Coffee College

Coffee College: A trek to Italy delivers the inside scoop on what makes a great cup of joe

As a writer and teacher, I know that sometimes immersion is the best way to fully comprehend a new subject, so when United Airlines invited me to Trieste, Italy to learn more about their new partnership in premium coffee with illycaffè, I packed my bags. I’m all about knowledge for knowledge’s sake, and studying coffee by the sea in the country that first introduced that elixir to Europe is just good, sound educational practice.

Starting July 1, United serves illy coffee on all its flights around the world. With 72 million cups a year about to be served, they want to make sure coffee-loving passengers understand the taste significance of this change, so they invited a few journalists to the illy headquarters in Trieste for some intensive coffee tutelage.

This is my student evaluation of coffee college.

The Student
Full confession (that I did not make until I arrived in Italy): I did not fulfill the basic prerequisite for this course, that of being a coffee drinker. As a four cups of tea (black, iced, green, hibiscus) a day kind of girl, I might not be the best candidate for coffee school, but I figured, if illy and United could get me to appreciate a cup of coffee, that would have to be some damn fine coffee.

The Campus
The Adriatic Sea city of Trieste is not exactly the Italian town atop every tourist’s must-see list. In fact, for a significant part of its history–still seen in some of its amazing Hapsburg-influenced architecture–Trieste was part of the Austria-Hungary Empire. But as a major port for coffee beans for centuries, it’s still a coffee lovers paradise.

At illy headquarters in Trieste, the company has set up educational facilities amid their coffee plant to offer training and discovery courses for anyone even remotely connected to the industry, from coffee growers to baristas. I attended coffee class in what looked like a modern grad school lecture hall that just happened to contain state-of-the-art cappuccino and espresso machines as lab equipment.

The Curriculum
The first day of coffee school was spent learning the complex, global process it takes to bring together the simple ingredients of a single illy cup of coffee: Arabica beans from four continents selected to have nine qualities for their signature blend.

What I found surprisingly fascinating was the science needed to take that blend up to 40,000 feet. The company is producing custom “pillow packs” that will fit into United’s coffee brewers, but the design and coffee blend of those packs went through quite the trial and error process as illy had to factor in issues like cabin pressure, humidity, water quality, and turbulence. Not only do flavors change up in the air, some things we take for granted, like the temperature water boils, is different at higher altitudes.

After half a day of theoretical knowledge, with some tastings sessions, it was on to the practical and a tour of the illy factory.

Maybe it was the hours of travel or a bit of sleep deprivation, maybe it was the earlier lecture on how to wean out the bad beans from the good beans, but as we entered the immense rooms devoted to the roasting, blending and packaging of coffee, I felt that United had transported me into the real-life, coffee version of Willy Wonka’s palace of chocolate, and I was now exploring illy Wonka’s Coffee Factory. When we finally went out to tour the floor, I couldn’t help but to hum a bit of the “Pure Imagination” song as I watched robots and illy employees whirled around me checking and herding the beans were roasted, ground and then sealed into canisters, pods and rather adorable little capsules.

The Field Trip
The second day of coffee school we ventured out into the wilds of coffee culture, a.k.a went on a Trieste café and coffee house tour. These independently owned houses of coffee worship became our second classroom as we attempted to discern how differences in preparation and barista artistry could lead to different cappuccino outcomes. It wasn’t much of an arduous hike because there were multiple cafés and restaurants serving illy brand on every block and in every square. The whole city smells of coffee as much as it does the sea.

A Moment of Enlightenment
I admit, I’m still a tea girl, but during that second lecture session, as we sampled different blends for the in-flight packets, I began to get it, that coffee thrall that puts billions of humans under its spell everyday. Until that moment the allure had eluded me. Going back and forth between samples 1 and 3, I actually said aloud “Okay, that’s good coffee.”

On a more poetic level, I also had to marvel a little at that strange journey those coffee beans take across the world by sea to land in Trieste, in order to be transformed, packaged and then launched into the skies, brewed in midair and poured into that paper cup a United flight attendant will hand to you as your cross the globe on your own journey to somewhere else.

So yes, this coffee skeptic might ask for a cup on my next flight. One note, though, United, if you ever decide to switch your inflight tea brand to illy’s Dammann Frères, I’m ready to register for a follow up semester at tea school.

