Museo: MUMAC – Museo della Macchina per Caffè Cimbali Group

End of the path

This section focuses on the Laboratory as a room dedicated to the relationship between the present, past, and future in the world of coffee.

If you proceed into the last room, named LAB of the relationship that connects present, past, and future, you will reach the Faema President and, subsequently, the La Cìmbali M200: devices designed for the new coffee specialists, meticulous in every detail. Often, these specialists have personally selected and roasted the beans and aim not only to serve a coffee-based beverage but also to narrate the story behind the blend or the unique origin they offer to the consumer. These professionals require high performance, flexibility, and sustainability to provide superior quality extractions with compact equipment, to be placed back on the counter in front of the consumer, who is no longer just a customer but an increasingly informed and demanding consumer. The visit dedicated to the evolution of the end user of coffee machines concludes here, awaiting the next revolution. Now, if you wish to further explore the stories enclosed in the MUMAC, you can choose another path.

The birth of the Cìmbalino

This section focuses on the presentation of the Cìmbalino at the Milan Fair in 1950.

In the 1950s, a particularly popular way of calling espresso with crema emerged: Cìmbalino, a term coined with the launch of the first lever machine by La Cìmbali, il Gioiello, presented in a showcase, just like a jewel, at the Milan Fair in 1950.

From the Ideal Gaggia to the "Gioiello"

This section focuses on some of the most iconic machines for producing espresso with crema.

On the counter, as soon as you enter the room, the first machines you see are the Gaggia Ideale, born from the collaboration with Faema and the first to have produced creamy coffee without steam as indicated on the front of the machine, followed by the Saturno, with its imposing shape, a unique machine in the world that celebrates the "hydro-compressed coffee infusion." Complex names to indicate the now consolidated espresso with crema. La Cìmbali simplifies everything with the launch of the Gioiello, next to which there is a typical advertisement of the time for the Cìmbalino and next to a very accurate miniature reproduction of the machine.

Advertising

This section focuses on advertising dedicated to the Cìmbalino.

Such a simple and effective term used to refer to Italian espresso with crema was initially spread through what we would now call advertising, specifically created for the professional espresso machine model La Cìmbali Gioiello, which in its advertisement urged people to enjoy "with La Cìmbali, a Cìmbalino," a phrase later printed on the machines' fronts (including the Rubino and the Granluce) from that point on, placing it in front of everyone's eyes: let's not forget that during that time, the machines were on the counter of the bar and not behind it. In short, the expression, conveyed through radio commercials, newspapers, company vehicles that stopped in squares to distribute free coffee, promotional activities related to the world of sports, and the massive distribution on bar counters of machines carrying the same invitation, spread to such an extent that in the 1950s the term Cìmbalino denoted Italian espresso everywhere.