James Joyce, Trieste, and the Birth of Literary Coffee Culture

When you think of a writer fuelled by caffeine, it’s easy to picture Hemingway with a Cuban espresso or Murakami sipping pour-overs in Tokyo. But for James Joyce—the Irish author of Ulysses—the fuel came from the coffeehouses of Trieste, a city where East met West, and where the earliest versions of espresso were taking shape alongside his greatest literary creations.

Joyce lived in Trieste for over a decade starting in 1904, and it was here that he drafted major works like Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and conceived Ulysses. He drank coffee in cafés powered by machines that would soon evolve into the espresso we know today.

The Coffee Scene in Early 20th-Century Trieste

Trieste, though now Italian, was under Austro-Hungarian rule for much of Joyce’s time there. This unique political and cultural environment created a coffee scene unlike any other—blending Viennese, Turkish, and nascent Italian traditions. The city was a crossroads where coffee styles collided and merged.

By 1901, Italy had seen the first commercial coffee machine using steam pressure. By the 1920s, pressurised coffee machines were all the rage. The real turning point came in 1935, when Francesco Illy invented the Illetta, the first coffee machine to use compressed air for pressure. This patent laid the foundation for the Illy coffee empire, headquartered in Trieste.

Joyce’s Trieste: A Literary and Coffee Hub

Joyce arrived in Trieste in 1904 and remained for over a decade. Local tourist materials proudly note that it was here he wrote Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and first imagined Ulysses. Though the city’s café celebrity roster isn’t as internationally famous as Paris or Rome’s, it boasts heavyweights like Joyce himself.

Joyce’s letters from Trieste were still addressed to “Austria,” reflecting the city’s political status at the time. His daily life unfolded in cafés that served a mix of coffee traditions. While he likely never drank an Irish coffee—he died in Zurich in 1941 and hadn’t returned to Ireland since 1912—that wasn’t the only coffee legend tied to his world.

Coffee Styles Joyce Might Have Encountered

Joyce drank in a Trieste where multiple coffee traditions overlapped:

• Turkish Coffee: Boiled with spices like clove, cardamom, and cinnamon, unfiltered, and topped with a foam similar to espresso crema.
• Viennese Coffee: Black coffee mixed with milk, often further refined into elaborate cream-and-syrup layered drinks. Brought to Trieste via the Habsburgs after Vienna’s first coffeehouse opened in 1684.
• Early Italian Espresso Precursors: Using machines that evolved rapidly through the 1910s–1930s, leading to the 1935 Illetta by Illy, which introduced compressed-air pressure—a precursor to modern espresso.

The city also had grand coffeehouses with Hungarian-style interiors, reflecting the opulence of the imperial age. These cafés served various milk-and-coffee combinations that would later evolve into the stylised Italian offerings known today, such as the caffè macchiato (coffee with a spot of milk) and latte macchiato (milk marked with coffee).

Joyce Beyond Trieste: Paris and the Publishing of Ulysses

Just three days after arriving in Paris, Joyce famously met Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare and Company at the Café Les Deux Magots, where the publishing of Ulysses was arranged. But it was in Trieste that the seeds of the novel were planted—over cups of complex, spiced, and emerging espresso-style brews in a city that straddled empires and coffee traditions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did James Joyce drink espresso?

Joyce did not drink modern espresso as we know it, but he likely drank early forms of pressurised coffee in Trieste during the 1910s–1920s, before the invention of the Illetta in 1935. The machines of his time were evolving toward what we now call espresso, especially with innovations like compressed-air pressure introduced later by Francesco Illy.

What is the Illetta coffee machine?

The Illetta was a coffee machine invented in 1935 by Francesco Illy in Trieste. It was the first to use compressed air to create pressure during brewing, and is considered a direct precursor to the modern espresso machine. The Illetta helped lay the foundation for the Illy coffee company.

What kind of coffee did Trieste serve during Joyce’s time?

Trieste served a mix of Turkish coffee (spiced and unfiltered), Viennese-style coffee (milk-based and often layered with cream or syrup), and early forms of Italian-style pressurised coffee. The city’s coffee culture was a blend of Austro-Hungarian, Turkish, and emerging Italian influences.

Did Joyce ever drink Irish coffee?

No. Irish coffee—a mixture of hot coffee, Irish whiskey, sugar, and cream—was first created in the 1940s, long after Joyce left Ireland in 1912 and died in 1941. He had no opportunity to try it.

Where in Trieste did Joyce write Ulysses?

While the exact café isn’t specified, Joyce conceived and started writing Ulysses while living in Trieste between 1904 and around 1915. He worked in various city cafés, which were hubs for literary activity and served a mix of traditional and emerging coffee styles.

What coffee styles influenced Trieste’s cafés under Austrian rule?

Under Austro-Hungarian rule, Trieste’s cafés were heavily influenced by Viennese coffee culture—including milk-based drinks and spiced brews—and Turkish coffee methods, along with early Italian machines that led to espresso. This created a layered, multicultural coffee tradition unique to the city.

FrontStreet Coffee Picks for Literary Espresso Lovers

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