History

BARATZA™  (bah-rah-tsa) suggests (from Arabic and Swahili) a place where locals gather to drink coffee.

BARATZA™   was started in 1999 by Kyle Anderson and Kyra Kennedy.  Kyle Anderson, President of BARATZA™  , is the well know inventor of the first commercial super-automatic latte/espresso machine and founder of Acorto. Anderson was awarded a number of US and foreign patents for the innovations incorporated in the Acorto machines.  Kyra Kennedy was Acorto’s Director of Sales and Marketing.  After many years in the commercial coffee business, Kyle and Kyra wanted to use their knowledge and passion for coffee to bring superior quality coffee equipment to the home.

Initially,  BARATZA™ was the exclusive importer and distributor of Solis coffee/espresso machines and coffee grinders. But after 18 months, Kyle saw ways to improve the Solis grinder.  In 2001, Baratza developed their first grinder, the Maestro.   This grinder was joined by the Maestro Plus in 2003.  Both of these models quickly became the benchmark for home grinders within the gourmet coffee industry. 

In 2005,  BARATZA™  spun off their coffee/espresso machine business in order to focus solely on design, development, production and distribution of high-end gourmet coffee grinders. With over 16 years of experience in Gourmet coffee grinding and brewing equipment, the design team at BARATZA™  embarked on the goal of setting a higher standard for home grinders.  The result of this project is the all new Virtuoso. 

With the Virtuoso, BARATZA™ set out to blur the lines between “home” and “commercial” when applied to coffee grinders.  The Virtuoso boasts an innovative burr calibration system that ensures that each grinder will accurate grind for espresso, drip, and coffee press.  The Virtuoso also has commercial quality components such as a high torque DC motor, commercial quality conical burrs and uses a combination of gear and electronic speed reduction to control the rotation of the burr to 450 RPM.  Because of the commercial quality components and the performance capability of the Virtuoso, it has earned a commercial UL listing to standard 763.

In 2007, BARATZA™   finished a project to upgrade the Maestro and Maestro Plus grinders with many of the innovative features of the Virtuoso.  The upgraded Maestro and Maestro Plus have been introduced under the BARATZA™ brand name.

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