Both Brands play important role in coffee industry, what I do here is just introducing their history, development and features briefly so we can understand them better.
History
Illy was founded in 1933 in the port city of northeast Italy Trieste, its founder is Mr. Francesco Illy. Mr Illy is said to be a inventor and a leader in the coffee industry. He invented the first automatic espresso machine ‘illetta’ in 1935 replacing the old steam method with the new compressed air method. After World War II, the company was handed over charge to his son Ernesto Illy. Because he has doctorate in chemistry, Ernesto Illy established a research laboratory in the company where many unique unique inventions and patents were born in later.
In 1996, famous modern artist James Rosenquist recreated a new image using bright red box with bole white「illy」in it. The generous eye-catching new logo meant to update the concept to welcome the new millennium century. Here it is.
LAVAZZA was founded in 1895 as a grocery store and gradually shift to coffee as the only product. Ater a hundred years of development, LAVAZZA has become the world’s third largest coffee roaster and being sold in more than 80 countries around the world, annual sales volume are 86,000 tons (140 million cups.), and in Italy, it takes 47% of the market rate.
Its founder is Luigi Lavazza who devoted all his life to the coffee business. In 1895, Luigi Lavazza bought a small grocery store Paissa olivero with 26,000 liras (about 20 dollars) from Torina in northeast Italy, and this is the seed of the Kingdom LAVAZZA.
In those times, grocery stores played dual role – producers and retailers. Luigi Lavazza buy fresh beans then roast them according to the customer’s flavor . Because Luigi likes roasting coffee very much, he soon mastered the deep roasting skills. After World War I, his three sons Mario, Beppe, Pericle retired from army and joined, Luigi Lavazza so has capability to move his business forward, from retailer to wholesaler which is a big step on his successful road of coffee kingdom.
In late 70s, LAVAZZA introduced a very successful advertising: ‘The more you drink it down, the more LAVAZZA pick you up’. This catchy ad lead LAVAZZA into the European market and made the company to be a multinational corporation.
Conclusion
Both Illy and LAVAZZA are very successful brands in coffee industry. The difference is that LAVAZZA sells their coffee to mainly home consumers, on the other hand, Illy tries its best no matter formulations, packaging and marketing to serve high-end consumers and high-end restaurants. In the north Italy, you can often see Illy billboard in local coffee shop, but you can hardly see LAVAZZA’s in the other hand.
As to the flavor, both of them are typical espresso, and i don’t want to make any rash comments. Illy stresses on 100% Arabica coffee beans and relatively light roasting, choosing beans with mild flavor and light acidity, so Illy coffee taste sweet and smooth. On the other hand, LAVAZZA taste more like espresso with great balance of acidity and bitterness, feel “stronger” when drink, just like drinking strong alcohol, a small cup of it can leave you endless aftertaste.
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I vote for Illy.