Coffee As Art

The daily routine of anyone sane begins with a good cup of coffee. There is little more invigorating than the smell of freshly brewed coffee beans waiting for you to enjoy their precious flavors. For thousands of years coffee has been the go-to elixir for the waking weary. And the machines that have brewed your favorite cup get more complicated by the day. Buttons, materials and ease of use all go into creating a superb coffee machine. However, we are snobs and what is ordinary is boring. Thus we bring to you the Espresso Veloce- a coffee maker unlike anything else on Earth.

Created by Paolo Mastrogiuseppe, a South African designer and mechanical engineer from Johannesburg, with a long Italian lineage, the Espresso Veloce is a not merely a coffee maker, but a work of art. After matriculating, he studied at Johannesburg University of Technology and completed a three-year course at the Academy of Design and Drafting. While he was studying, he worked in his father’s precision engineering factory as a fitter and turner, manufacturing submersible pumps and other motor-industry-related components.

Mssr. Mastrogiuseppe, has given new meaning to the term functional art by combining his training as mechanical engineer with his passion for high-tech Formula One and jet propulsion engines. Mastrogiuseppe builds his V8, V10 and V12 Formula 1 engine masterpieces by hand from machined components made from titanium, aerospace grade alloy and authentic thermoset carbon fiber. Each masterpiece is numbered and is also fitted with a Grappa dispenser, naturally!

Another bespoke masterpiece to be had is a jet engine-inspired high-pressure brewing system for tea leaves or ground coffee, called the Aviatore Veloce. It is an exact quarter-scale prototype military jet engine that was never put into production during the Cold War era crafted from authentic aerospace alloys. “My true loves have always been high-performance cars and jets. This with my passion for precision engineering has enabled me to handcraft masterpieces that can be passed on from generation to generation,” Mastrogiuseppe says. So the next time you are craving a cup of joe, think of how much better it’d taste coming from a bespoke F1 inspired coffee maker. Vroom indeed!