Author: Silvia Risitano

“Trieste is renowned for its coffee and its cafes” writes Robert Draper in the National Geographic. He declares it in the caption of a shot that portrays Marco and Andrea Bazzara while “working in the family coffee company” and “sniffing the ground coffee to test its aroma”.

The article by the US journalist, also a contributor to the New York Times, was published in the Italian edition of the authoritative magazine in the June 2021 issue but is also available online, in the English version of the magazine, available worldwide. In short, a respectable showcase that offers international visibility to the Julian capital and some of its virtuous realities, including the historic company Bazzara.

The author does not fail to emphasize Trieste’s coffee vocation several times while describing a city mistreated by history but which is heading for a new era of prosperity. Above all by virtue of the potential of its port, finally relaunched.

A port that – thanks above all to its strategic position with respect to Central-Eastern Europe and the advantageous policy of reducing duties – has begun to handle increasing volumes of coffee since the eighteenth century. Over time, a thriving supply chain economy has thus developed and consolidated, which has gradually become not only a commercial practice but a real cultural heritage. As confirmed by the concentration in the city of roasting companies and brands of excellence, of entrepreneurial realities and technological infrastructures of the sector, of specialized training offers and dedicated level events. Without forgetting the splendid historic cafes that have become not only temples of taste and tradition but also stimulating places of aggregation and intellectual exchange. So much so as to consecrate Trieste – where the air “also smells of roasted coffee”, writes Draper – as an international hub of espresso, a Made in Italy cult awaiting a candidacy to become an Intangible Heritage of Humanity at Unesco.

“After the recent inclusion of Bazzara among the hundred Italian excellences selected by Forbes magazine – declares Andrea Bazzara – to be cited also by National Geographic was a gratifying recognition. We are very happy that, among the many relevant local realities in the sector, the image of our company was chosen to represent the prestigious world of Trieste coffee. Especially at such an important time for lovers of Italian espresso: here in Trieste we sincerely support its candidacy for Unesco Heritage ”

“I believe that Chiara Gioia, the Milanese photographer who visited us a few months ago and who I rediscover now published in the famous US magazine – says Marco Bazzara – has perfectly grasped the dedication that characterizes our work. Our company is not just a business but a family heritage, a passion that my father and my brother passed on to him, and to him from him “.

“The publication of this splendid shot of the Bazzara juniors, the third generation of the family, in one of the most important magazines in the world – adds Mariaisabella Musulin, marketing manager of the company – is a great satisfaction also because it rewards the constant investments we make for guarantee not only the quality of our products but also the coherence of image in conveying the values ​​of our brand. Bazzara is attention to detail, it is experience, it is the daily construction of a healthy and challenging work environment, a historic company but projected towards the future, which gives space to young people and is committed to ensuring that everyone’s skills are enhanced. The result is great teamwork, which goes beyond a purely business perspective “.

“Passing through excellence is mandatory to reach success: designing, producing and distributing excellence. Only then, a story of excellence will become a story of success”.These are the words used by the Director of Forbes Italia to introduce the long awaited selection of the Italian 100 Excellences of 2021, enshrined in the renown guide currently published by the magazine.

It is with great excitement that we announce the presence of Bazzara Espresso among the 100 Italian excellences 2021 in the category “Socialize and drink”.

It is for us a milestone and a great recognition for a “tailored made company, refined and respectful of the traditions”, that has been exporting Made in Italy coffee for more than 50 years.

The Forbes guide includes very important companies in the food, restaurant and wine sector, which stood out in the Italian landscape of taste.

This year the excellences have been selected by 5 excellence judges, such as, Stefano Cocco, journalist and editor of the magazine So wine so food (Forbes partner in the writing of the list), Luca Gardini, best World sommelier 2010, and Susanna Tanzi, journalist and luxury and food and wine excellences expert.

You can find us on page 106 of the guide “100 Italian Excellences”, sold together with the magazine Forbes in February.

“Trieste: our Italian capital of coffee”. This is the title of the tribute calendar created by Bazzara and given as a free gift to the customers of the e-commerce to wish them happy holidays.

The calendar is composed of some pictures representing the city from an atypical perspective: not the usual photographs of the most renown places of the city, but real-life extracts showing a less typical but however moving Trieste. A collection of 13 photographs of a hidden Trieste taken to pay tribute to a very fascinating city, not always given the right value as its Italian colleagues.

With this pictures Bazzara chose to highlight the less known places of the city or to give it a different perspective through the lenses of the camera, to make its customers in all Italy take a photographic walk among the hidden places far from the crowded areas.

Franco and Mauro Bazzara say: “From Teatro Romano to the Medieval Tor Cucherna; from the remains of the Roman Basilica of San Giusto to the gardens of San Michele; from the neoclassical Rotonda Pancera to Arco di Riccardo; from San Vito neighbourhood with its villas dating back to XIX century and its Liberty buildings to the antiques shops of the former Jewish ghetto, we wanted to guide you to places, familiar only to the people born and grown up in Trieste”.
“All of this deserves to be known, without forgetting how much this city has always been a thriving place where also artists and writers, intellectuals and scientists lived and left their mark. And, it is the city of our beloved coffee!”

