Caffé Pedrocchi - A Unique Coffee Experience - Sundays in My City

I like coffee.  I don't NEED coffee and I don't turn into a monster if I don't have coffee.  But I do like it.  And I know how good Italian coffee is supposed to be.  But honestly (and I hope they don't kick me out of the country for saying this), I find it rather boring.  There's very little flavor complexity to the coffee here.  It's all just strong espresso.  I like my coffee to taste like more than just coffee.  I like to be able to detect chocolate or nuts or fruits the same way you're supposed to be able to detect more than just grape in your wine. 

I was headed to Padova the other day with some friends who were visiting.  We had no plan so I did a quick google search to see if there was anything special to Padova that needed to be experienced.  I found this:

Café Pedrocchi - Ernest Hemingway, Lord Byron and Stendhal are all said to have found inspiration within the walls of this 18th-century cafe. Founded by Francesco Pedrocchi of Bergamo in 1722 in response to the increasing coffee consumption of the European bourgeoisie, it has been a pillar of Paduan society for centuries. Famous for its neoclassical architecture and powerful coffees, it offers a drink known as caffé pedrocchi. This looks like a cappuccino but actually consists of cold mint froth on top of a strong espresso base; the combination of hot bitter coffee and cool mint will leave your taste buds tingling.  [Source] 

 

So, of course, we had to check it out.  It is a beautiful building both outside and inside (it was very bright out so my picture is not very good.  Here's a much better one.

[Source]

The coffee wasn't as strong or as hot as I expected.  But it was an interesting, new taste and I'll definitely take Gran here when she comes this summer. She'll love the interior and the fancy-ness of the place.  Plus, she loves coffee :)  You can check out their website here.


Again, not the best picture but this was my caffé pedrocchi.

Caffé pedrocchi.  You can see a hint of the green mint foam (which is really more of a heavy cream than a foam).

Thanks to Stephanie and Adam for the fun visit and the adventure in trying this new coffee (Steph's cup had mostly mint foam and very little coffee so she ended up eating hers with a spoon).