MILAN, Italy – Luigi Morello, the Istituto Espresso Italiano (IEI) president, explains the importance of the italian espresso from a cultural and historical point of view in an extract from the book CoffeExperts, the encyclopedia book focused on coffee we talked about here. Soon in these pages, there will be other insights from the various coffee expert authors who contributed to the writing of CoffeExperts.
Luigi Morello on the history of the espresso
MILAN, Italy – “The espresso is an undisputed symbol of Italianness. But how did this way of enjoying coffee come about? Necessity is the mother of all invention and history teaches us that this is often where great ideas come from, so from the little pot that was used to boil ground coffee we arrive at the invention of the moka, a very Italian device.
Over time, wars, poverty and an increasingly expensive and difficult to find raw material stimulated the push to conceive a technology that could better exploit ground coffee. And so it was that the first true Italian espresso was created, that with the crema, which initially seemed to be something sophisticated, artificially added, so much so that at the time adverts spoke about “natural coffee crema”.
Still in the context of the efficient use of available resources, the blend concept was also born out of a scarcity of raw materials. But, above all, it marked the beginnings of an approach based on taste, on sensory aspects.”
The influence of the Italian espresso
“The search for raw materials started but, above all, so did the quest to retain customers through offering them a consistent taste. And hence the espresso started spreading throughout the world, opening a path that has not yet come to an end and continues to evolve.
Over time, from the focus on the maximum possible quality of the “in-cup” coffee, the espresso started being reinvented, and evolved from being a commodity to a beverage made with 20 grams, representing 20 grams of experience.
All the actors have contributed to ensuring that espresso evolved from a mere beverage to an experience, something different to be seen, and talked about.
Today it’s important to continue enhancing the quality of espresso so as to ensure it doesn’t lose its identity as an Italian product. The Italians created espresso and the blend through what could be described as transformation techniques.
And it’s thanks to these techniques that the quality of every single blend can be enhanced to the maximum possible level, no matter the country of origin or the selling price.”