Waiting for a journey to Trieste, you can lose yourself in the streets of the Bazzara calendar.

Trieste is the coffee capital par excellence. Every day in its port ships transporting million of tons of green coffee dock; this coffee will be then traded throughout Italy. This happens in particular thanks to the expansionist politics of more than 3 centuries ago by the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa.

In Trieste, coffee is not only sold but, already inside the free port (Porto Franco), it lives the entire production chain. Here it is possible to find:

• Exporters
• Brokers
• Importers
• Shippers
• Banks
• Insurance companies
• Green coffee processing factories
• Roastery
• Decaffeination
• Consumption

All of this is to be owed mainly to a single person: the Austrian-Hungarian Empress Maria Theresa.

She brought to the city a series of reforms that transformed it into the city we know today. The real estate registry was established together with the compulsory primary education and the inquisition was abolished.

But let’s take a step back. Thanks to the designation as Porto Franco (free port) by the will of Charles VI in 1719 and to the following strengthening realised by Maria Theresa, Trieste becomes one of the main commercial ports in Europe.

Therefore, it can be said that since the early 1700s the city has specialised in the trade of coffee like Hamburg, Marseille and Livorno. The most important coffees were the ones produced in Ethiopia and Yemen.

The politics on customs duties carried out by the Empress Maria Theresa were the element that influenced the most the diffusion of this beverage. It is indeed in 1779 that taxes on the consumption of alcoholic beverages are imposed, contrary to what happened for coffee.

In the region Friuli Venezia Giulia, the first people who spread and use this beverage are the aristocrats who want to emulate the Royals. Later, in about the first half of the XIX century, it reaches also the bourgeoisie and the middle class. In the same years, the city experiences a great increase in the number of Botteghe del Caffè (small coffee shops): in 1815 there are already 38 cafés on 33.000 inhabitants.

Another great incentive given by Maria Theresa to the diffusion of the product was the possibility given to the coffee merchants to sell spirits and vice versa to the spirits sellers to sell and produce coffee.

Thanks to all this and to the Empress’s politics, Trieste develops a permanent bond with this beverage. Over time and with the increase in the numbers of cafés (and of licences too) the citizens’ habits change. The Trieste middle class citizens begin to experience more the “cafés life”: here they read, write, play and speak with their peers. It is also thanks to this aspect that the so called historical cafés have overcome wars and economic crisis. In these places, scholars like Svevo, Joyce, Saba and Stendhal wrote masterpieces of the world literature.

Among the most famous we can mention the Caffè Tommaseo, opened in 1830 or the Caffè degli Specchi founded just some years before. Likewise important is the Caffè San Marco opened in 1914 and immediately meeting place for the irredentists. Regular costumers after the reconstruction (since it was destroyed during the war) were: Saba, Svevo and Giotti.

The great coffee culture that the citizens of Trieste have inherited in 3 centuries of history of the free port made possible the creation of professional training schools dedicated to Espresso coffee.

Among them, we must mention the Bazzara Academy that has as its mission the will of creating unique paths that can thrill and fascinate by spreading the passion for high quality espresso using cutting edge tools.

The Bazzara Academy is among the few academies in Italy that have as trainers three inner SCA AST: Andrea, Marco and Mauro Bazzara.

Marco is the Quality manager of the company. Always part of the coffee world, he decided to enrich his sensory expertise with several specialised degrees: wine, honey, water, aquavit and chocolate.

At the Bazzara Academy, you can attend either tailored courses, designed together with the trainer, or one of the courses of the SCA Coffee Skills Program in order to pass the exams and obtain the certifications.

Write an email to academy@bazzara.it for more information.

The news comes from Scotland: reusing coffee grounds, that have already been used, it will be possible to extract a vegetal oil to be employed as a valid alternative to palm oil.

From Scotland, the Scottish start-up Revive Eco launches an attack to palm oil. The intention is to give new life to used coffee grounds (on average every day almost 2 billion coffees are consumed, that means 6 million tonnes per year).

Coffee grounds are an infinite resource and they can be recycled in countless ways: from cosmetics to daily housecleaning.

The secret ingredient used during the recycling above all in the beauty field is to be found in the oil of the arabica seeds. It has several properties. It is, for example, rich in antioxidants with an anti-aging effect. Moreover, in coffee oil we can find: polyphenols, phenolic acid, linoleic acid and also tocopherols. These substances all have anti-inflammatory properties.

Revive Eco has already begun to collect many tonnes of coffee grounds in all Scotland to produce this natural oil.

This solution can be a valid alternative, a sustainable and eco-friendly solution to completely abolish palm oil in the industry sector.

As already said, these are early stage developments. This, however, does not mean that in the future a full capacity production won’t be possible.