La Marzocco
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
La Marzocco is an espresso machine manufacturer from Florence (Firenze), Italy. Founded in 1927 by brothers Giuseppe and Bruno Bambi, the company became known for craftsmanship and build quality. The company pioneered horizontal boilers in 1939, a design the industry eventually adopted and currently uses today.
La Marzocco survived the war and the post war boom that would claim several less-competitive espresso machine companies. They would adopt a variant of the lever technology pioneered by Gaggia in 1948, and the continuous delivery system pioneered by Faema in 1961. La Marzocco would make their greatest contribution with the GS system in 1970. The most important contribution of the Series GS was the dual boiler system. This system separated the brew water and steam into separate boilers, allowing for more accurate brewing temperatures. Continuous development of the dual boiler system has led to its current leading commercial model, the GB/5, which replaces the venerable Linea, an icon of high end coffee bars in Seattle and other cities in the Pacific Northwest during the late 1990s.
La Marzocco has also been the sponsor of the World Barista Championships, since its inception - and has won rights to WBC machine sponsorship for 2006-2008.
