Espresso coffee goes back to Luigi Bezzera’s patent of 1901 for a machine that might brew immediately. Already a businessman in the area of manufacturing, Bezzera had found that adding pressure to the process speeded it up significantly. The invention that he came up with was named the “Fast Coffee Machine,” which is how espresso coffee got its name – for “expresso” is the Italian word for “fast!”

Oddly enough, boosting up the brewing changed the very identity of the resultant brew, said by many to permit for only the best features to be extracted while avoiding the pitfalls of over-extraction. Regrettably, Bezzera was not able to market his invention successfully and he quickly sold rights to Desidero Pavoni in 1905. It was Pavoni who really popularized espresso, altering the very way Italians drink coffee.

These days, a wide variety of espresso coffee exists, relying on the specific combination of beans and roast levels and even the manner in which the brew is served. Espresso can be had over gelato ice cream, with condensed milk, or even a shot of hard liquor such as brandy. Many of the main characteristics, nonetheless, arise from the amount of water used relative to the amount of ground coffee. Indeed, making good espresso generally takes some skill in the way a good bartender knows drinks. And in fact, an actual job title exists to describe someone who makes espresso: barista.

Want a good cup of espresso? It’s essential to have a good barista, especially when traditional manual machines are involved. While not skilled work as such, it does take a certain degree of competence to “pull shots.” Of course, modern technology has taken care of this aspect of espresso to a very large degree in the case of fully automatic machines, but of course, there is also the matter of a barista’s charm to think about!

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