---
type: Organization
title: Caffè Aurora
description: A roastery and café in Trieste, founded in 1985 by Lina Marchetti, that
  publishes a seasonal bulletin to its subscribers.
tags:
- coffee
- roastery
- italy
- sourcing
resource: raw/aurora-bulletin-2024.md
timestamp: '2026-07-16T15:13:02Z'
citadel_version: 0.3.0
---

Caffè Aurora is a roastery and café in Trieste, which publishes a seasonal bulletin to its subscribers.[^s1] It was founded in 1985 by [Lina Marchetti](../persons/lina-marchetti.md), who lit her first roaster in a rented Trieste roasting room barely bigger than a closet[^s15] — though see [Lina Marchetti](../persons/lina-marchetti.md) for a personal essay's conflicting account of when the chain was founded. [Lina](../persons/lina-marchetti.md), of Caffè Aurora, said that spring is when a roastery gets to show off.[^s2] That same essay says that from the first cramped room near Trieste's old harbor to every location that came after, what held the chain together was a stubborn insistence on the same recipe everywhere — the same eighteen grams of coffee, the same nine bars of pressure, the same patient count to thirty.[^s19]

For spring 2024, Caffè Aurora's bagged lineup comprised five coffees: [Aurora Midnight](../objects/aurora-midnight.md), [Harbour Blonde](../objects/harbour-blonde.md), [Piazza Espresso](../objects/piazza-espresso.md), [Dolce Decaf](../objects/dolce-decaf.md), and [Rift Valley](../objects/rift-valley.md).[^s3] For spring 2026, the lineup instead comprised [Aurora Midnight](../objects/aurora-midnight.md), [Harbour Blonde](../objects/harbour-blonde.md), [Piazza Espresso](../objects/piazza-espresso.md), [Dolce Decaf](../objects/dolce-decaf.md), and the newly confirmed [Wildflower Natural](../objects/wildflower-natural.md).[^s8] Prices across the lineup rose a euro or two between 2024 and 2026, which Caffè Aurora attributes to green coffee costs.[^s9] Subscribers take 10% off any bag and never pay for the Tuesday tasting flight — still the case as of spring 2026[^s4][^s10] — and every bag is printed with the farm, the elevation, and the harvest window the coffee came from.[^s4][^s16]

Caffè Aurora buys its green coffee directly from smallholder cooperatives across what it calls the coffee belt — the highlands of East Africa, the volcanic slopes of Central America, and a handful of island farms — with its buyers tasting a lot repeatedly across a season before committing to it.[^s17] It says it pays above the going rate for green coffee, a practice it traces to Lina Marchetti's founding rule that good coffee is grown by people who can afford to keep growing it.[^s18]

Caffè Aurora roasts in tiny batches and dates every bag, stating that fresh-roasted coffee is at its peak flavor and caffeine the day it leaves the roaster and that both fade as the bag then sits on the shelf — see [Caffeine](../concepts/caffeine.md) for how this claim compares with the established view on caffeine's shelf stability.[^s5]

By spring 2026, two years of bar experience had also made Caffè Aurora more opinionated about how it brews coffee — see [Coffee Brewing](../concepts/coffee-brewing.md) for its house positions on pour-over water temperature and target extraction, and [Caffeine](../concepts/caffeine.md) for its claim about cold brew.[^s14]

Caffè Aurora invites subscribers to come stand at the bar and "do the [Ritual](../concepts/aurora-ritual.md),"[^s6][^s11] and signs its bulletins "Lina's people."[^s6][^s12]

## Open Points

### A natural for summer
id: op-natural-for-summer
- 2024-03: Caffè Aurora is deciding whether a wild, fruit-forward natural-process Ethiopian coffee suits its house style or is exactly the jolt its summer menu needs, and has asked subscribers whether they would drink it.[^s7]
- 2026-03: resolved — the natural-process Ethiopian made the cut and shipped as [Wildflower Natural](../objects/wildflower-natural.md).[^s13]

## See also
- [Lina Marchetti](../persons/lina-marchetti.md)
- [Aurora Ritual](../concepts/aurora-ritual.md)
- [Aurora Midnight](../objects/aurora-midnight.md)
- [Harbour Blonde](../objects/harbour-blonde.md)
- [Piazza Espresso](../objects/piazza-espresso.md)
- [Dolce Decaf](../objects/dolce-decaf.md)
- [Rift Valley](../objects/rift-valley.md)
- [Wildflower Natural](../objects/wildflower-natural.md)
- [Caffeine](../concepts/caffeine.md)
- [Coffee Brewing](../concepts/coffee-brewing.md)
- [Espresso Bar Culture](../concepts/espresso-bar-culture.md)

## Sources
[^s1]: [raw/aurora-bulletin-2024.md](../../raw/aurora-bulletin-2024.md), lines 1-3 — title and dateline (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s2]: [raw/aurora-bulletin-2024.md](../../raw/aurora-bulletin-2024.md), lines 5-6 — Lina's quote (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s3]: [raw/aurora-bulletin-2024.md](../../raw/aurora-bulletin-2024.md), § This spring's lineup — spring 2024 product lineup (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s4]: [raw/aurora-bulletin-2024.md](../../raw/aurora-bulletin-2024.md), § This spring's lineup — subscriber perks and bag disclosure (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s5]: [raw/aurora-bulletin-2024.md](../../raw/aurora-bulletin-2024.md), § One thing worth knowing (the Aurora nerd corner) (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s6]: [raw/aurora-bulletin-2024.md](../../raw/aurora-bulletin-2024.md), lines 59-62 — closing and sign-off (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s7]: [raw/aurora-bulletin-2024.md](../../raw/aurora-bulletin-2024.md), § Still in the lab — natural-process Ethiopian decision (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s8]: [raw/aurora-bulletin-2026.md](../../raw/aurora-bulletin-2026.md), lines 12-18 — spring 2026 product lineup (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s9]: [raw/aurora-bulletin-2026.md](../../raw/aurora-bulletin-2026.md), lines 20-21 — price increase attributed to green coffee costs (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s10]: [raw/aurora-bulletin-2026.md](../../raw/aurora-bulletin-2026.md), line 22 — subscriber perks reaffirmed (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s11]: [raw/aurora-bulletin-2026.md](../../raw/aurora-bulletin-2026.md), lines 68-69 — Ritual invitation reaffirmed (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s12]: [raw/aurora-bulletin-2026.md](../../raw/aurora-bulletin-2026.md), line 71 — sign-off (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s13]: [raw/aurora-bulletin-2026.md](../../raw/aurora-bulletin-2026.md), lines 35-37 — Wildflower Natural confirmed for release (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s14]: [raw/aurora-bulletin-2026.md](../../raw/aurora-bulletin-2026.md), lines 41-42 — two years of brewing opinions intro (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s15]: [raw/aurora-coffee-blog.md](../../raw/aurora-coffee-blog.md), lines 9-11 — founding in 1985, Trieste roasting room (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s16]: [raw/aurora-coffee-blog.md](../../raw/aurora-coffee-blog.md), line 23 — bag discloses farm, elevation, harvest window (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s17]: [raw/aurora-coffee-blog.md](../../raw/aurora-coffee-blog.md), lines 19-21 — direct-trade sourcing across the coffee belt (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s18]: [raw/aurora-coffee-blog.md](../../raw/aurora-coffee-blog.md), line 21 — pays above the going rate, traced to Lina's founding rule (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s19]: [raw/espresso-and-cafe-culture.md](../../raw/espresso-and-cafe-culture.md), lines 67-70 — same recipe kept consistent across every Aurora bar from the first location onward (ingested 2026-07-16)
