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I've recently upgraded my grinder (Eureka Mignon Silenzio) and my usual choice of beans (Costco) now tastes burnt as they're being ground properly! I don't like the light roast/sickly trendy coffee that seems to be everywhere. Do you have any recommendations to take me back to the taste of coffee in Italy?
Quite like this:
https://edgcumbes.co.uk/products/dark-side-of-the-edge
Mostly on the Sussex Barn though, but that's not your brief.
Find a local roaster and support them.
100% avoid the supermarket coffee.
If you are north Manchester exchange coffee is very good IMO. https://exchangecoffee.co.uk/
There’s a premium app now?
🙂
I like the M&S Italian style beans, quite good value and taste good to me.
A dark espresso blend from a local roaster would probably suit you. It will have been roasted just a day or two before you buy it. Most supermarket beans don't even have a roast date on them, as it is often months ago. Just a ridiculously optimistic best before date. Freshly roasted beans ground just before you use them just taste miles better, whatever style you like.
The only caveat to that is that very fresh beans need to rest for a week or so if you're using them to make espresso, to allow some of the CO2 to off gas. Less of an issue for other brew methods. Local roaster, every time.
Thanks for m and s tip, 12 quid a kilo is worth a try.
I stocked up on lavazza red at booths last week, 10 quid a kg, but it s now 15 quid a kilo.
As above, go and speak to a local roaster. If you’re in Sheffield, I like Pollards very much as they’ve been around for decades and know their stuff.
In the SW - there's Wogan's in Bristol, and Redber in the SE.
If you just want to order online, Redber do most of their blends (including Cafe Italiano Espresso) in a variety of roasts from light to dark.
I like a medium/dark roast for the reasons you describe.
https://www.redber.co.uk/products/caffe-italiano-espresso-blend-coffee
I'm not massively fussy over coffee, I get the M&S Italian beans and it's nice enough for me.
I prefer the Colombian beans, but I'm a cheapskate, and they're 60% (?) more. What I should probably do for the sake of my caffeine intake is buy the colombian beans and reduce my intake so I'm not spending any more than I do at the moment
Happy Donkey sell Italian Beans, a good price also - prices at about £7.50 for 2 bags of beans.
As above, I have been buying Happy Donkey beans for 20 years including the Italian roast.
In the SW – there’s Wogan’s in Bristol, and Redber in the SE.
If you just want to order online, Redber do most of their blends (including Cafe Italiano Espresso) in a variety of roasts from light to dark.
I like a medium/dark roast for the reasons you describe.
https://www.redber.co.uk/products/caffe-italiano-espresso-blend-coffee
As a starting point I've ordered this, thanks!
I'm afraid the Rosso doesn't taste nice for me, I want a dark roast.
I'll try the M&S that's been recommended.
Are these the Happy Donkey beans, are they dark roast? https://www.happydonkey.co.uk/product/classic-italian-coffee-beans-2-x-250g-strong-espresso-blend/
Lavazza Rosso is a pretty good standard Italian style coffee that's available everywhere, and especially cheap at Costco. It's basically the hardtail of coffee beans.
No it doesn't have the complex flavors of the artisan stuff, and it's nowhere bougie enough for STW who will always recommend a local roasters beans with essence of this and hints of that, but it does the job for an everyday coffee.
I learned to make coffee as a teenager working in an Italian restaurant run by actual Italians and guess what they used...Lavazza Rosso.
cough
Qualita Rossa, (feminine declension of the adjective rosso) meaning "Red Label"
carry on.
(Oh, and Amazon, about a tenner a kilo)
Some of my favourite suppliers:
Exhale
Blue Bear Coffee
Ozone Coffee
Watch House
Exchange Coffee
Have a browse around and see what takes your liking.
I always recommend my local roaster: https://jamesgourmetcoffee.com - mostly because if you ask to talk to Peter (he of the Peter James over the door) he'll listen to what you want and make a number of great recommendations.
I warn you tho, it won't be a quick conversation 🙂
I order 4 kg at a time for free postage (use about 1 a month). The last is still fresh when opened (theres more difference in a kg from start to finish, even if kept airtight container)
best balance of quality/value I've found.
https://www.lovecoffee.co.uk/classico-2473.html
In my experience of espresso in Naples and Rome, burnt is nailing the brief?
Can't recommend Hundred House coffee enough. World class IMO. Special mention for Iron and Fire also. Both Shropshire based.
Yep the Happy Donkey are a wonderful dark roast.
see an extraction from Sunday.
timmycee
Free Member
In my experience of espresso in Naples and Rome, burnt is nailing the brief?
Yeah I was going to post earlier "what do you actually mean by Italian style?"
I've had fair bit of espresso in Italy and couldn't really describe anything specific about it aside from "it's not a light roast". Sometimes it's really really dark, even burnt tasting, other times medium. Sometimes it tastes quite Robusta-ish, othertimes not.
