza was left with a patent.
The story continues that Rosetta Scorza tried to get existing manufacturers to use her invention but they were not interested. It is possible that she showed Gaggia the patent, because he lodged a patent application for a piston group, in 1938.
Before the Second World War, he patented and developed a rotative screw piston, which he made from aluminium and brass and which could be connected to the boiler of the conventional machines of the day.
The steam had been eliminated from the brewing process, but the water was still too hot.
Gaggia made many attempts to make his rotative piston work, but there were problems with leaks.
After the war he started in production again with brass groups and asbestos, but the system still was not perfect and he must have changed from the rotating piston to an up and down lever piston which was really his own idea, even though technically covered in Rosetta Scorza's patent (her patent was for a screw-press piston, but the style of language used by patent attorneys described ideas even before they became inventions, covered pistons of all types, including lever pistons). Rosetta Scorza ultimately received a payment for the use of her patent because Gaggia's own must have infringed on it.
Both the original Gaggia's patent and the Scorza's patent are totally different to the lever patent which Gaggia lodged in 1947
Gaggia Introduces the Spring Into the Lever
Gaggia must have been very persistent to incorporate the spring into a lever-operated piston. T he idea might have been relatively simple, but to make a working model required real talent in those days. The lever without the spring would not have made espresso coffee as we know it.
The spring provided the pressure and it was the pressure that forced the water through the coffee in such a short time - fifteen seconds for a short black. On the 20th June 1947, he lodged his patent for a new boiler and on the 8th August 1947, lodged his patent for the lever group.
It was a major step, perhaps the single biggest development of all time in coffee brewing. Gaggia's importance was his commercial realisation of a good idea. He made it happen. His machine made a cup of coffee that was totally different to any other coffee.
By using a lever, the pressure applied to the coffee by a spring was independent of the pressure in the boiler. At the same time, the water temperature used became independent of the temperature in the boiler so that a stronger, quicker and controllable filtration was possible.
The use of steam was lessened, and was only for frothing milk and not for making coffee.
The boiler could be smaller and the heat loss consequently smaller. In fact the patent described a boiler with two chambers: a small one for steam and a large one for hot water, one on top of the other.
The coffee could be finely ground, the water was forced through, and into the cup came coffee with a 'cream', a light coloured mousse (or crema), on the top.
The coffee was made faster and had a more intense flavour and aroma - everything the market wanted.
Gaggia must have been amazed - he could never have expected coffee with mousse on the top. It is even possible that he did not like what he had produced.
He offered the perfected group to other manufacturers who smiled and declined. They thought the results were strange and inferior. However Gaggia had some marketing sense and installed his machines in bars with a large sign on the window - 'Caffe crema di caffe naturale' - coffee cream from natural coffee.
People became curious, entered the bars and looked at the mousse on the coffee. Some walked away declaring it was a fraud, while others recognised that the coffee was not bitter and had more flavour. Several large and prominent bars in Milan, such as Motta and Biffi in the Galeria, adopted the system.
Gaggia did not have a real workshop, but had the groups, the lever handles and filters made for him by Valente, who had a factory which made parts for hair dryers. In 1952 Valente started making his own machines, incorporating washers on the pistons, under the brand name Faema.
Gaggia then set up a factory with Sr. Capsoni as engineer to make complete machines.
The Gaggia Company was now ready to exploit the invention. Machines were exported all over the world to start a revolution with this new, true espresso coffee. Gaggia died in 1961.
His significance was that he showed what happened when hot water was forced through finely ground coffee. The machine was in control of the bean - the bean could not keep anything back. The impact was enormous.
The crema meant that the product was instantly distinguishable from the product of the previous Bezzera-style machines. Overnight the large upright machines had gone, replaced by long cylindrical horizontal machines.
The handles going up and down were the sign of frenetic activity as the strong essence trickled do into the cup, followed by the hissing of the steam valve to froth the milk for the cappuccinos.
Gaggia gives home the espresso pleasure.
In 1952 the "GILDA" was introduced. It may be considered the first attempt at creating an home espresso machine, and the first step towards industrial-scale production of non-professional coffee machines . In 1977 GAGGIA went into industrial production of home espresso machines with the debut of BABY GAGGIA, which was soon to become the best-selling machine and a STATUS SYMBOL.
Still today when one speaks of home espresso machines, the name BABY GAGGIA evokes the history of the coffee maker market and the absolute quality of products 100% "made in Italy".
Over the years we have witnessed the emergence, growth and transformation of a market that has gone from the traditional lever-operated coffee machine to one that is completely automatic.
The Syncrony line represents the GAGGIA generation of fully automatic machines that grind and measure the coffee, dispense the espresso directly into the cup and discharge the grounds into a special bin all by the simple touch of a button.
TITANIUM is a new, fully automatic coffee machine with an exclusive designed by GAGGIA that combines superior-quality coffee with the long-lasting reliability.
Gaggia has been cultivating coffee culture since 1938. The best technology, top-grade materials and quality workmanship have won the respect of the whole industry.
For over 50 years it has been filling bars and homes in every corner of the world with the unmistakable aroma of true Italian espresso.
It is the special aroma of espresso made by one of the many models of GAGGIA espresso machines - machines that unite the solid tradition of one of the world's best known brands with innovation and technological advancement.
Gaggia seeks to position itself in the increasingly dynamic markets of the new millennium as a company with a deeplyrooted tradition of quality and attention to detail that is also strongly future-oriented in its search for enhanced performance and ever more alluring and innovative design
Gaggia manufactures all its Espresso machines in its Robecco sul Naviglio plant (Milan, Italy), where tradition meets quality and modern technology.
In recent years, while remaining principally dedicated to producing espresso machines, GAGGIA has undertaken a process of renewal and diversification of its product lines, positioning itself as a more dynamic company oriented towards all aspects of technological advancement and modern trends, while remaining true to the historical reliability of the GAGGIA brand.
GAGGIA's quality and innovative capacity united with a special vocation for design and careful observation of the needs of its consumers has made it the leader in Europe and a renowned name throughout the world.
No longer was GAGGIA to position itself exclusively as a producer of coffee machines , it was now a fully rounded brand covering a broad and demanding market.
Gaggia coffee machines : available from Coffee Xclusive
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