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Martedì 16 Marzo 2010 10:12

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Trieste – worldwide coffee HQ

Date:16/03/2010

Written By:Oliver Hildebrand

The Italian port-town of Trieste isn’t just a beautiful place to enjoy the highest quality Italian espresso, it’s also home to a wealth of coffee-related history and a major global player in the industry today.

Its grand central square, the Piazza dell’ Unita, is host to locals and tourists, who sip cappuccinos while taking in the spectacular view of the Porto Doganale.

It was because of this port that Trieste’s coffee heritage was born over 250 years ago. In the early eighteenth century, while part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the port was granted tax-free status by the Habsburg Emperor Charles VI and experienced a subsequent boom which coincided with the popularisation of coffee in Europe.

As the Viennese came under the thrall of coffee, green beans destined for Austrian roasting houses became one of Trieste’s biggest imports, and it remains a vital industry to the town.

"Trieste is the main Mediterranean coffee port," says Max Fabian, president of Asscaffè, Trieste's coffee association. "On average, we have 1 to 1.5 million bags of green coffee beans stocked in the port, and more or less 2 to 2.5 million bags are imported through the port of Trieste each year."

Due to its integral position in the coffee industry, legions of traders, shipping agents, wholesalers, graders, decaffeinaters and roasters flock to the picturesque locale.

One Trieste-based firm, Pacorini, moves more than 10% of the world’s raw coffee beans. They also perform quality control duties such as cleaning, grading and testing the product before they are given the nod to be roasted.

Testers taste espresso in the same way sommeliers test wine, swilling it around their mouth before spitting it out. It isn’t all business though, local townsfolk enjoy drinking coffee just as much they do selling it. Trieste inhabitants drink twice as much coffee as the average Italian, churning through an impressive 10 kilograms per capita a year.

There are many of the traditional style espresso bars in the town’s centre and Trieste, because of its proximity to Austria, also features a unique establishment for an Italian town – the traditional Viennese-style coffee house.

One of the finer examples of this is the Caffè San Marco, one of the fives historical cafés left in the town. Its beautiful frescos, wood-paneling and marble tabletops remain in the same fine condition they were in when famous writers like James Joyce, Italo Svevo and Umberto Saba drank there a century ago.

To this day, prominent literary figures frequent the historical establishment. Between the 28th and the 30th of October this year the town will host the 5th edition of TriestEspresso Expo, an exhibition especially for coffee industry professionals.

But you needn’t be in the business to enjoy all this seaside gem has to offer; it’s a perfect holiday destination for tourists who love their history and their coffee.

http://www.gilkatho.com.au/news/default.asp?cmd=view&articleid=824

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