Espresso literally means "pressed" (pressed outward) in Italian. It is a type of coffee made with pressure and press.
Towards the end of the 19th century, an inventor named Angelo Moriondo invented the first espresso machine in Turin, Italy. He completed his invention by giving the steam power directly to the coffee and received his patent in 1884. However, when the coffee was brewed in this way, it did not become popular because its taste was not very good, and the search continued. In 1901, Italian engineer Luigi Bezzera developed Moriondo's machine, inventing the machine that could brew coffee by putting pressure on water, not coffee. He completed the first known coffee machine by taking his patent on April 28, 1903. In the same year, Desiderio Pavoni bought the patent but kept the Bezzera name. Pier Teresio Arduino founded Victoria Arduino company in Italy in 1905 and developed the machine in this field and increased its heat values and capacities. In 1934, Francesco Illy made the first automatic pressure and dosage control "Illetta", the machine that can be accepted as the first of today's dosage control and automatic machines. In 1946, Achilles Gaggia developed a series of high-capacity and air-steam machines that took its place in the history of the espresso machine. Thus, it has developed and come to the present day with different brands.
Everything you want to know about espresso coffee
The taste of the first cup of espresso I drank in my mouth and in my mind remains even today. I was really surprised that coffee can be so rich, so intense and so full of aroma.
It was about twenty-five years ago. I came from a time when cheap coffee beans were blended with roasted chickpeas and coffee was often off the market. It was with this fascination that I bought my first stovetop espresso machine: the Mocha Express. But it didn't take long for me to learn that this too was one of the most primitive stages of the espresso idea.
The first Turks discovered drinking coffee and the Turks introduced it to the world. For this reason, coffee has been made all over the world for centuries by the so-called 'Turkish method'. In this method, the coffee that has been roasted and the ground is kept in boiling water, allowing the flavors and color of the coffee bean to pass into the water, and then it is drunk by adding sugar to it. Another version of the Turkish coffee method was the 'infusion' method, which became more common in the west. That is, grind the coffee a little larger, soak it in hot water, and then drink it through a strainer or filter.
ESPRESSO COFFEE
Espresso is a different method from all these. This is a method that carries the aroma, taste, and color of the coffee beans to the water by passing the water at 90 degrees temperature through the roasted and finely ground coffee for a very short time under high pressure. It is very important that this time is very short, and this is why the name of this coffee is 'espresso', which means 'express' in Italian.
The first seeds of the espresso idea were laid in the 19th century with the invention of the 'percolation' method. This method is a method for passing boiling or nearly boiling water through the ground coffee with steam pressure. A more advanced method is the mocha method, which I mentioned above. In a cooking pot with two chambers on top of each other, the water heated below passes through the coffee with a metal filter in the middle, under a certain pressure, and fills the upper chamber.
But the pressure is only one atmosphere, so very little, and the transit time is one minute. However, in espresso, the pressure has to be 9 atmospheres, and ideally 10 atmospheres. In the Moka method, you get an extremely strong coffee because the pressure is low and the time is long. So you may need to add sugar. This isn't exactly espresso, but it's considered the first stage in the evolution of the espresso idea.
HIGH-PRESSURE DEVICES
The first true espresso machine was invented in 1901 by an Italian entrepreneur, Luigi Bezzerra. Later, in 1933, a company called Cafeilly was established in Trieste, Italy, and two years later they launched their own espresso machine, which was their own invention.
This is the first machine to automatically measure the amount of water and also creates pressure using compressed air, not steam. These early machines are difficult to operate and are only the job of specially trained baristas operators.
By 1945, the first truly stylish espresso machines were developed by the Italian company Gaggia. These machines contain a brand-new mechanism and are extremely simple to use. But today's professional and domestic machines are based on the espresso machine developed by an Italian named Ernesto Valente in 1961.
HOME TYPE MACHINES
Until recently, espresso coffee could only be drunk in cafe bars using these large machines, and machines developed for the home often did not perform well at all. But in recent years, the coffees made with espresso machines manufactured by three companies are nothing like professional espressos.
These are illy cafe and Lavazza of Italian origin, and Nespresso, owned by the Swiss company Nestle. All three make great espresso coffees and it's almost impossible to make a mistake; because the coffees come in single-use airless packages and measured.
HOW TO GET GOOD ESPRESSO
First of all, the most important part of a good espresso is the foam on it. This foam is called crema in Italian. The crema acts as a seal so that the wonderful aromas of the coffee do not leak out and do not disappear until the coffee is finished. A good crema depends both on the quality of the coffee used and on the skill of the coffee maker.
The foam of a perfect espresso is thick, velvety, and light brown in color. This is called the 'tiger skin' color. To achieve this, pressurized water only needs to pass through the ground coffee for 30 seconds. If it runs longer than this, the color starts to darken and the flavor starts to deteriorate.
The second test for the 'perfect' espresso is the durability of the foam. For this, when you put a small spoon of sugar in your coffee, this sugar should stay on the foam for two seconds without sinking. Otherwise, return it to the waiter so he doesn't find out and bring anyone the wrong espresso from now on. In summary, 3 mm on it. Do not drink espresso that is thick, durable and not tiger-colored foam.
THE AMOUNT MUST NOT EXCEED THREE SPOONS
It takes 50 beans to make a good cup of espresso. These must also be arabica seeds. When these 50 coffee beans are roasted and ground, 6.5 grams of ground coffee is obtained. That is 6.5 grams in each espresso glass. coffee must be used. The amount of water you need to pass through this coffee is three tablespoons. If you add more liquid, the woody flavors and other unpleasant flavors in the beans pass into the water and the coffee tastes bad. This is why espresso is drunk in small containers and very small quantities; Not the stinginess of the Italians. If you are going to drink double, you need to use two separate 6.5 grams of coffee, not twice as much water. Even if you drink it diluted, you should not pass any more water from the machine to the same glass and fill the cup with boiling water. Because after half of the cup, the taste deteriorates. Fine work, right?
Pressure is very important for the quality of the coffee. As I said, 10 atmospheres is ideal. On the other hand, your cup must be preheated (that's why they are kept on the machine), otherwise the coffee that is put in a little bit gets cold immediately.
Espresso is a coffee full of surprises. It contains about 1,200 kinds of natural chemicals and 700-800 of them are flavorings. So you can extract all the flavors in the kernel. Isn't it wonderful? It's also low in caffeine. Since 30 seconds have passed, water can only absorb half of the caffeine in the bean. Arabica beans contain 50 percent less caffeine than robusta.
On the other hand, if one of the 50 beans is bad, the taste of the espresso is spoiled. For this, Illy and Hausbrandt companies have developed electronic scanners and do not allow even a single faulty core to pass.