Espresso Machines

In the West, espresso consumption has grown rapidly, from drinking coffee in café’s, to even buying espresso machines and enjoying this beverage at the comfort of your own home. If you’re in nearly any town centre throughout Europe and America, you don’t have to walk far before you come across a café and one boasting of famous espresso’s, so what is all this hype about?

 Origin

Espressos are originally a traditional Italian coffee beverage and the first espresso machine was built in 1901 by Milanese Luigi Bezzera. Then ‘La Pavoni’ bought the design only 4 years later and became the first espresso machine company, based in Milan. However, much has changed over the last century, with many different designs in production for espressos. Varying the fineness of the grind, the amount of pressure used to tamp the grinds, or the pressure itself can be used to vary the taste of the espresso, so with all these different aspects that can be combined to produce different espressos, it is understandable that there has become such a wide interest in espresso production. Here are a few different types of espresso machines:-

Piston Driven

This design of espresso machine uses a lever pump, normally for manual use, to pressurize hot water and pump it through the grinded coffee in order to produce the espresso beverage. This method can be quite effective at advanced level for producing the exact desired taste in an espresso.

Steam Driven

The steam driven design operates by pushing hot water through the grinded coffee by using steam pressure, this design is still very popular today in cafes as it means there can be many different pumps producing multiple coffee beverages.

Pump Driven

The Pump Driven espresso machine basically works the same as the Piston Driven design, however is normally automatic and therefore not in need of manual use to produce the coffee beverage, which although can be more productive, does not enable adapting the espresso to meet desired tastes. 

Air Pump Driven

The most recent espresso machine design is the Air Pump, produced only 4 years ago, which uses compressed air to force the water through the grinded coffee, this is mostly automatic, but it is need of some manual labour for example adding the water to the machine by using a kettle. The advantage of this machine is the ability to be more compact and lighter than its competitors.

Espresso Machine Brands

Some renowned espresso machine brands are as follows –

• Expobar
• Visacrem
• Casadio Deici
• Breville
• Francis Francis
• Cuisinart
• De’Longhi
• Saeco
• Gaggia
• Krups

However there are many other competitors that are all worth being investigated. One coffee machine that can be highly recommended is the ExpobarG10 1 Group Espresso Machine.

The Expobar G10 is fitted with a variety of excellent features, from an electronics switchboard to control the coffee dosages volumetrically, to an automatic water filling and copper boiling with 6 litres capacity. This Expobar espresso machine also has a group heat exchanger and cleaning valve. All these features make this machine perfect for the smaller establishments where value for money and high quality meet. With the G10 being less than £1300 this can be achieved.