Gaggia’s iconic professional coffee machines are now available In The UK via Evoca Group.
The desire to make the perfect espresso – that is the raison d’être of one of Italy’s most iconic coffee companies. It was during the ’30’s, amidst the unmistakable hustle and bustle of Milan, that ‘Italian Coffee’ as we know it was conceived…
Achille Gaggia, a barista, has a light-bulb moment: to build a coffee machine that doesn’t use steam, but rather a revolutionary piston mechanism that pushes water through coffee at high a temperature. He works diligently to realise his vision and ultimately creates what he considered to be the perfect espresso. Little did Sig. Gaggia know that his success had heralded the modern Italian espresso era.
Since that fateful day in 1938, across Europe and from to the US to Australia, the most state-of-the-art cafés have served an infinite number of cups of espresso made on a Gaggia machine
Gaggia’s process suddenly made coffee ‘cool’. By the end of the ’40’s, Gaggia machines were installed in many an Italian home. By the 1950s and 60s Gaggia machines were a staple in high street coffee bars, capturing the vibrancy and energy of the time.
UK coffee aficionados can choose from a range consisting of both traditional and super-automatic machines, each aimed at a specific sector of the marketplace, as Evoca UK’s Sales Director Craig Jukes explained. ‘The driving force behind our new machines is the desire to offer baristas a choice of innovative machines that not only allow them to craft an espresso that Achille Gaggia himself would be proud of, but also enable them to work with increased efficiency.’
Among, the new Gaggia machines are La Reale, La Radiosa and La Giusta. The machines are manufactured in Italy in the group’s factories and with such names, there’s no doubting that espresso coffee is still considered an Italian experience the world over.
Jumping forwards to the 2020s and the Gaggia professional range still bears all the hallmarks of Italian style. La Reale and La Giusta were designed by the Bonetto agency. Most noted for its excellence in automotive design, Bonetto also has huge experience in the coffee sector. They’ve created machines that have a refined and charming style. They look modern, but at the same time, they pay homage to certain stylistic elements that typify the ‘mythical’ fifties, which arguably were the haydays of Italian chic.
Top of the range is La Reale. It is unique; entirely designed by light. This can be seen not only in the shimmering reflections of its copper and steel bodywork, but also in the soft light of its LED profiles and in its evocative backlighting. The machine has a touch screen and a push-button panel in connection with each brewing unit to allow complete customization of the brewing parameters and rapid, intuitive selections. It is a machine created to satisfy the needs of the most demanding market.
Gaggia’s La Giusta is more classical, reminiscent of the original company style in its use of metallic materials and its attention to detail, which combine to create a product of undisputed robustness. A backlit rear logo and front push-buttons combine elegance with functionality.
La Radiosa is an innovative super-automatic professional machine, with a high-definition 10” touch screen for beverage selection. Framed by LED profiles that create unlimited combinations of colours according to the user’s wishes, La Radiosa is equipped with a brewing unit that perfectly delivers both quality espresso and those larger beverages particularly appreciated by UK consumers and a brand-new fresh milk delivery system, (EvoMilk), allows the preparation of hot and cold foamed milk-based beverages, always with excellent results.
‘Gaggia’s name carries similar international kudos to that of ‘Ferrari’ or ‘Gucci’’, Craig said. ‘As a premium brand, there can be no compromise on quality. Having said that, each of these machines offers considerable cost-savings over comparable ‘competitive’ products. Our aim was to bring the production of the best possible coffee within the reach of the typical independent coffee shop, of the sort that is constantly appraised by consumers entirely on the quality of drinks delivered. We’ve achieved that. Purchasers have compared the machines’ capabilities with other products and they’ve found that they can make considerable cost savings without any compromises on quality.’
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