Most coffee drinkers, if asked who invented espresso, would probably guess a barista, or maybe just shrug and assume it was always around. The real answer involves a specific patent filed in Turin in 1884, a nearly forgotten inventor whose name almost got erased from history entirely, and two rival businessmen who spent decades getting most of the credit instead. It's a genuinely good story about how invention and fame don't always travel together.
Angelo Moriondo, an entrepreneurial Italian inventor born in Turin in 1851, is now widely credited as the true inventor of the espresso machine. Moriondo was granted a patent on May 16, 1884, for what his filing described as new steam machinery for the economical and instantaneous preparation of coffee as a beverage. His machine combined steam and boiling water in a single mechanism, allowing coffee to be brewed considerably faster than traditional methods, and he received an international patent confirming the invention in Paris the following year, in October 1885.
Moriondo came from a genuinely entrepreneurial family. His grandfather had founded a liqueur producing company, and his father later launched a chocolate business, so building and patenting a coffee brewing innovation fit naturally within his family's commercial background. He unveiled his machine publicly at the Turin General Exposition, where it was used to serve coffee to large numbers of exposition visitors efficiently.
Despite holding the earliest known patent, Moriondo's name faded from espresso's popular history for well over a century, and the reasons are almost entirely about branding, not invention. No machines bearing his name survive today. No verified photographs of his actual machines exist. There were never any commercial "Moriondo" branded machines sold under his own name. Aside from the patent documents themselves, almost nothing physical remains to connect his invention to the wider public.
It took dedicated historical research, notably by coffee historian Ian Bersten in the early 1990s and later confirmed through additional archival work, to properly reestablish Moriondo's claim as the actual inventor of the espresso machine. For decades before that research surfaced, most published histories of espresso credited two other men entirely, and largely still do in casual conversation today.
Roughly seventeen years after Moriondo's original patent, Milanese mechanic and liquor maker Luigi Bezzera developed his own significant improvements to the concept, receiving a patent in 1901 for what he called a coffee making machine. Bezzera's contribution was genuinely important: he introduced the portafilter, added multiple brew heads, and refined the mechanism so that coffee could be brewed to order, one cup at a time, directly and quickly, a meaningful step beyond Moriondo's bulk brewing design, which had been built more for serving large quantities at an exposition than for individual, made to order cups.
Bezzera understood the coffee side of the innovation well, but he lacked the business connections and capital to properly market and scale it. That's where Desiderio Pavoni came in. Pavoni purchased Bezzera's patents and took on the job of marketing and distributing the machines, eventually founding the La Pavoni company. Pavoni also contributed his own meaningful improvement, a pressure release valve that helped prevent baristas from being splashed with scalding hot coffee during operation, a genuinely practical safety innovation on top of Bezzera's core mechanism.
Together, Bezzera and Pavoni debuted their machine publicly at the 1906 Milan Fair, where their stand famously displayed the words "Espresso Caffè" in large lettering, arguably the moment that cemented both the word and the format in the public imagination. That widely circulated image from the 1906 fair is part of why Bezzera and Pavoni, rather than Moriondo, became so strongly associated with espresso's invention in popular retellings for so long afterward.
Here's a detail that surprises a lot of people: neither Moriondo nor Bezzera actually used the word "espresso" in their own patents or descriptions. During their era, the beverage was generally referred to as "caffè in bevanda" or "caffè istantaneo," phrases emphasizing the speed and instant nature of the brewing process rather than using the specific term now universally associated with it. The word "espresso" itself is often linked to the Italian sense of something being made "expressly" or specifically for an individual customer, on demand, though the exact linguistic path from that concept to the modern term isn't perfectly documented.
It's also worth noting that early 20th century espresso didn't taste quite like what's served today. Machines of that era relied on steam pressure alone, typically producing pressures of roughly three quarters to one bar and temperatures just above the boiling point, resulting in a noticeably different extraction than the higher, more controlled pressure used in modern espresso machines.
