SAN FRANCISCO, Ca., September 11 — Man, do you love drinking coffee (any kind of coffee). Man, would you like to stop shelling out $3 a pop to treat that sublime latte addiction. And man, it’d be even better if you could do that in your pajamas on a lazy Sunday morning. Guess you’ll just have to plop a Starbucks franchise in your kitchen, right? Wrong.
Mercantila Does Espresso Machines!
How did a need for speed improve the taste of an ancient beverage? In the Beginning. So when the Italians — oops, we mean the French — came up with the first espresso machine in the early 19th century, the whole idea was to make smaller, quicker batches of coffee meant to be quaffed immediately. This came with quite a bonus: richer, bolder, better taste. Some years later, in 1901, Luigi Bezzera improved on the idea by patenting a machine that forced boiling water through the coffee and into the cup; a few decades passed before today’s familiar industry names joined in and advanced the technique from tricky art form to highly manufactured industry. Dr. Francisco Illy produced the first automatic machine in 1935 by substituting compressed air for steam; 11 years later, Achilles Gaggia’s invention of a high-pressure espresso machine with a spring-powered lever system introduced the commercial piston model to the mass market.
Innovations
Gaggia’s original lever design dominated the market in the 1950s and still reigns supreme in parts of southern Italy, but other advancements — Faema’s 1960 pump-driven design and a recent bottomless-portafilter movement here in the states — have broadened the market to accommodate everyone from college kids with small budgets and big cravings to baristas at the world’s busiest caf’es. You can be as hands-on as you like with your espresso (you big artisan), or you can put off that new Range Rover purchase and get the mother of all modern coffee convenience.
What’s In It For You?
Function. It’d be great if these came with bean grinders. Or if they could also make delicious regular coffee. Or if they made more than one cup at a time. Or if, say, you could make yourself espresso in your car. Um... guess what?
Flavor. Hmm... so, wait. Individual helpings served hot and freakishly fresh taste better than a huge pot that may or may not have been made hours ago by your chain-smoking co-worker? Interesting. (Pull the other one. )
Foam. Gaggia’s commercial piston model introduced another dimension: sweetly frothed milk or cream that turns an ordinary shot of espresso into a full-sized, milk-mustache-inducing latte or cappuccino. Not a bad way to get your calcium, we’d say.
Fast, faster, fastest. Honestly, all of your options are quicker than a Mr. Coffee or a French press, but the speed on some of these models would make an assembly-line worker blush. Whether you’re serving the jonesing masses or looking for a lightning-quick fix all for yourself, it’ll be fine. Honest. You’ll see.
Meet your match:
Automatic or manual? Beans or pods or capsules? To grind or not to grind? There are lots of dilemmas, and banging your head against the wall won’t help that caffeine-withdrawal headache, so let’s just skip right to our foamy favorites:
| Top shelf: Franke Swiss Mambo 1-Step Espresso Machine; $20,805.99 |  No, we’re not kidding with the price (market studies have shown consumer reluctance to spend $20,806). But take a look and hear us out: push one button, and get everything (grinding, dosing, tamping, pouring, and steamed, frothed, or regular milk to specifications). Program up to 18 intoxicating drinks at once — over 1,000 a day. Use three separate grinders to get a choice of decaf, regular, and your favorite roast. It’s the choice of lazy millionaires the world over. | | | Save & Share |  $50 off of $500!
Take $50 off any espresso machine over $500. Enter coupon code ESPRS at check out. Coupon valid through 9/21/2006 at | | |
| Penny For Your Thoughts? |  We sell a lot of stuff. Is there any particular line of products that's always mystified / fascinated you? (Go on, admit it. We're retail freaks. We're into this.)
Tell us why you're so curious -- give us a good enough story, and we'll give you the inside scoop. (Nobody wants pennies these days anyway.) Send your reply to readers@mercantila.com | | |
