In Naples, Italy, (pictured at left) there is only one way to drink coffee: short and dark. Trieste, a seaside city in northeast Italy, however, is more varied – natives drink their coffee in many ways. With milk, without. Long or short. They even have a unique vocabulary – “capo” means with a dash of milk, “in b” is in a glass, and “nero” translate to an espresso – that is only used in the port city.
So, it is no surprise that when Nespresso, the luxury Swiss coffee company, decided to create limited-edition Italian-inspired espressos for summer, the result was two very different tastes. The coffee influenced by Naples is an intensely concentrated blend of beans from South America, Africa and Asia that has a strong, if traditional, taste, while the Trieste is more complicated, reflecting the complex Italian, Germanic and Slavic roots of the city. Both provide a strong flavor on their own, but also work when mixed with milk. (This editor favored the Trieste – cappuccino style.)
