Espress development
for Flavia pack

Working for Mars Drinks, IDC developed a clever solution for brewing and dispensing hot drinks and espresso. Using Mars' existing Flavia foil pack, the team had to develop a new solution that was able to handle the high water pressure required to brew espresso. With the existing configuration, the Flavia sachet was unable to work at such high water pressure, so IDC was asked to develop new technology to resolve this.

IDC's industrial design and engineering teams worked together to identify a new mechanism for the machine.

Looking at user behaviour, it became clear that when making espresso, users liked the traditional clamp handle used with espresso machines and the team worked to integrate this into the design. A clever clamp/lever mechanism was developed which provided the mechanical advantage and clamping action required for the sachet to tolerate the high water pressure needed for espresso.

Working with IDC Models, the team set up test rigs to evaluate different concepts and test potential engineering mechanisms.

Once the best solution was identified, the team developed a working model incorporating the new technology to test how the coffee was brewed and dispensed. This was then refined to ensure the best espresso possible.

IDC's technology now sits at the core of the Flavia Barrista system, serving millions of cups of award-winning coffee.