Our favourite finds from this 12 months’s version of Italy’s largest meals service + hospitality commerce present.
BY ISABELLE MANI
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Featured photograph courtesy of Host Milano
Italy could also be identified for its espresso, however its deeper legacy lies within the equipment, engineering, and design that makes espresso attainable.
Strolling by way of Host Milano—the world’s main commerce occasion for hospitality, meals service, and low tech, which is held each two years in October in Milan—seems like getting into the left hemisphere of the espresso business’s mind: exact, useful, and endlessly creative. But, in Milan, the place aesthetics and tradition form even essentially the most technical crafts, the expo unfolds as a yin-yang of rigor and creativity.
Now greater than sixty years outdated, Host’s espresso pavilions have developed alongside the rise of unbiased cafés and the trendy café tradition motion. As soon as centered solely on industrial HoReCa (Lodge, Restaurant, and Café) operations, the honest now bridges each worlds: large-scale machines and methods, and instruments that empower small companies and passionate professionals.
That evolution was particularly clear this 12 months, as Host Milano, for the third time, hosted the World Espresso Championships, marking the twenty fifth anniversary of the World Barista Championship, with Australian Jack Simpson taking the title.
On this article, I’ll showcase a few of the merchandise from this 12 months’s Host Milano occasion that seize the steadiness between custom and reinvention, craft and automation. Listed below are a few of the coolest ones I discovered.
Magister’s Lover Espresso Machine
Italian firm Magister‘s compact Lover espresso machine is one which dares to interrupt a century-old ritual: It doesn’t use a portafilter. That alone is a daring transfer, particularly inside the context of Host Milano.
True to Magister’s slogan, “We’re right here to have enjoyable,” the Lover options a stainless-steel physique, a 58 mm brew chamber, a hard and fast 15-bar pump, and 1500W of heating energy. Espresso flows immediately from its enclosed brewing unit into the cup, bypassing the standard portafilter setup.
It’s simple to function: Utilizing the strain and stream dials, you’ll be able to change between espresso, drip, and pour-over-style brewing. With PID temperature management, a strain gauge, and each strain and stream adjustment within the top-tier mannequin, it’s a playful little precision machine—nearly a hybrid between a prosumer workhorse and a design object.
It additionally sits on the decrease finish of the value spectrum for machines with this degree of functionality and specs, making it a uncommon win-win: excessive efficiency, approachable worth. Retail is anticipated to be round €800 (about $932 USD) internationally.
The OutIn Nano for Espresso on the Go
I’ve at all times believed that espresso instruments outdoors cafés needs to be sensible, accessible, and in a position to work for everybody—whether or not it’s after a motorbike journey or an outside sport session, or while you’re in an workplace and refuse to drink the espresso within the break room.
The OutIn Nano is a compact, USB-C rechargeable espresso maker with an inner heating system, appropriate with each floor espresso and capsules. It delivers a wealthy espresso with actual crema because of its 20 bars of strain, 198°F steam temperature, a 7,500 mAh battery, and 80ml water capability. It heats in about 135 seconds and weighs lower than 2 kilos.
It’s costlier than most guide opponents, however it makes up for it by way of self-sufficiency, battery life, and common charging—together with automobile chargers. Add-ons like filter baskets and capsule adapters (priced at round $12–20 USD) add flexibility, and the corporate guarantees sturdy buyer assist and spare components: one thing that actually issues, particularly for rising improvements. It’s additionally now accessible at Decathlon, averaging at round $150 USD, which makes it extra accessible globally. Truthfully, I used to be midway by way of writing this text on the aircraft and already wishing I had one in my bag.
Honorable point out: the Wacaco Nanopresso (priced at round $65 USD).
Excellent Moose’s “Epic Jack” for Sensible + Sustainable Milk Frothing
We lately lined the rise of computerized milk steamers within the February + March 2025 print difficulty of Barista Journal, and one of many manufacturers that stood out essentially the most was Belgium’s Excellent Moose.
