The first time I ever experienced Illy coffee was actually before I had ever tasted it.
This spring Jim and I took a short road trip to New Mexico to explore Santa Fe, hike in the Pecos Wilderness, and visit Albuquerque. A friend of mine told me that we had to take the scenic Turquoise Trail to get from Sante Fe to Albuquerque and stop in the quaint town of Madrid, New Mexico. As we pulled into Madrid I felt like we had stepped into a completely different world. Its one main street was lined with little shops that were in old houses. Each shop used the front yard for merchandise, cafe tables, colorful windmills, or something unique and fun to look at. Being coffee lovers, a place called Java Junction caught our attention. It was a small house with cute coffee bar inside. I ordered a Vanilla Latte and we went and sat at one of the umbrella covered tables in the front yard surrounded by a white picket fence. On the table was an Illy coffee can. Jim pulled out the camera and snapped this picture. We also made sure we took a photo of the wooden Java Junction sign.
The next time I experienced Illy coffee, I still did not taste it. One evening my husband and I went and had coffee and dessert at the home of some of our friends. The house was decorated in all sorts of vintage items. There was an old radio, and although it not longer plays music, I could hear Ella Fitzgerald singing from it. (Come to find out a CD player was creatively placed behind the radio). There were red and white, retro bar stools waiting at the wood block counter, and an old chest which I am sure held some cool items back in its day. The kitchen also caught my eye as it was completely centered around a coffee theme. Bottles of different latte syrups were on the shelves, different coffee mugs were displayed and just waiting to be filled with something good, and the kitchen utensils were in an old Illy coffee tin.
I decided I needed to try this coffee, so Jim and I took a trip to the store to buy our first tin. We now love Illy coffee and it is one of our favorite for making espresso. We drank a lot of espresso in Italy and now we enjoy drinking it here at home. So here’s to Illy coffee and finally getting to taste it.
