Are you tired of custom espresso machines yet? Good, me neither. Custom espresso machines have certainly been all the rage this summer, particularly La Marzocco Lineas. Officine Fratelli Bambi—La Marzocco’s bespoke espresso machine atelier—created a one-of-a-kind Linea Mini for ultra-runner Nicki Lange, Copenhagen fashion brand Heliot Emil created one consisting of no straight lines, and product designer Tina Bobbe created a custom raw aluminum casing turning the Linea Mini’s boxy shape into a wavy topographical map. It’s been a good summer for gawking at espresso machines.
And now OFB is back to transform the Linea Mini into one-of-a-kind masterpiece, and they are only using fire and oxygen to do it.
Hand-finishing the machines in copper instead of the traditional aluminum, OFB used “a new artisanal process developed inside Officine Fratelli Bambi” called the Fiammata Technique to create stunning finishes. The process was created by Lorenzo Carcasci, who has spent over three decades shaping metal for La Marzocco. For it, Carcasci carefully applies an open flame to the copper, causing it to oxidize and create new colors like gold, amber, violet, and deep blue.
All done without the use of paints or dyes, and producing one-of-a-kind designs that cannot be reproduced.
The Fiammata Technique debuted in collaborated with La Marzocco Mexico during the World Cup to pay tribute to Estadio Azteca, the Mexico City football stadium that hosted many of the matches, as well as “celebrating Mexico’s football culture, ritual, and passion.”
As you might expect, the results are unbelievable.
The Fiammata Technique is now part of OFB’s “permanent creative language” and can be incorporated into any machine produced by the atelier.
At this point I’m just hoping that I’ve put enough good will in this world that a delivery truck will happen to be driving down one particular residential street when a box containing a Fiammata Linea Mini falls off the back of it. Then after a good faith effort to try to find the purchaser, I will resign to installing it on my countertop until the owner is found. This is the most likely way that I’ll ever own one of these machines that my life now feels incomplete without.
For mor information, visit Officine Fratelli Bambi’s official website.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
