Also another coffee machine. As if there weren't enough of these things. But this one is different. What is apparent at first glance. “She doesn’t have the typical plumber character,” says Gerhardt Kellermann from the designer duo Relvãokellermann. Ana Relvão and Gerhardt Kellermann designed this new coffee machine for Ligre, which took four years. What the two of them absolutely wanted to avoid was designing another one of those chrome-heavy machines with pumps and valves. This is exactly what all espresso machines have looked like for a good 60 years, since Carlo Ernesto Valente brought his Faema E 61 onto the market in 1961, the first semi-automatic espresso machine for the catering industry. Since then, almost all designers and manufacturers who have worked in this area have modeled themselves on the portafilter heavyweight that revolutionized the brewing process. The really good machines just got bigger, they steamed and hissed even more, and some took half an hour to warm up, which is anything but energy efficient.
Design studio found for the new luxury brand in Munich
Relvãokellermann wanted to avoid all of this. And with them the client, who founded a new label specifically for this purpose: Ligre. The letters make sense, it is an acronym that is formed from the first two letters of Lina Gronbach, supplemented by an E for Europe. Lina Gronbach is the managing partner of the Gronbach Group, a family business that is very familiar with kitchen appliances. Gronbach supplies brands such as Bulthaup, Gaggenau, Miele and WMF, producing components as well as complete products for them.
Lina Gronbach founded her new luxury brand Ligre specifically to develop a portafilter machine of the highest quality. She looked for a suitable design studio and finally found one in Munich in March 2020. “We were surprised ourselves,” says Ana Relvão. “We had no experience in this area before.” But Lina Gronbach was convinced by her concept for a machine that stayed in the background and was as small and yet elegant as possible. The technical know-how came from her and her company, which her grandfather Wilhelm Gronbach founded exactly 60 years ago in Wasserburg am Inn. “Gronbach is an expert in processing aluminum,” says Gerhardt Kellermann. Which is an unusual material for a coffee maker, usually consisting of stainless steel, a little copper and especially a lot of chrome.
“For us it was the most intensive project we have had so far,” says Ana Relvão. The result is a machine that can compete with its larger competitors. The Ligre youn heats up in just four minutes and it also froths milk if necessary. For the brewing process, electrical valves are used instead of mechanical hand valves, and sensors monitor and regulate pressure, temperature and flow rate. It can meet two requirements at the same time: the Easy Mode produces an espresso that you can drink in between, the Advanced Mode offers advanced settings for various brewing parameters, so that a cup of coffee is produced that would also be suitable for a top barista satisfied. The coffee is ground in the Ligre siji mill, which is just as high and flat as the Ligre youn. Both are also rather reserved in terms of color, in silver-beige or black mat. The words “youn” and “siji” indicate that Ligre is planning further products – for the whole world: they mean the number one, in Haitian Creole and Javanese.
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