United Airlines brings illy coffee to all their flights.

United Airlines courtesy photo

United Airlines brings illy coffee to all their flights.

transportation coffee

WILDFLOWER WATCH

The hunt for Texas bluebonnets could be tricky this spring, experts predict

Marble Falls bluebonnet field, bluebonnets

Photo courtesy of Visit Marble Falls

Bluebonnets could be sparser this year across Texas.

Bluebonnet bounty across Texas may be a little harder to spot this spring after a dry fall and mild winter, particularly across the Hill Country.

The 2026 wildflower bloom season is expected to vary widely across Texas, shaped by uneven rainfall, continuing drought conditions, and local microclimates that influence where seeds germinate and how wildflowers thrive, according to the experts at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin. This forecast is similar to the 2025 season projection.

Across the Hill Country, from Austin to San Antonio — considered bluebonnet mecca each spring — the recent fall and winter weather helps explain why bluebonnets, in particular, may be sparse. Much of Central Texas saw a notably dry fall, followed by a mild winter with limited rainfall. The fall is the time when many wildflower seeds, and especially bluebonnets, germinate.

Bluebonnets rely heavily on fall moisture to sprout and winter rain to grow before blooming in spring, according to the Wildflower Center. When conditions are dry, fewer seedlings emerge, and roadside displays can appear patchier than usual.

“We may just have to look a little harder for bluebonnets on the side of the road this year in many locales,” said Andrea DeLong-Amaya, horticulture educator at the Wildflower Center, in a press release.

Caltrops in Big Bend National Park Caltrops on the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park.Photo courtesy of the U.S. National Park Service

Central Texas, in particular, has the native prairie ecosystem where hardy native flower species can thrive. Add to that thin, rocky limestone soil and the state's long-established roadside management practices, and it's no surprise that drivers see an abundance of bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, and pink evening primrose emerge and thrive during the spring.

The lack of rain in early spring does not mean a paltry wildflower season. Bluebonnets dominate early spring in areas around the state, then retreat. With subsequent solid rainfall, later wildflowers such as firewheel, purple horsemint, and black-eyed Susans will take over as the wildflower season progresses into the summer, according to the Wildflower Center.

“If early spring bloomers are a little more sparse, later spring and summer flowers have more room to flourish,” DeLong-Amaya said.

Around the state
Wildflower displays can vary dramatically even within short distances. Small environmental differences, including soil moisture, shade cover, and pavement heat, influence which seeds will germinate and how flowers thrive. The Texas Department of Transportation, which has sown wildflower in highway medians since the 1930s, provides a map for the best wildflower weeks across the various regions in the state.

Across North Texas prairies, fields of Drummond phlox and prairie verbena often appear alongside bluebonnets, particularly around the Ennis Bluebonnet Trails south of Dallas.

ennis bluebonnets Ennis Bluebonnet Trails will be open April 1-30, 2026. Photo courtesy of Visit Ennis

The organizers of the Ennis Bluebonnet Trails Festival posted on Facebook on February 27, "Ennis Bluebonnet season is officially on the way! We are already monitoring the trails, and these sweet little baby bluebonnet plants are starting to pop up right on schedule. Bluebonnets plants start emerging as these green rosettes in late winter and typically bloom throughout the month of April here in Ennis."

Ennis bluebonnets typically peak around the second to third week in April. This year's Ennis Bluebonnet Trails will be open April 1-30, and the Festival will take place April 17-19.

In West Texas and the Big Bend region, desert wildflowers such as Mexican gold poppies and desert marigolds can produce dramatic blooms after winter rains.

Coastal prairies along the Gulf Coast can produce sweeping displays of yellow coreopsis and red Indian blanket wildflowers in spring.

Even in dry years, experts say Texans can still expect to find wildflowers somewhere across the state.

“I’ve never seen a year where nothing is blooming,” DeLong-Amaya said. “That just doesn’t happen.”

The Carolina jessamine is the Wildflower Center's 2026 Wildflower of the year.Photo by Stephanie Brundage via the Native Plant Information Network

The Wildflower Center also named Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) as its 2026 Wildflower of the Year. The evergreen vine produces fragrant yellow trumpet-shaped flowers and can climb along fences or trees.

wildflowers nature education weather