The Epic Jack good milk frother, the third-generation version of Excellent Moose’s Jack machine, is the type of tools that may deeply enhance café operations. It helps cafés (particularly smaller ones) perceive their operations in actual time, monitoring milk utilization, prices, and drink output for sharper stock and budgeting—and, importantly, it cuts milk waste whereas releasing baristas to concentrate on espresso, by bettering velocity and suppleness on milk-based drinks with constant high quality.
Milk waste is a pricey, resource-intensive byproduct for cafés and—mixed with the high-quality espresso typically wasted simply to dial in grinders—stays one of many business’s most uncomfortable sustainability contradictions (extra on how innovation can forestall espresso waste within the subsequent part).
Not like Greg, the mannequin from Excellent Moose that connects to an espresso machine, Jack works autonomously with its personal boiler. All that’s wanted is a water line and filtration.
Whereas Jack fits smaller cafés, the Epic Jack was engineered particularly for high-volume hospitality setups, able to steaming bigger batches of milk with the 100-cl good pitchers (1L) (all Excellent Moose fashions require their very own pitchers for compatibility).
For cafés that worth latte artwork, the craft is much from misplaced; it merely turns into quicker. What actually stands out, although, is the system’s precision: As soon as the barista selects the recipe, the machine reads the good pitcher and steams accordingly. Whether or not it’s oat, soy, almond, or dairy, every milk follows its personal warmth curve and texture profile, with exact, repeatable outcomes.
At a median worth of round $6,000 USD, it’s an funding—however one which pays for itself over time.
GWB Know-how Helps Get rid of Espresso Waste
Maintaining with the zero-waste theme, grind-by-weight (GBW) know-how is changing into more and more widespread throughout the business, and its newest refinements have been a significant speaking level amongst professionals at Host Milano. I selected to incorporate a GBW grinder after speaking with associates, café homeowners, and baristas—the individuals who really form the actual demand for upgrading or buying new machines—by way of many conversations on what this regular stream of innovation means for each day café operations from each a sustainability and workflow standpoint.
The system integrates a built-in scale that doses espresso by weight, decreasing waste throughout dial-in and maintaining output constant even when grind dimension is adjusted.
At Host Milano, Venetian producer Mazzer showcased three new GBW fashions, framing GBW as the corporate’s headline innovation this 12 months. Every grinder contains a professionally built-in load cell and Mazzer’s proprietary Vibration Filtering Algorithm, which ensures correct, weight-based dosing even when the counter shakes or the bar will get busy. Main the lineup is the Kony G ($3,445 USD), a low-RPM grinder with 69mm conical burrs designed for precision and quieter efficiency in a high-demand stream. The opposite two, the Tremendous Jolly G (64mm flat burrs) and the compact Mini G, develop the identical logic to completely different workflow scales.
Loveramics Deco Cups: The place Aesthetics Meet Effectivity
The Loveramics Deco Cup line reimagines the stacking cup by way of the lens of recent café design. The Deco assortment attracts inspiration from the early modernist period (developed alongside Artwork Deco) of design for effectivity. Every cup contains a four-step engineered base, designed to interlock not solely with itself however with each different dimension within the vary. From the 60ml espresso to the 220ml filter cup, every stacks safely and neatly on high of the subsequent.
Hand-painted and accessible in 5 colours, the cups are dishwasher, microwave, oven, and freezer-safe, balancing artisanal character with actual sturdiness. The elective stainless-steel rack retains the set organized for storage or show in a house espresso bar.
Designed by Simon Stevens, whose work sits within the collections of the V&A and the Frankfurt Museum of Utilized Artwork, the Deco line carries the concept engineering and artwork could make small however sensible variations.
Pricing ranges from roughly $13 USD for the Cup Organizer, $48–51 USD for the Set of 4 Cups, and $77 USD for the All Dimension Deco Cups and Saucers Set.
Keep tuned for extra protection of our time at Host Milano 2025!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Isabelle Mani (she/her) is a author, journalist, and communicator specializing within the worldwide espresso business. Since 2017, she has centered on writing articles and options for numerous worldwide espresso information shops. Isabelle has traveled to coffee-producing nations equivalent to Colombia, Kenya, Rwanda, China, and Brazil to review and analysis espresso. She holds coaching certifications from the Specialty Espresso Affiliation (SCA) and the Espresso High quality Institute (Arabica Q Grading).
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