There is a strong chance that if you have tasted espresso coffee, it was been brewed for you on a La San Marco espresso machine. Whether you've ordered a ristretto in a piazza by a fountain in Venice, sipped an Americano in New York with views of the Empire State Building, enjoyed a flat white by the beach in Perth, or had cappuccino in London, La San Marco machines are likely to have been the machinery behind your cup.
Espresso machines are not quite Italian inventions, and not quite not Italian inventions. The original espresso machine was developed by the French in 1822. Italians went ahead and marketed it. Based on their hundreds of years' experience with coffee as it passed through the port of Venice into Europe, they had plenty of reason to capitalise on the opportunities offered by espresso. The Gaggia, developed in 1946, was the first espresso machine to resemble today's models. Hot on its heels was the lovely La San Marco Lollabrigida, named after the curvaceous actress Gina Lollabrigida who later became a lauded photojournalist and sculptor. Of course, in ways that speak for the times, the La San Marco Lollabrigida was inspired by her curvaceous figure.
La San Marco is a reputable company based in Gorizia, northern Italy, that has been making and reinventing espresso machines since 1920. Its logo, the winged lion, is synonymous with Italian symbology drawing from the times when lions were brought from Africa through the port of Venice. La San Marco machines are well known throughout the espressosphere as reputable 'workhorses' that make coffee after coffee without as much as a sigh. Indeed, Martin Bond, Technical Services manager at European Foods, describes these workhorses as incredibly reliable. He says they require less time consuming or logistically difficult maintenance than most machines. This is partly because despite changes to the exterior as La San Marco fits its machines to reflect the times and needs of modern baristas, the internals remain true to their original design.
One of the first and most enduring lever style espresso machines in the world, La San Marco could be reasonably considered the iconic lever. And, the lever machine goes to the heart of barista centred espresso. It involves the simplest function of the pump, in which the level of pressure can be manipulated by the barista. What is so exciting about the lever? The lever is a simple mechanism that creates pressure as the barista firmly pulls down the handle, and as such is the most traditional method of brewing espresso. This way the amount of water that passes through the coffee, and the pressure under which it passes through the grounds, can be manipulated according to taste, roasting styles and other variables.
The advent of the volumetric machine, which has pre-set water levels and pressure, has meant that the lever is less commonly seen about. However, for La San Marco this simple and pure approach to brewing has been far from forgotten despite passing trends. This is because of the enormous creative control over the pressure profile of each brew that lever machines enable. And now, the lever style is experiencing something of a renaissance given the return to manual pressure profile represented by glamorous machines like the much-celebrated Slayer and La Marzocco Strada. The reinvented La San Marco Leva (pictured left) holds true to the brand's original thinking and style, and enables baristas to emulate the process that takes us to the heart of good espresso.
La San Marco stands the test of time. But it is interesting to consider the ways in which it has been a steady presence in a constantly fluctuating coffee economy and culture. European Foods has partnered with La San Marco to supply espresso machines to Western Australian establishments as far back as the 1980s, which is when demand for luxury machines that produced an excellent coffee became mainstream. But before La San Marco arrived, what did people do for a good brew? Consider that in the 1950s when the first espresso machines were imported to Australia from Italy - headed to places like Pellegrini's in Melbourne - most suburban Australians were in the thralls of Nescafe and other instant coffees. Chicory essence from Bushell's was another favourite. Whilst many now question the authenticity of such coffee, at the time espresso was seen as exotic and expressly linked to Italian and Mediterranean cultures that liked a stronger cup.
Indeed, one of our long-serving technical services team who has worked on espresso machines since the early 1960s has encyclopedic knowledge about the internals of the machines over time, but is also a veritable living library of memories and stories of the evolution of coffee in Perth. He talks about going out to coffee shops in the 1960s to perform service jobs where the freshly ground coffee was 'cut' with Nescafe because that was the preferred taste! Not only that, but one quite reputable restaurant at that time gave up on their espresso machine and resorted to keeping pre-brewed coffee in a large vat on the kitchen floor covered only by a tea towel. The handle of an exceptionally tall ladle peeped out the top, and this was used to serve the coffee into mugs. The espresso machine came in handy at this point - to heat up the milk that was added on top. Most disturbing about this story is the apparent ecology of the vat. The scunge that formed a thick, jungle-green film across the top of the brew suggested it had been sitting there for days on end until the paying customers drank it!
Luckily, coffee has come a long way since the 1960s. This was the time when broader American and Australian cultures were developing palates for coffee after post-war emigration from Italy. This series of cuts from 1960s coffee commercials reveals an emphasis on flavour and, it seems, the apparently superior palates of some rather despicable husbands!
Before the Slayer, before the Strada, there was San Marco. After the chemex, after the pour-over, after the syphon, and after the cold drip, history tells us that there will still be La San Marco.
For more information on La San Marco espresso machines, contact European Foods Technical Services on 08 9227 2242 or click here to visit the La San Marco web site.