Where to get actual Italian style coffee beans

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:

Dark Side of the EDGE | Great Taste Award Winner

Mostly on the Sussex Barn though, but that’s not your brief.

recently upgraded my grinder

Sounds like a downgrade?!

Murano Dark
RM.

I’ve recently upgraded my grinder

There’s a premium app now?

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.

Lavazza Rosso?

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.

[dmorts]

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!

dmorts

Full Member

Lavazza Rosso?

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?

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.

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.

I’d much rather spend an extra £16 every 4-5months on postage than be grinding months old roasted beans.

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.

https://www.e-coffee.co.uk/

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.