Coffee that is out of this world... literally!

Photo credit

I loooove coffee. I really do.

But there are sometimes that I feel that my love of the bean pales in comparison to the love some others feel for their brew.

Photo credit: NanLawson

For instance, there were some people at the London Coffee Festival who were SERIOUS about their coffee... I mean "not interested in frothy milk on top because it gets into my hipster beard, the-darker-the-better, I know where the beans were harvested just by vaguely sniffing them" kind of intensity about their coffee.

But even these coffee aficionados pale in comparison to Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. 

Not only was she the first female Italian astronaut, but the astronaut to drink espresso in orbit. How out of the world is that?!

Up until now, astronauts have had to make do with instant coffee. And when you think about it, space isn't really the best place to be attempting to create the perfect brew using a high-pressure machine full of steaming hot water.

No problem thanks to the ISSpresso - a specialist coffee machine designed expclusively for use in space, and was delivered to the International Space Station last week.

Using a regular coffee pod capsule, the ISSpresso makes the coffee by circulating hot water through a system of specially designed pipes. Once brewed, the coffee ends up being contained in a pouch with a straw (much like a drinking box!), allowing the astronauts to enjoy delicious real espresso, like you would on any piazza in Florence!

 The ISSpresso was an extensive collaborative project between Italian coffee comapny Lavazza and engineering firm Argotec.

Read more about the ISSpresso machine and the cups used by the astronauts on the NASA blog.

Now, I wonder if they have any problems keeping their coffee hot up there in space?! A future collaboration between Couva and NASA in the future?!

www.couva.co.uk