What does the coffee pot that brings 300 million people back home from coffee shops look like? | Posture

How could a small coffee pot break the Guinness World Record and even completely revolutionize the leisure attitude in Italy and even the world?

On February 11 this year, Italian coffee tycoon Renato Bialetti passed away. In memory of him, his children placed his ashes in an enlarged version of the Bialetti Moka pot. It was he who made Bialetti's aluminum Moka pot sold all over the world and became a symbol of Italy.

In Italy in the 1930s, public coffee houses almost monopolized all aspects of coffee production and sales, and also gave birth to many political and ideological movements that had a profound impact on Europe. Inspired by this trend, manufacturers were constantly trying new technologies to create more practical coffee machines. However, compared with these coffee machines, the home coffee equipment at the time was still slow and clumsy, which gave inventors a great opportunity.

An espresso machine advertisement from 1922, in which the artist used a locomotive to represent the speed and convenience of the espresso machine.

On the other hand, aluminum had gradually become Italy’s “national material” at the time, and product designers began to use this industrial material to make furniture and daily necessities. Aluminum and caffeine, these two seemingly unrelated things, have some common “modern” characteristics: light, fast, flexible, and electrified, which are very consistent with the Italians’ vision of a new lifestyle at the time.

The one who successfully combined the two and gave them a modern aesthetic was Renato Bialetti’s father, Alfonso Bialetti.

Interestingly, the inspiration for the Bialetti coffee machine originally came from a local way of washing clothes in Italy: first heat water in a tub with pipes, then pump soapy water into the pipes and use it for washing clothes after diversion. It was this unique way that inspired Alfonso Bialetti to come up with the idea of ​​using this principle to make a simple home coffee machine.

The working principle of the moka pot is completely different from the filtered and siphon coffee brewing methods. The extraction process is very short, which makes the caffeine intake lower, which is convenient and healthy.

After several years of adjustment, the octagonal Bialetti Moka pot was born in 1933. It was the world's first home coffee pot that used steam pressure to extract coffee (from then on, all coffee pots that worked on this principle were called "Moka pots"). It was made of aluminum and looked very similar to an Italian silver coffee pot. The internal design was simple and compact. Even if people had no brewing experience, they could enjoy cafe-level espresso at home, opening up a new lifestyle.

The Bialetti Moka pot has an octagonal appearance and is very decorative in art style. The name "Moka" comes from the port city of Moka in Yemen, because it was once the earliest and largest coffee trading port in the world.

But it was Alfonso's son Renato Bialetti who really made Bialetti famous. After taking over the factory, he eliminated all product lines except the moka pot and quickly increased the company's production scale to 1,000 pieces per day. At the same time, he carried out large-scale marketing activities, making the Bialetti moka pot frequently appear in various advertisements and exhibitions.

Renato Bialetti

Feeling tired? Make a cup of coffee with the large moka pot!

In order to compete with more and more competitors and imitations, Renato also created the "Uncle with a Mustache" trademark in 1953. This cartoon image has since become the logo of Bielloti and often appears in advertisements.

Bilodi's most representative image of "bearded uncle"

By adjusting production, Renato further expanded the production scale to 18,000 pieces per day. According to data, Bialetti created a Guinness World Record of 300 million sales, and 90% of Italian families own at least one Bialetti Moka pot. This "coffee magic tool" has become a true "Italian symbol" with the Fiat 500 car, Vespa motorcycle and Nutella hazelnut chocolate spread.

Indeed, coffee shops are wonderful, but isn't brewing a cup of warm coffee at home another luxury? The following exquisite coffee utensils will allow you to enjoy the fun of brewing coffee at home:

Alessi Pulcina Italian coffee maker is the result of the research of illy coffee and Alessi in their respective fields. The built-in special heating system can help the coffee maker to automatically stop at a suitable time after filtering coffee.

Tom Dixon milk cup, stainless steel milk cup plated with Tom Dixon's classic copper surface. The metal handle can directly feel the temperature of the milk foam.

The Eva Solo narrow-mouth coffee pot from Denmark comes with a filter and a leak-proof cap, making brewing very simple. The outer layer of space cotton is designed to be both cute and considerate. The reference price is about RMB 660.

The Onton mug has a large capacity to satisfy the greed of coffee lovers. Available at IKEA, reference price 39.9 RMB, 4 pieces.

Richard Brendon designed a mirror coffee cup set, which explores the various possibilities of the development of British bone porcelain optical illusion patterns. Reference price: 1280 RMB per set.

The HAND coffee brewing pot set comes from the Taiwanese lifestyle aesthetics brand TOAST. Its design is as simple as a piece of white bread, and you can brew a cup of good coffee with just a piece of filter paper.

Planet Sugar Bowl, produced by Diesel living with Seletti, comes with a small spoon. The reference price is about RMB 935.

The French press produced by Danish brand Muuto, designed by Mette Duedahl, has a round and lovely appearance. It is a wonderful product of the combination of multiple materials - sand, wood and steel. The reference price is about RMB 765.

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