A ST. ALi and La Marzocco Collaboration

“There’s nothing better than working with a like-minded brand that shares your same values and passion, which La Marzocco absolutely does.”

Brydon Price, national sales manager of La Marzocco Australia, says the bespoke ST. ALi OFB machine collaboration exemplifies the hand-crafted history of La Marzocco coffee machines, the artisan culture of its Italian home and each company’s dedication to technique and craftsmanship. “It is the first of its kind in Australia,” he says. “La Marzocco has enjoyed a local collaboration with ST. ALi for many years but this partnership is also keenly appreciated by our team in Italy who have shared in the company’s journey as a leading roaster of international renown.”

Tayt Bale, creative director at ST. ALi, says the opportunity to create a coffee machine with Officine Fratelli Bambi’s craftspeople – which involved team members visiting the Florence workshop – was the opportunity of a lifetime. “We’re constantly looking to push the boundaries of coffee, and we’ve always considered ourselves a design-led brand, so this was exactly the kind of project that lights us up,” he says. “There’s nothing better than working with a like-minded brand that shares your same values and passion, which La Marzocco absolutely does.”

Emphasising ST. ALi and La Marzocco’s decades of experience, the machine body’s hand-beaten panels are dimpled with a deliberate patina of tiny custom dents.

Celebrating La Marzocco’s reputation for quality design and the valued imperfections of time and use, the coffee machine was also inspired by UK company Full Blown Metal’s inflated forms, Austrian artist Erwin Wurm’s organic automobile sculptures and the materials within ST. ALi’s Probat roaster.The result is a machine merging art, kinship and espresso.

Hand-polished aluminium, deftly hammered into an undulating golden bumper, wraps the machine’s top, crowned by cup rails fixed with metal badges saluting La Marzocco’s 97-year history. Emphasising ST. ALi and La Marzocco’s decades of experience, the machine body’s hand-beaten panels are dimpled with a deliberate patina of tiny custom dents.

“The OFB team had to take the unusual approach of deliberately beating up their creation,” Price says. “But it allowed for unique techniques to be learned and practiced, something very much in line with the spirit of OFB and its appreciation of truly hand-crafted equipment. We hope the ST. ALi OFB machine collaboration proves an inspiration to others to take this incredible journey with the team in Italy.”

“The OFB team had to take the unusual approach of deliberately beating up their creation. But it allowed for unique techniques to be learned and practiced.”