James Joyce, Trieste, and the Birth of Espresso Culture

You’ve heard the tales—coffee as muse, fuel for poets, the West’s answer to ‘wine for verse.’ But which coffee did James Joyce actually drink while writing masterpieces like Ulysses—not a cappuccino, not an espresso, and definitely not an Irish coffee. Let’s unpack where he was, what was in his cup, and why that city matters.

In short: Joyce lived in Trieste from 1904 to around 1915, long before espresso machines as we know them today. He drank a mix of Turkish-style, Viennese-style, and early Italian pressurized coffee—decades before 1935’s Illeta machine and the Illy brand emerged from the same city.

The Joyce-Trieste Connection

Joyce arrived in Trieste (then part of Austria-Hungary) in 1904 and remained for over a decade. During those years, he wrote Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and began conceiving Ulysses. Though Trieste now belongs to Italy, under the Austro-Hungarian Empire it was a polyglot port city. That cultural fusion deeply influenced both the city’s coffee style and Joyce’s surroundings.

What Kind of Coffee Did Joyce Drink?

Joyce almost certainly never drank Irish coffee—it wasn’t invented until the 1940s, long after his 1941 death. In Trieste, he encountered several pre-espresso traditions:

• Turkish-style coffee: Unfiltered, spiced with cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon, producing a thick foam similar to espresso crema.
• Viennese coffee: Popularized by Austro-Hungarian culture, often mixed with milk, sugar, or even cream—a precursor to modern milk-heavy drinks.
• Early Italian experiments: By the early 1900s, steam-pressure coffee machines appeared (first patented in 1901). More advanced machines, such as Francesco Illy’s air-pressure Illetta (patented 1935), laid groundwork for espresso as we know it—but these were either just being invented or not yet widespread during Joyce’s time there.

Trieste’s coffee scene blended these influences, creating a transitional environment between old-world brews and modern espresso culture.

The Illy Legacy and Early Machines

Though Joyce left Trieste before the iconic espresso machines took over, the city played a crucial role in their development. In 1935, Francesco Illy invented the Illetta, the first air-pressure-based coffee machine—patented as a major advancement. This eventually led to the founding of the Illy coffee empire in Trieste. Modern espresso as globalized by the post-WWII era wasn’t yet mainstream during Joyce’s Trieste years, but the innovation was brewing.

The City’s Multi-Layered Coffee Identity

Trieste was a crossroads:

• Architecturally and administratively dominated by the Habsburgs until WWI.
• Coffeehouses reflected Viennese opulence, with gilded interiors and Viennese-style drinks like creamy coffee with syrups.
• Ottoman-era Turkish coffee traditions persisted, especially the unfiltered brews with spice-infused crema-like foam.
• Italian coffee culture began asserting itself, with early machines and the eventual rise of espresso-centric preparation.

All of this made Trieste’s coffee scene unique—and fertile ground for a writer like Joyce.

Joyce, Coffee, and Paris: The Publishing Moment

Shortly after leaving Trieste, Joyce’s literary fate was sealed in a Parisian café. Just three days after arriving in Paris, he met Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare and Company at the Café de Flore—or more famously, the Les Deux Magots (though sources vary)—to arrange the publication of Ulysses. While not in Trieste, this moment underscored coffee’s role as the backdrop to literary breakthroughs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did James Joyce drink espresso?

No. Espresso as we know it today—high-pressure extraction through finely-ground coffee—was not yet widely available during Joyce’s time in Trieste (1904–1915). Early espresso machines appeared around 1901, but the advanced, widespread systems emerged later. Joyce likely drank unfiltered Turkish-style coffee, Viennese-style milk coffee, or early pressurized coffee that predated modern espresso.

What is Trieste’s connection to espresso?

Trieste is the birthplace of the Illetta machine, invented by Francesco Illy in 1935. It was the first coffee machine to use compressed air for pressurization, a key step toward modern espresso. The Illy coffee company founded in Trieste helped commercialize espresso technology. Although this happened after Joyce left, the city was central to the evolution of espresso culture.

Was Irish coffee around when Joyce was alive?

No. Irish coffee—made with hot coffee, Irish whiskey, sugar, and topped with cream—originated in the late 1940s. Joyce died in 1941 and had not been in Ireland since 1912, so he could not have drunk it. The drink was supposedly created to warm cold airline passengers, long after his time.

What kind of coffee culture existed in Trieste during Joyce’s time?

Trieste had a layered coffee culture: Ottoman-style unfiltered coffee with spices and foam; Viennese-style coffee with milk and syrups, reflecting Habsburg influence; and early Italian experiments with pressurized coffee machines. This blend made the city’s coffee scene unique and transitional between old and modern brewing methods.

Where did Joyce write Ulysses?

Joyce began conceptualizing Ulysses while living in Trieste. Though he completed and published it later in Paris and Zurich, the initial ideas and early work took shape in Trieste, where he also wrote Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

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