Espresso Machines at $20,000 Bring Corner Cafe Flavors to Homes

Kees van der Westen first encountered espresso as a college student. It was the 1980s, and he was studying industrial design in Genk, Belgium. Like most college students, he valued the dark, acidic shots pulled in local cafes primarily for their caffeine content, not their complexity of flavor, mouth feel or aroma.

That changed after he chose the espresso machine as the final project for his degree, Bloomberg Pursuits magazine will report in its Holiday 2013 issue. Most devices then in production were boring metal boxes, he says, leaving plenty of room for innovation.