Angelo Moriondo: Google pays tribute to Angelo Moriondo, pioneer of espresso machines

With a special Google Doodle, Google is celebrating the 171st birthday of Angelo Moriondo, who is widely regarded as the creator of espresso machines. According to Google’s Google Doodle website, coffee was once the trendiest commodity in town in 19th century Italy. Customers had to wait more than five minutes for their drink due to brewing procedures. The individual who patented the first known espresso machine is Angelo Moriondo. The Doodle of the Day is 171 years old today.n

Angelo Moriondo was born in Turin, Italy, on June 6, 1851, into a family of businessmen that were always fermenting new ideas and enterprises. His grandfather established a liquor manufacturing business, which was passed down to his son (Angelo’s father), who went on to build the well-known chocolate firm “Moriondo and Gariglio” with his brother and cousin.

Moriondo acquired two establishments, the Grand-Hotel Ligure in the city centre Piazza Carlo Felice and the American Bar in the Galleria Nazionale of Via Roma, following in his family’s footsteps.

Customers used to have to wait a long time for their beverages before Moriondo’s idea. Unlike real espresso machines, Moriondo’s innovation was a bulk brewer, which allowed him to greatly reduce the time he spent brewing coffee.

To make coffee, his machine used a mix of steam and boiling water. It had a massive boiler that forced hot water through a bed of coffee grinds, as well as a second boiler that produced steam to flash the bed of coffee and finish the brew.

Moriondo debuted his espresso machine at the General Expo of Turin in 1884, where it received a bronze medal, after closely overseeing a mechanic he hired to make it. “New steam apparatus for the economical and quick confection of coffee beverage, technique ‘A. Moriondo,'” he acquired a patent for. In the years that followed, Moriondo continued to enhance and patent his idea.