subject: The Tradition Of The Morning Espresso [print this page] A cup of aromatic espresso in the morning is an age-old tradition in Italy, which started in the 1900's. It is in this period when they started growing their own coffee beans around the mountainsides. Espresso is generally thought to have originated in Ethiopia from where it was brought down to the Arabian Gulf. It was the Arabs who first started trading coffee in Europe. With the invention of stove top coffee maker, espresso went on to become a popular luxury that was available in the home.
Espresso is the heart of Italian culture. With the introduction of several coffee bars, drinking coffee with friends and family become more of a tradition. Although, espresso was believed to be the beverage of the rich, the invention of stovetop coffee maker has made espresso an affordable beverage for every Italian household.
In 1918, Alfonso Bialetti started his own machine shop for manufacturing aluminum metal house wares. During this time, Bialetti noticed the laundry techniques used by the local Italian women. The wash was boiled in tubs or containers with a central pipe in the center which extracted the soapy water up and reallocated it evenly over the laundry. Bialetti's creative mind made him conclude that a stove top espresso maker could be styled and developed according this theory in order to produce real espresso coffee in any household
Italy had a very rich source of aluminum and Bailetti used it to invent the stovetop coffee maker. After making various prototypes, it was only in the year 1933 that the first stove top espresso maker came into the market. By then, all the technical problems were resolved. The unique design and eight-sided shape was based on a silver coffee service, famous at that time in rich Italian residences.
The combination of modern technology with the traditional Italian artistry has made the stove top coffee maker very popular, also because it was a simple solution to a rich cup of coffee. In the beginning, the annual sales of the equipment were 10,000 units. The basic purpose of the Bialetti coffee maker was to let people take the pleasure of a rich espresso similar to the ones from the coffee bar in the comfort of their home.
After the Second World War Bialetti's son, Renato Bialetti joined the business. He launched a massive marketing campaign and with intense focus on production and advertising, he managed to increase the sales to 1,000 units per day. Thus, the stove top coffee maker became iconic in Italy and made its way in every Italian household. Its innovative eight-sided design and the rich aroma which was derived from it made it very popular among the Italians.
Many competitors came up with their models in the market after the success of this stove top espresso coffee maker in Italy. To make this espresso coffee maker unique, Renato Bialetti differentiated it by imprinting a symbolic figure imitation of his father Alfonso Bialetti, a small man with mustache on the side of the maker.
The people of Italy are very proud of their tradition and they know what a good espresso means. As per their standards, a perfect espresso coffee is one that could hold the sugar at the surface of the cream for at least thirty seconds before sinking. Now what are you waiting for? Grab your cup of perfect espresso made from a stove top coffee maker and relish it.
