# Caffè Aurora — Spring 2026 Bulletin ☕

*From the counter to your inbox. Trieste, March 2026.*

Buongiorno again, Aurora family. Two years on from our last big spring letter, a
few things have changed — some prices, one beloved roast, and a couple of brewing
opinions we have grown bolder about. Lina would have called it "keeping the
promise while changing the recipe." Here is where we stand in 2026.

## This spring's lineup

| Coffee | Roast | 250 g bag |
| ------ | ----- | --------- |
| **Aurora Midnight** | our flagship — now a *full-city-plus*, pulled back from the old near-black | €16.00 |
| **Harbour Blonde** | light roast, bright and citrusy | €14.00 |
| **Piazza Espresso** | medium-dark house espresso blend | €14.50 |
| **Dolce Decaf** | medium roast, water-process decaf | €15.00 |
| **Wildflower Natural** (seasonal single origin) | light-medium, natural-process Ethiopian | €17.50 |

Yes, everything is a euro or two dearer than in 2024 — green coffee prices did
what green coffee prices do, and we held out as long as we honestly could.
Subscribers still take 10% off and still get the free Tuesday flight.

## The big change: Midnight, rebuilt

The news longtime regulars will notice first: **Aurora Midnight is no longer the
near-black, oily roast it was.** After two years of testing we have pulled it back
to a *full-city-plus* — dark, still resonant, still Midnight, but stopped before
the second-crack oils take over. It is sweeter now, with more of the cocoa and
cherry underneath and far less of the ashy edge. Same name, same soul, a gentler
hand on the roast.

And that settles a question we put to you back in 2024: **yes, the 60-hour rest
won.** Letting Midnight degas a full 60 hours before we bag it makes a rounder,
sweeter espresso, no contest — it is now our standard for every batch. (The wild
natural Ethiopian we were dithering over also made the cut; say hello to
Wildflower, above.)

## The Aurora nerd corner — how we brew it now

Two years of playing at the bar have made us opinionated. A few house rules we
will happily defend:

- **Filter coffee wants gentle water.** We now brew all our pour-overs at
  **80 °C**. We are convinced hotter water just scorches the grounds and drags out
  bitterness; 80 °C keeps everything sweet and clean. It is cooler than the old
  textbooks say, and we do not care — it is what tastes best on our bar.
- **Chase a big extraction.** Our brewers now dial for roughly a **30% extraction**
  — we want *everything* out of the bean, every last soluble, because to our
  palate that is where the full, syrupy flavour lives. Stop short of that and you
  are leaving the good stuff behind in the grounds.
- **Cold brew is the gentle one.** Our cold brew is the **lowest-caffeine** drink
  on the menu. Brewing cold pulls out far less caffeine than hot water ever could,
  so it is the cup we hand anyone who wants the flavour without the buzz. Order it
  after lunch and sleep like a baby.

That is the Aurora way in 2026. You do not have to agree — plenty of nerds will
tell us we are wrong — but it is how we like our coffee, and the bar has been
busy, so.

## Still in the lab

One new question we are chewing on: **we are still testing whether a splash of
lightly mineralised water — a pinch more hardness than our soft Trieste tap —
makes the Wildflower natural pop, or just muddies it.** The early cups are livelier
but we want another month before we commit.

Come see what two years has done. Do the Ritual. Argue with us about the 80 °C
thing. We will pour.

— Lina's people, at Caffè Aurora
