Espressos were created with the need for speed. In the 1800s coffee was a huge part of European culture and baristas needed a way of creating individual drinks faster. Angelo Moriondo of Turin, Italy, was the inventor of the espresso machine. He used to steam and pressure to quickly brew a cup of coffee. In the 1880s he patented his design and it was never released commercially.
Later, in 1906 two Italians developed Moriondos idea further and shared their invention at World’s Fair in Milan. They called the beverage the machine created ‘Caffe Espresso’. It wasn’t until world war 2 that inventors began developing to pressure, adding leavers created what we now know as ‘Crema’. Finally, it was the invention of a motorised pump by Carlo Ernesto Valente that gave the espresso machine the 9-bar pressure we use today.