My memory of Florence was one of our Italian colleagues (name of Luciano of course) kicking off about how shite the coffee was we were served at the business place we hired and the cafe we kept taking breakfast in.
So he dragged us all off for a proper espresso, at some wee stand up place.
It tasted anything but burnt.
Another happy Happy Donkey customer though I'm more a Brazilian man than Italian... I've been buying from them for years and the coffee is always A1 - with an overtone of bonfire and yesterday's underpants... Yum 🙂
Roberts & Co roasters in Mawdsley Lancashire are ace, I've just ordered some single origin Sumatran, they do lots of Italian options, good value too, all ordered online in a couple of minutes.
If you're spending that much on your grinder, I'd make it worthwhile with some freshly roasted from your local roastery tbh.
Tk Maxx Italian 1kg for 10-15quid.
Everything I’ve ever ordered from Redber has been roasted within 6 days of delivery. Sometimes there’s a slight delay in dispatch 1-3days, but the beans arrive having been roasted 2-3days previously. They’re very fresh. By contrast, beans from my local have often been on display (counter) for a few days and thus open to the the air, they can go hard quite quickly, which can be a challenge for the grinder and more so for the taste. Cheaper? Sure. Chance to try? Yes, but fresher? Not always. A toaster with a good online trade will be roasting more regularly than a local who doesn’t or that doesn’t supply many local businesses anything other than a stock blend.
What you actually doing with the beans once they are ground. Am assuming espresso, but what machine? La Pavoni user here which is super fussy and whilst the beans and grind are an incredibly vital starting point (it basically goes into a Italian mardy huff if you get it wrong), there are a shed load of user errors still to make between there ans the end product.
Having said that, I'm no fan of a properly dark roast. It often just feels to be a convenient way to mask pretty average ingredients.
4kg at once? Either you’re drinking a shed load of coffe a day or the beans are pretty old by the time you’re done.
its vacuum packed in 1kg bags. I don’t notice any degradation of the sealed stuff over a couple of months. Once it’s opened it is fine for a month in a sealed container (it’s slightly less glossy by the end of the month but not enough to need to adjust the grind. If I’m on holiday for a few weeks and an open pack stretches longer sometimes I need to)
The price of the Murano Dark linked earlier by rogermoore seems very good - £14.50 per Kilogram. I think I'll gibe it a try, it would save me loads of money assuming it's as tasty as the reviews suggest.
its vacuum packed in 1kg bags. I don’t notice any degradation of the sealed stuff over a couple of months. Once it’s opened it is fine for a month in a sealed container (it’s slightly less glossy by the end of the month but not enough to need to adjust the grind. If I’m on holiday for a few weeks and an open pack stretches longer sometimes I need to)
The general consensus amongst coffee "experts" is that even (and especially) when vacuum sealed, beans lose up to 60% of their flavour vs fresh roast within 14 days and that part of this is because the vacuum pull partially leaches the oils from the beans. I'd agree with the flavour change (they become more bitter) and that they grind finer when older. I stopped buying in 1kg batches a little while ago due to this, but I only use around 500-700g a month.
I buy in 250 g bags, lob them in the freezer and then decant into a Kilner jar, then grind from that.
Hmmm. I buy 2x 1kg bags at a time, and bung 500g in the hopper per refill. Seems fine and not aware of a huge loss of flavour.
I think coffee experts are like hi fi buffs.
I should be noticing a huge difference between the last of my kg bags that’s been open for a month and a new batch. I don’t. But maybe I’m not that fussy - I prefer my coffee at home to almost anything I get when it’s out.
Italian blend from Rave?, although I prefer their Strong AF # 666 blend which is my usual order, the Signature blend is also nice.
What you actually doing with the beans once they are ground. Am assuming espresso, but what machine? La Pavoni user here which is super fussy and whilst the beans and grind are an incredibly vital starting point (it basically goes into a Italian mardy huff if you get it wrong), there are a shed load of user errors still to make between there ans the end product.
Having said that, I’m no fan of a properly dark roast. It often just feels to be a convenient way to mask pretty average ingredients.
I'm using an original Gaggia Classic (18yrs old) and usually making maciatos (with espresso obviously).
If we're going to do "RateMyGrinder" 🙂 then here's my new one. The Sage is five years old now and still going strong. But the grinder isn't great. I find I need to turn it nearly all the way down. This new one has a lot more control and I'm sure the resulting espresso is "better". But I couldn't really prove it.
I do quite enjoy the whole measuring/seeing if I've got the dose right/etc. I tend to stay away from the darker roasts so a 1:2 ratio seems to work best. Takes a couple of shots to dial it in (from a 250g bag).
It’s fair to say the faff on a Sunday morning is a distracting joy.
its all about puck preparation ??
There is an internet rabbit hole labelled ‘puckology’ that is both deep and quite, er, animated. Careful how you spell it ?