COSMOS @ COFFEE

Coffee as an art form

There are small cavities in coffee leaves, home to the mites that live symbiotically with the plant. You can learn about this and a thousand other curiosities at one of the largest exhibitions ever created about the microcosm and macrocosm of coffee at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, from 4th July 2019 to 31st May 2020.

Six sessions (biology, chemistry, technology, economy, culture and ecology) offer an immersive and interactive journey to discover the drink from both a sensory and scientific perspective.

 

Mixed reality

Always a forerunner in scientific experience (not only in the form of exhibitions), Deutsches Museum amazes once again with the extraordinary Cosmos Coffee exhibition, which features 1000 coffee flavours, 198 interactive exhibits, 185 original objects, 37 games and entertainment experiences and hundreds of “magic tricks” revealed to visitors. Not only roasting and grinding, but also three-dimensional images of electron microscopy and chemical reactions that can be tested first-hand, from health impacts to the molecular reactions of milk and sugar to reduce bitterness. Viewers can step into the shoes of a chemist or a businessperson who trades coffee futures to see its high price volatility, learning about what affects the quality and price of beans.
Machines in the spotlight
There are areas dedicated to coffee as a tool for greater cultural effectiveness, a silent engine that powers revolutions and revivals of entire countries, as well as areas devoted to the history of coffee and of dispensing devices that make it one of the most popular drinks in the world. The exhibition stars the most famous coffee machines in the world, including seven major pieces from MUMAC: the elegant Ala, the first horizontal machine made by LaCimbali in the 1940s, which has a modernist design both in terms of its innovative functionality and its aesthetic; La Pavoni D.P. 47, known as “La Cornuta” due to the distinctive shape of dispensers, which is considered the most valuable piece in the espresso machine collecting world, a truly sculptural steam-operated metal machine of which there are only two surviving models in the world; the Faema E61, an iconic four-group machine from the 1960s, which is still considered revolutionary in terms of its extraction technology.
These machines are joined by La Pavoni D.P. 53, which features two lever groups designed by Giò Ponti, Gaggia Esportazione, the first electronic machine ever made, Faema Tronic, designed by Cibic-Sottsass and, finally, one of the most recent machines, the black two-group Faema e71.

 

Valuable loans
These jewels of engineering, technology and aesthetics tell a story that belongs to us and embody the commitment to spread this story, including through continuation of the “loan project” undertaken by the museum with the aim of sharing the industry’s culture and its heritage with the most important bodies and institutions in the world.