.png)
Every morning starts with a good coffee. For Italians, it is part of their popular identity from which it is difficult to deviate and for which they are extremely proud. The preparation of this drink has always had the charm of an ancient ritual, where every gesture is studied and executed with precision. Let's find out who to thank for this extraordinary object, perfect in its simplicity.
One day, the steel entrepreneur Alfonso Bialetti, looking out of the window, saw his wife washing clothes in the lisciveuse, the ancestor of the modern washing machine: a very large pot equipped with a tube and a perforated top in which the laundry was put, together with the detergent of the time, lye. The operation of this machine is quite simple: the water comes to the boil, rises up the tube, and then flows back down onto the laundry together with the detergent.
Alfonso had a workshop for working aluminium in Crusinallo, a small village in Piedmont, and he came up with the idea of using the same principle to build a coffee machine (prepared until then with the Neapolitan coffeepot, to be overturned while boiling). The material chosen for the construction was aluminium, very much in use in Italy in those years due to its much lower price than other metals such as iron and more easily available, as well as being much appreciated by the futurists: it was in fact a shiny, resistant, light, incorruptible and even 'fast' metal, since it was used for the construction of those planes so dear to the avant-garde of the early 20th century.
In the design phase, every formal choice for this object is not accidental: from the octagonal-section boiler designed to have an optimal grip even when wet or with a cloth, as if it were a bolt, to the valve that can be inspected, up to the gasket for easy closure. It was 1933 when Moka Express (also known as Moka) was born, with such a peculiar name coming from the city of Mokha, in Yemen, famous for its Arabica blend coffee production.
However, it was thanks to his son Renato, who took over the company in 1946, that this object reached industrial production, opening the doors of history for Moka. The company's heir pushed sales to millions of pieces and made Moka a universal icon, even bringing it onto TV with Carosello, an advertising television programme broadcast for about 20 years in Italy. Advertising spread the desire for the coffeemaker that makes 'espresso like at the bar' (the most popular slogan) also thanks to the success of the testimonial of the commercials: the Little Man with the Moustache. Created by the pencil of Paul Campani and dubbed, after a decade, by Raffaele Pisu who still brands the products, the character owes his appearance to Alfonso Bialetti's son: the unmistakable moustache and a finger always raised to order a coffee make the caricature immediately popular and recognisable. In the beginning, the illustrated character of the Carosello episodes was always the same, with no particular changes to the drawing. The only animated part was the mouth, with the letters of the words pronounced in overlay. This system saved time and money.
Bialetti's Moka coffee maker, a contemporary object for almost a century, epitomised the values of Made in Italy: creative spirit, culture of the table and craftsmanship. Displayed not only in the Triennale Museum in Milan, but also at the MOMA in New York, this object did not undergo restyling until 2004, when it underwent marginal changes, to the shape of the handle or the metal finish, and new colours were introduced.
In 2013, at the Permanente in Milan, an exhibition was set up that recounted the ingenious invention of the Moka through the point of view of the now famous Little Man with a Moustache. The aim was to explain the importance of the Moka as the protagonist of a change in the daily habits of Italians, and to recount its prominence in the history of Italian design.
