In Trieste, a coffee is not just a morning or after-meal ritual, drunk quickly and with a single and universal name. There is a particular language to order a coffee in Trieste that denotes the town’s antique and embedded culture.
It is a tradition whose roots lie in the height of the Habsburg era. When the first vessels laden with green coffee berthed at the wharf, the first coffee shops appeared in town. We are in the second half of the 18th century and the first years of the following century, and the coffee universe was well-structured and disseminated in town - importers, roasters, processing companies and dozens of coffee shops - culminating in the inauguration of the Coffee Exchange in 1904.
Today, almost 30% of all green coffee imported into Italy passes through Trieste, making it the most important coffee port in the Mediterranean. Coherently with this characteristic, the ratio of coffee shops in town is one for every 300 inhabitants, compared with the National average of one every 400, because meeting for a coffee is a typical characteristic of being Triestine.

The tradition of literary cafés

If you want to order a coffee in the local dialect, this is a dictionary of special terms to learn before you come to town:

Nero: classical espresso coffee in a cup
Goccia (abbreviation of “gocciato”): a coffee with a “drop” of milk froth in the centre, a kind of “caffè macchiato”
Goccia in b: “b” stands for “bicchiere” (glass). This is an espresso with a drop of hot frothy milk, served in a small glass
Capo: espresso with a drop of hot frothy milk, served in a cup
Capo in b: espresso with a drop of hot frothy milk, served in a small multi-faceted glass
Capo in b tanta: espresso with additional milk froth, served in a glass
Capo in b tanta special: espresso with additional milk froth, served in a glass, with a dusting of chocolate powder
Caffelatte o capo in tazza grande: this is the classical “cappuccino”
Deca: decaffeinated
Cbs: “capo in b” without froth.