A coffee or an espresso maker is a simple and efficient kitchen appliance that helps in the process of preparing coffee without using a different container to boil water in it. Although there are so many types of coffee makers on the market using a large number of preparation methods, the most common of them have the same principle at the basis: the coffee grounds end in a metal or paper filter inside of a funnel, which then tops over a glass or ceramic coffee pot. After that, cold water fills another container. The machine heats the water and eventually pours it over the coffee grounds.



However, even if this process seems as basic as it really is, things have not always been that simple. In the past, the process of preparing a cup of coffee was similar to a small worldwide-known tradition. In the 19th and even in the 20th century, people used to add the ground coffee over the boiled water and mix the two ingredients together until they considered they had reached the proper smell and taste. Only then did they consider the coffee good for drinking.

The first “device" – the ancestor of the coffee maker’s industry – was the “Biggin", created in France. It had a very simple structure, yet similar to that of the modern coffee maker. Just like the ones from our days, the Biggin had two compartments, one for the grounded coffee and one for the boiled water, which eventually percolated in the first one.

Today, when creating a coffee or espresso maker, the principle is the same, the only noticeable difference being the existence of electrical power to sustain the processes of boiling and percolating. The vacuum principle was also useful for making coffee makers, particularly during the 19th century. It was useful because of the pressure with which the water expands when boiling and of the force with which it drags the coffee backwards when the boiling process is complete and the temperature starts to decrease.

The real coffee and espresso maker is the modern percolator, found in almost every home in the world. Their invention dates back to the middle of the 19th century and since then they have known an increasingly worldwide popularity. Just like the older Biggin, the percolators use the pressure of the boiling water to move towards the coffee. The purpose is to obtain contact between the ground coffee and the boiling water just to mix the flavor in the liquid.

After the Second World War, the industry no longer produced coffee makers from aluminum or other attractive metals, since their availability had diminished. That is way these old and conventional materials soon met their replacements with new ones, more attractive or available particularly in the United States of America, and then in the entire world. These were glass and Pyrex, hardly-breakable material with a very interesting look.

In addition, this new look was exactly the one that received positive critiques from the consumers, along with their high utility. The standards according to which such a coffee or espresso maker could function have developed each year to reach finally the current times, during which the industry of coffee relies on the high standards of functioning. The first characteristics that a consumer should look for are the temperature of heating, the materials from which the producers have built the coffee maker, the brewing time and, of course, the quality of the mixed coffee flavor.

Generally, such a coffee maker will include professional electronic scales, which control the heating process and the pressure of the boiling water. Due to their increasing number of types and abilities, coffee and espresso makers are each day developing a powerful industry, based on world’s third most traded commodity, coffee.