Gaggia is so iconic it’s the crema de la crema of coffee machines worldwide

Gaggia coffee machines were first invented in Milan in the late 1930s, revolutionising the way coffee was made and setting new stylish standards worldwide.

In 2003 Gaggia UK Direct was granted Cool Brand Leader status by The Brand Council which put the company alongside the likes of Aston Martin, Chanel, Royal Doulton, Bang and Olufsen, Jaguar Cars, Lambretta, Vespa, Moet & Chandon, Selfridges and Xbox.
This is because Gaggia changed the way coffee was made forever.

Until 1938 the only way to make expresso was to blast the coffee grounds with steam but Italian businessman Achille Gaggia felt this gave a poor, bitter taste and believed he could invent something much better. He had an ingenious mind and forced hot water to flow over the grounds at high pressure which first produced the crema unique to expresso.

The first steamless expresso machine Gaggia invented in Milan in 1938 revolutionised the way coffee was made. This extracted a range of aromas and natural coffee oils to produce a soft layer of ‘crema naturale’ on the top of the drink. The espresso became different and better, more intense and captivating, characterised by a rich and bold flavour.

In 1947 the invention moved to a  lever-piston brewing mechanism after Achille saw how an American jeep’s piston engine worked.

The Gaggia company was founded the same year and the Gaggia name has been renowned for making consistently high quality coffee machines ever since and continues to be widely acknowledged to be a leading authority within the coffee industry.

In 1952 Gaggia invented the first coffee machine for domestic use called Gilda, inspired by actress Rita Hayworth’s iconic performance in the 1946 film Gilda.

But it was in the 1970s when the Baby Gaggia coffee machine helped to propel the brand to the top of the domestic market as this machine made it possible for people to create a café standard expresso in their own home. Gaggia has kept its high position ever since with some machines so eye-catching you’d be right to consider them works of art.

Every Gaggia machine is made in Italy combining cutting edge technology, quality and reliability with traditional yet always stylish design. The latest automatic machines will grind the beans, measure the water and deliver the perfect cup of expresso coffee at the push of a button. Some now have digital screens showing the drinks with the top-of-the-range model offering 19 different coffee drinks.

The start to making a cup of coffee is the filter holder where you put the coffee in and all Gaggia holders - called a portafilter in Italy - are 58mm in diameter which means they can fit any Gaggia machine stretching back to the 1940s. That dimension has never changed which makes the machines so universal.

Gaggia UK’s outstanding customer service - known as ‘forever customer care’ – is also iconic.

The company has an almost 100% five-star rating on Trustpilot and is immediately accessible on the phone or by Zoom on the internet. This means that if there’s something a customer doesn’t understand about their coffee machine or they think it may have developed a fault, Gaggia UK’s highly experienced engineers can immediately join the call, see the machine via Zoom and talk the customer through how to solve the problem.

This special customer service helps everyone – the customer, the business itself and the environment and you can read more about it here:
​ https://www.gaggiadirect.com/blog/why-gaggia-uk-directs-forever-customer-care-service-is-the-best-in-the-coffee-business

As Gaggia UK managing director Raj Beadle says: “We used to get around 1,500 machines in a year for service, upgrade or repair but that number has now been halved, saving customers lots of money and their machines needing to be packaged up and sent on expensive, often needless, journeys back to us.”
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This all means that Gaggia is a truly iconic brand for today’s ever growing coffee culture.