The story doesn't end with Bezzera and Pavoni. Espresso machine technology continued advancing through the 20th century, with later Milan based manufacturers introducing pump driven designs that allowed cold water to enter the machine and heat quickly, improving both speed and consistency. These innovations also enabled increasingly compact machine designs, well suited to narrow café spaces, and eventually paved the way for smaller, simpler machines built specifically for home use, extending espresso's reach well beyond commercial cafés.
Understanding this layered invention history helps explain a few things about what actually separates well made espresso from a rushed version:
- Pressure and temperature control remain central. The entire lineage from Moriondo through Bezzera and Pavoni to modern machines is fundamentally about precisely controlling water pressure and temperature, the same core variables that still define espresso quality today.
- The portafilter's design has genuine history behind it. Bezzera's original portafilter innovation, allowing a single, quick, made to order shot, remains the basic mechanical concept behind virtually every modern espresso machine.
- "Instant" and "quality" were linked from the very beginning. Espresso's entire premise, since Moriondo's original patent, has been about brewing genuinely good coffee quickly, not sacrificing quality for speed, a balance still central to what separates a well pulled shot from a rushed one.
For more on coffee's much older backstory, well before espresso machines existed, see our guide to where coffee originated.
- "Bezzera and Pavoni invented espresso." Angelo Moriondo holds the earliest known patent for an espresso style machine, filed in 1884, roughly seventeen years before Bezzera's own patent.
- "The word 'espresso' comes directly from the original 1884 or 1901 patents." Neither Moriondo nor Bezzera used the word "espresso" in their own patent filings; the beverage was referred to using other Italian phrases at the time.
- "Early espresso tasted the same as modern espresso." Early 20th century machines relied on lower steam generated pressure than modern pump driven machines, producing a noticeably different extraction.
- "Moriondo's machine was designed for individual, made to order cups." His original design was built primarily for bulk brewing at a public exposition; the single shot, made to order format is more directly credited to Bezzera's later improvements.
A few trends are likely to keep shaping how espresso machines and technique continue evolving:
- Continued precision engineering, as manufacturers keep refining pressure and temperature consistency well beyond what even mid 20th century machines could achieve.
- Growth of home espresso technology, extending the same trajectory that took espresso from bulky commercial café machines to genuinely accessible home equipment.
- Renewed historical interest in overlooked inventors, as Moriondo's own rediscovery demonstrates how much of technical history depends on marketing and documentation as much as the original invention itself.
Frequently asked questions
Angelo Moriondo, an Italian inventor from Turin, holds the earliest known patent for an espresso style machine, granted in 1884, though his contribution was largely overlooked in popular history for over a century.
No surviving machines, verified photographs, or commercial products bearing Moriondo's name exist, while Bezzera and Pavoni publicly and successfully marketed their improved machine at the widely documented 1906 Milan Fair, helping cement their names in popular history instead.
Bezzera introduced the portafilter and multiple brew heads and refined the mechanism to allow a single shot of coffee to be brewed quickly and directly, made to order, a meaningful advance beyond Moriondo's original bulk brewing design.
Pavoni purchased Bezzera's patents, provided the business and marketing expertise to scale and distribute the machines commercially, and contributed his own innovation, a pressure release valve that improved safety during operation.
No. Neither Moriondo nor Bezzera used the term "espresso" in their own patents, referring to their inventions using other Italian phrases emphasizing speed and instant preparation instead.
Not exactly. Early 20th century machines relied on steam generated pressure of roughly three quarters to one bar, considerably lower and less controlled than the pressure used in modern pump driven espresso machines, resulting in a different extraction.
Reviewed and verified by the Restaurant Listings Editorial Team for accuracy and relevance. Our content is researched using official restaurant sources, public records, government agencies, and recognized food safety and hospitality industry resources.
Last reviewed: August 2026
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