Tag: illy

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A Guide to Choosing the Ideal Coffee Beans for Brewing Espresso

Coffee Beans Various Roasts 1The Best Espresso Beans: A Guide to Finding Your Perfect Blend

When it comes to finding the best beans for espresso, the options can be overwhelming. With so many choices and subjective taste preferences, it can be difficult to navigate the world of espresso blends. In this article, we will explore the factors to consider when selecting espresso beans and review some of the top options on the market.

Factors to Consider

Before diving into the specific blends, it’s important to understand the objective factors to consider when choosing espresso beans. These factors include freshness, origin of the beans, quality of the beans, and packaging and storing.

Klatch Coffee Espresso Blend Medium Roast – World’s Best Espresso

Klatch Coffee is a renowned name in the industry, known for their high-quality beans. Their World’s Best Espresso (WBE) blend has even won the title of “best espresso” at the World Barista Championship. This blend offers a sweet and bright fusion of chocolate and orange notes, with a lingering caramel finish.

Lavazza Espresso Super Crema

Lavazza Espresso Super Crema is one of the most popular espresso beans on the market. It is a bestseller on Amazon and receives rave reviews from customers. This blend combines beans from Brazil, India, Colombia, and Indonesia to create a medium roast with notes of honey and almonds.

Illy Whole Coffee Beans – Ethiopia

Illy is known for their expertise in the coffee industry, and their Ethiopia blend is no exception. This single origin coffee offers distinct Ethiopian floral notes with a higher acidity, creating a unique espresso shot. Illy’s packaging is also worth noting, as their pressurized cans help ensure freshness.

Kicking Horse Beans – Cliff Hanger Espresso

Kicking Horse coffee is highly regarded for its quality beans. Their Cliff Hanger Espresso blend is a modern take on espresso, combining different beans to create a coffee that is both innovative and familiar. This blend offers a dark and abundant crema, with a syrupy mouthfeel and plenty of sweetness.

Kona Coffee Espresso

For those looking to elevate their espresso experience, Kona coffee is an excellent choice. Blue Horse offers a medium roast single estate blend made exclusively with beans from their farm. Kona coffee is known for its unique flavor profile, with sweet and chocolatey notes that can’t be replicated with other beans.

Intelligentsia – Black Cat Analog Espresso Beans

Intelligentsia’s Black Cat Analog blend is a modern espresso blend that aims to expand the possibilities of flavor, aroma, and mouthfeel. This Brazilian blend offers a dark and abundant crema, with a syrupy mouthfeel and plenty of sweetness. While it may deviate slightly from traditional espresso, it still provides a comforting and familiar taste.

Volcanica Coffee – Indian Monsooned Malabar

Volcanica’s Indian Monsooned Malabar coffee undergoes a special process that results in unique characteristics. This coffee is pungent with a chocolatey aroma and notes of spice and nuts. It produces a thick layer of crema and is an excellent choice for espresso shots.

Conclusion

Finding the best beans for espresso is a personal journey, as taste preferences vary from person to person. It’s important to consider factors such as freshness, origin, quality, and packaging when selecting espresso beans. The blends mentioned in this article offer a range of flavors and characteristics to suit different preferences. Whether you prefer a traditional blend or a more innovative option, there is something for everyone in the world of espresso.

This article firstly appeared at Brew Espresso Coffee, a website dedicated to vulgarize espresso brewing and espresso based beverages preparation.

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Both Brands play important roles in the coffee industry. What I am doing 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 Trieste in northeast Italy. Its founder was Mr. Francesco Illy. Mr Illy was an inventor and a leader in the coffee industry. He invented the first automatic espresso machine ‘illetta’ in 1935, replacing the old steam method with a new compressed air method. After World War II, control of the company was handed over to his son Ernesto Illy. Because he was a chemist with a PHD in chemistry, Ernesto Illy established a research laboratory in the company where many unique unique inventions and patents were later born.

In 1996, famous modern artist James Rosenquist recreated the illy image, using a bright red box with bold white「illy」text inside. The appealing, eye-catching new logo was designed to update the illy concept and to welcome in the new millennium century. Here it is.

LAVAZZA was founded in 1895 as a grocery store and gradually moved towards coffee being their only product. After a hundred years of development, LAVAZZA has become the world’s third largest coffee roaster and, with a presence in more than 80 countries around the world, annual sales volume is around 86,000 tons (140 million cups), with Italy making up 47% of the market.

Its founder was Luigi Lavazza who devoted his whole life to the coffee business. In 1895, Luigi Lavazza bought a small grocery store, Paissa Olivero, for 26,000 liras (about 20 dollars) in Torina, northeast Italy. This store was the seed of the LAVAZZA kingdom.

lavazza beans espresso cremoso

In those days, grocery stores played dual roles as producers and retailers. Luigi Lavazza bought fresh beans then roasted them according to the customer’s preference . Because Luigi liked roasting coffee very much, he soon fully mastered his roasting skills. After World War I, his three sons Mario, Beppe and Pericle retired from the army and joined the business. Luigi Lavazza then had the capacity to develop his business from retailer to wholesaler, which was a big step on the road towards his successful coffee kingdom.

In the late 70s, LAVAZZA introduced a very popular advertising campain: ‘The more you drink it down, the more LAVAZZA picks you up’. This catchy ad brought LAVAZZA into the European market and turned the company into a multinational corporation.

Conclusion

Both illy and LAVAZZA are very successful brands in the coffee industry. The main difference is that LAVAZZA sell their coffee mainly to home consumers. On the other hand, illy focuses on formulas, packaging and marketing for high-end consumers and restaurants. In northern Italy, you will often see an illy sign in local coffee shop, but you will rarely see a LAVAZZA sign.

As for the flavor, both company tastes are typical for espresso, and I don’t want to make any rash comments. illy use 100% Arabica coffee beans that are roasted relatively light and they choose beans with mild flavor and light acidity, so that illy coffee tastes sweet and smooth. On the other hand, LAVAZZA coffee notes are more typical of espresso, with a great balance of acidity and bitterness. It feels “stronger” to drink, almost like drinking strong alcohol. A small cup of LAVAZZA coffee can leave a long aftertaste.