Piston Coffee Machines 
 

The piston coffee machines were developed in 1945 by Achille Gaggia in Italy. The design generically uses a lever, pumped by the operator, to pressurize hot water and send it through the coffee grinds. The act of producing a shot of espresso is colloquially termed pulling a shot, because these lever-style espresso machines required pulling a long handle to produce a shot.

There are two types of lever machines; manual piston and spring piston design. With the manual piston, the operator directly pushes the water through the grounds. In the spring piston design, the operator works to tension a spring, which then delivers the pressure for the espresso (usually 8 to 10 bar).

The piston-driven machine is the origin of the crema, which was originally thought to be an undesirable waste product but is now considered characteristic of a properly made shot of espresso.

These machines no matter who the manufacturer is have very positive consumer reviews about their reliability, product quality, ease of use (assuming you are strong enough to pull the lever) but, they have to draw backs they only produce one or two cups at a time and because they have the tendency to sputter hot ground coffee as you pull the portafilter out to make another espresso, children should not operate these machines or be close to them while you operate them.

The best known models are from Gaggia and La Pavoni but, there are other brands in the market that have identical quality machines.

Looking for some of the very best when it comes to espresso machines?

Espresso machines can be bought at several of the online merchant sites in the World Wide Web. These include the more famous ones, like Amazon.com and eBay.

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