Over the last 60 years or so, Gaggia has become known as arguably the best Italian maker of coffee machines in the world. It has achieved this through committing itself to producing machines that excel in two areas: in making great espressos, and in being beautifully designed objects in their own right.

This mix of functionality and beauty has been present in Gaggia coffee machines since Achille Gaggia first perfected the espresso maker in 1938. Since then the company's factory at Robecco sul Naviglio, near Milan, has produced many examples of classic Italian design.

Gaggia's Italy

Between-the-wars Italy was a rapidly industrialising nation. It had only recently been unified and was looking to a future in which industry brought wealth; industry needed machines, and therefore there was beauty in the machine. Italian artists and designers seized upon the ideas of modernism and futurism and used them in their work to produce objects that looked fast and sleek but with evocative, alluring lines.

This was most notable in the automobile industry, where names like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, and to a lesser extent Vespa and Lambretta, are still idolised today. The futurist agenda extended to other areas though, and Italian designs became famous in bicycles, watches, furniture and even travel posters.

Early Gaggia coffee machines

Achille Gaggia's designed his first lever-pulled coffee machine in this environment. It was functional without being austere. Notably, the "Gaggia" logo is typeset in exactly the same way it is today - proving that great design can last for 60 years, or taking the role of tradition in the company's slogan ("Tradizione in Continua Evoluzione", or "continually evolving tradition").

As Italy was rebuilt after the Second World War and enjoyed an "economic miracle" boosted by American financial support, Gaggia coffee machines' design reflected the space-age optimism of Italian coffee drinkers. More curved lines appeared around the machines, and more chrome, while the exposed aluminium and steel of earlier Gaggia machines was hidden away.

In the 1970s, Gaggia began producing home coffee machines, which required the technology to be scaled down without any loss of quality. In addition, domestic consumers wanted less functional looking machines, and the design became even more importance.

Testament to Gaggia success

The enduring success of the Gaggia company is testament to the success they had in both domestic and professional markets.

In 2005, The Telegraph ran a feature on the Gaggia coffee machine in its "Design classics" series in 2005. It called Gaggia "a name synonymous with espresso and the machines that make it".

The newspaper also admired the attention to detail in the Gaggia coffee machine it reviewed (a Gaggia Classic). Gaggia machines earn their reputation through features such as "Something as seemingly insignificant as the filter holder in the Gaggia Classic (the first bit that the water encounters on its way to conjugal coffee bliss) [which] is specially made out of brass and then chrome-plated, making for better heat retention".

Another feature commented on, designed to achieve the correct water pressure as it is forced through the coffee, was the Gaggia Classic's "special valve that increases the water pressure just at the point of delivery and shuts off as soon as ‘the extraction' is complete."

Gaggia coffee machines: available from Coffee Xclusive

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