The “Miscela Oro” is not only our bestseller but a reflection of our history and tradition. It combines the sweetness of the Brazil Alta Mogiana, the fruity notes of Honduras Marcala and the body of the Indian Robusta. Some of our clients use up to 5 Kgs of this blend every day in their coffee shop!
But how did this success come about? To tell you everything about it, we need to take a step back, to the end of the 1800s when the espresso coffee was first invented.
But how did this success come about? To tell you everything about it, we need to take a step back, to the end of the 1800s when the espresso coffee was first invented.
The history of the Espresso coffee machine
The first patents of Espresso machines date back to the beginning of the 1800s. A first prototype was launched in 1884 when the entrepreneur Angelo Moriondo patented a first instant coffee machine for the customers of his American bar inside the Galleria Nazionale in Via Roma in Turin. This first type of Espresso mache was however never developed further.
Subsequently, at the beginning of the 1900s, the Milanese entrepreneur Luigi Bezzera, made some changes to Moriondo’s project and created his version of the espresso machine which was based on a “stamp” system. This machine’s patent was then passed down to Desiderio Pavoni in 1902.
The last stop to our short journey in discovering the birth of the modern Espresso machine is in 1938, when the Milanese barista Achille Gaggia develops Moriondo’s invention further, into a pressure espresso machine.
Before that, the machine worked with steam which pushed the water through the high temperature coffee powder thanks to a piston device.
With this innovation and the subsequent diffusion of Espresso machines throughout the country, coffee imports in Italy started increasing drastically. This sudden coffee boom brought with itself the necessity of baristas to find the perfect Espresso extraction. At the time (and, unfortunately, still today!) for many, this meant: a thick and dark cream.
Vasco Bernini and his quest for the perfect Espresso
Mokaflor’s founder Vasco Bernini, didn’t agree with the common Italian idea which to have a good Espresso, it had to have a thick and dense crema. We know for a fact, that this is usually a synonym of high percentages of Robusta and dark roasting. Not that Robusta necessarily means bad quality, but the dark roasting was (and still is!) used very often to hide defects of the coffee beans.
For this reason, Vasco started an in-depth analysis and research to find the best coffee beans around the world. This was not easy. At that time, only a few origins were imported, mainly those that cost less, and finding a high quality coffee on the market was very difficult.
In the 1940s and 1950s, coffee roasters and bars began to make blends with very high percentages of Robusta to have a coffee with increasingly thick and dark cream, roasting very dark and therefore giving a rather bitter result in the cup.
For Vasco this was the wrong path. He believed that by educating the public to a more balanced, less bitter and burnt taste, while maintaining a good crema, he would have managed to change this wrong conception. He strongly believed that the key element in evaluating a coffee was its aroma and taste, not merely by the crema.
To do so, he made a few for the time quite drastic choices such as roasting each origin individually. For him it was important that each coffee is roasted with its own ideal roast profile, left to rest for at least 24 hours and then blended with the other origins.
The 80/20 blend: a 70 year old research
The 80/20 Gold is the result of this ideal blending according to Vasco Bernini in order to obtain a great coffee. Back in the day, this blend was made up of only two origins: the Brazilian, a very neutral and sweet coffee excellent as a base for all blends, combined to a very aromatic and intense robusta variety from Africa.