Hi guys, I'm just back from my Trieste / Croatia Holiday and desperatly trying to catch up
Coffee in Trieste is an interesting experience, it's the home of Illy so you get a lot of their coffee and in general their focus is far too much on the machines and not at all on the beans. You also get the staff translating what you ask for to what they think you want (since touirsts don't know anything about coffee), so you ask for Caffe Machiatto, you get Latte Machiatto, ask for Cappuchino, get a Cafe Latte, etc. Gets very frustrating!
But for all those going to the Barrista Championships in Trieste take heart, there is one major exception, I Paesi Del Cafe on Via Eina, just looking in their window I froze up in anticipation! Eight Mazzer grinders along the back wall, six Super Jolly's and two Mini's all with little labels on them advising what was in each and two two group machines, now that's what I call a cafe! Staff were friendly, while insisting that if I wanted the single origin I could only have them as straight espresso, so I had a couple of shots, both great (one an Eth Sid and another I can't remember).
If you're in the area it would be a crime to miss this place!
Coratia on the other hand is a very different matter, there was a heavy stench of rancid coffee oils from almost every shot and the taste was truely disgusting. It seems no one in Croatia ever back flushes! The only exception I found was the James Joyce cafe in Pula, not much info on Joyce (probably because he hated Pula and was often quite direct in saying so), but a great collection of about 50 hand grinders, from a little turkish to a huge cast iron shop grinder and some good coffee!