It’s something of a scientific miracle, really, created by gases reacting together. Order a quality espresso, and you’ll find a dense, caramel-coloured foam sitting on the top. Crema means ‘cream’ in Italian, which makes sense, because it is pretty creamy. It tells us a lot about the freshness and strength of the drink and the skill of the barista. So espresso can mean express quick – even in Italy!Ĭrema is key when talking espresso. This helps them to distinguish speedy espresso coffee from coffee brewed in a whole pot. Espresso is linked to the idea of speed, too, because Italians use the term in restaurants with the sense of ‘quickly made to order’.So express (and expresso) isn’t a million miles away from your little pressure brewed cup. Our English express verb also stems from the Latin exprimere and can mean (as well as ‘articulate’ and ‘fast’) ‘to force out by pressure’.This is because it’s not a simple timeline of espresso = exprimere = press out: And they might, to be fair to them, have had a point. They thought that espresso was the correct spelling, and saw expresso as a misspelling. Why? Because, contrary to what you may assume, the eXpresso spelling isn’t entirely wrong…Įarlier linguists didn’t believe that the name of this little coffee drink had Italian origins. This letter dilemma causes problems amongst the experts. We’ve also made a fair few misspellings along the way…ĭon’t worry if you get confused. We’ve been ordering espressos ever since. Although the term caffè espresso arrived in Italian dictionaries in 1920, espresso didn’t make its way to England until Gaggia patented his machine in 1938. Sorry, Moriondo, we’ll have to keep calling yours the great ‘instantaneous confection’!Įspresso is very close to the English word express, which refers, amongst other things, to speed. The caffè espresso first appeared in the Italian dictionary in 1920 for Luigi Bezzerra’s invention. ?Ĭaffè espresso is the full Italian name for this punchy maestro, although it’s often called ‘espresso’ for short. This verb stems from the Latin exprimere, which means ‘press out’ or ‘squeeze out. Where does the word ‘espresso’ come from?Ĭonsidering all those italiano inventors, it’s no surprise that the word espresso comes from… Italian!Įspresso is the past participle of the verb esprimere, which means ‘press out’. They are small (about one fluid ounce) and you can enjoy them alone or use them in drinks such as a: Espressos take a high coffee to water ratio to give us a small, concentrated cup that’s roasty in flavour and thick and buttery in texture. Espresso is a pressure coffee method that sees us using high pressure to force hot water through ground coffee. It’s one of a jolly family of methods also including cafetiere, AeroPress and filter. There’s quite a bit of confusion…Įspresso simply describes a way of brewing coffee. You’re not being daft if you’re not sure what an espresso is. Now, 8-10 bars (and awesome coffee) were totally possible!ĭon’t worry. Previous espresso makers could only climb up to 1.5-2 bars of pressure. Bezzera’s machine used pressurised steam, which only produced a limited amount of pressure.Įnter Giovanni Achille Gaggia! In 1938, this super-smart Italian invented the ‘Lampo’ system, which made espresso coffee using hot water pressure rather than steam. This speedy device made strong coffee in just 30 seconds – and could make it per uno! Bezzera introduced the portafilter to the espresso machine, plus several other ‘espresso-y’ elements.īut, again, there was an issue. Tired of waiting for his caffeine fix, Bezzera invented the world’s first single-serving espresso machine. Next up comes a Milanese businessman called Luigi Bezzera. He invented the machine, described on its certificate as a ‘ew steam machinery for the economic and instantaneous confection of coffee beverage,’ in 1884 but it was limited to producing coffee in bulk. Moriondo’s early espresso machine was the first device to make coffee using both water and steam. Of whom Angelo Moriondo was first (whoop whoop!). Where does the word espresso come from? Let’s discover the origins of the word ‘espresso’ and find out why it might be an expresso after all…īefore you can name something, you’ve got to invent it, right? So who created espresso coffee?
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