Coffee

Because the Italian Riviera borders on Piedmont, which vies with Friuli as the great coffee region of Italy, Liguria has been a traditional point of entry for coffee beans that arrive in the ports of Genoa and Savona and then are sent to Turin for roasting. This is different from Friuli, where the port of Trieste is also one of the great coffee roasting centers in the world. For the most part, Ligurians drink coffee roasted in Piedmont, which is excellent. But there are two Ligurian coffee roasters I hold in high esteem. One is Torrefazione Fratelli Pasqualini in Villanova d’Albenga in the province of Savona. Here is a fine, established firm that receives its beans at the port of Savona, then selects and roasts them with care, and sells them in the zone from Savona to Alassio. Crastan Caffe is in Arcola, just beyond the port of La Spezia. Because this area is closer to Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, beans that arrive here go to those regions. But Crastan has established itself as a small, reliable importer of beans from major coffee-growing nations that are personally selected and roasted by the owners. To my knowledge, Crastan coffee is not sold outside of Italy, but it is worth looking for if you are there, and importers should consider acquiring it.