Lavazza Espresso Italiano

After using various fresh roast coffee bean subscriptions over a number of years, I decided to see what the off the shelf offerings were like. I've since tried all of Lavazza's varieties, plus Illy, Kimbo, SF Bay, Taylor’s, the big high street chain brands and pretty much every other bean I've found on supermarket shelves. These beans (Espresso Italiano Classico) are the stand out best and the closest I've found to my favourite fresh beans. For espresso (18g in 36g out) on my Rancilio machine, the flavour is perfect. Strong in rich and well-rounded flavour without the overbearing bitterness of Rosso beans. I mostly drink flat whites and this is the perfect strength to cut through the milk with bold coffee flavour. These beans also work incredibly well in Espresso Martini – a drink that is extremely sensitive to bad espresso, which can’t be fixed by simply using less. It took a long time to find off the shelf beans that work! The only downside is the beans aren’t particularly amazing for cafetiere use. If that’s your main style then the extra punch of Rosso beans may be preferable. I normally make 2 double espressos per day and the 1Kg bags last a month. This works out roughly half the cost of the cheapest subscription I had before. I’ve been through 4 bags of this so far and every bag has arrived in perfect condition, with a very long expiry date. Once opened I split the beans across 2 Airscape containers and there is very little degradation in quality, only requiring 1 or 2 finer grind adjustments to keep the extraction on point.

Lovely coffee smooth and flavourful with no bitterness

Overall, this coffee left a positive impression. The beans have a rich and pleasant aroma, and you can tell it’s quality coffee as soon as you open the bag. However, after grinding and brewing, the taste was a little less smooth than I had expected. Considering the stated intensity of 5/10, I found the flavor slightly stronger than expected. Despite that, it’s still a good coffee with a lovely aroma, and overall I’m happy with my purchase.

Bought as a gift

Great tasting coffee at a reasonable price (cheaper than supermarkets anyway!). Medium strength, perfect for any time of the day with a smokey, chocolatey taste.

Illy or Lavazza coffee beans really like them we tried the Lavazza for something different and we are impressed, like the taste and for me as a espresso lover they are great

Beautiful tasty coffee bean, nice and medium strength and Aroma, nice and smooth Would definitely purchase again

Update (July 2026): the price of these beans has been consistently high and I can no longer recommend them over freshly roasted beans from online specialists. These lavazza beans are decent enough but beans from specialists can be had for a similar price, are more forgiving, and offer better crema and flavour using the same brewing apparatus. Original review: Ground using a DF54 and shot pulled on a sage dual temp pro w/temp surfing. Results are (in my opinion) as good as freshly roasted Italian beans from a certain online retailer, but these lavazza beans are about 35% cheaper per kg. I've tried them in an opus grinder with much worse results (sour, even after multiple attempts to dial in properly), but then the fresh roast beans are also not as good in the opus grinder. To summarise, these beans are very good but you need a decent grinder to get the best out of them.

Supeme quality 100% recomended

Pero después de probarla he vuelto a mi Bonca

Bardzo dobra kawa

Da ich die Kaffee schon kannte, war es für mich kein Problem. Er ist SPITZE

very nice quality and taste