Everyone knows that the first thing you need in the morning is a fresh, hot, perfectly made cup of coffee. There is, in fact, no battery way to start the day. This is scientifically proven.
While there are many high-end Italian coffee brands, Illy uses 100% Arabica beans that give its coffee its signature, delicate flavor. Illy offers a wide variety of coffee blends that covers everything from expresso to filtered coffee blends.
Everyone knows that Italian coffee is the absolute best in the world! So, instead of paying an arm and a leg for a plane ticket, you can just recreate the experience at home with one of these top Italian coffee brands. In this article, we will go over the top blends from the best Italian coffee brands.
Which is The Best Italian Coffee Brand?
Illy and Lavazza are on the top of the list, but Illy is considered the higher-end of the two coffee brands. And as you would expect, that is reflected in the coffee’s price.
Illy uses 100% Arabica beans’ blends and that gives Illy coffee that delicate and refined flavor that it is known for, With Illy there is something for everyone. They have excellent choices of both espressos and filter coffee blends.
Lavazza coffee, on the other hand, uses a mix of Arabica and Robusta coffee beans to achieve their signature blend. This makes the coffee less expensive and increases its caffeine content. The Robusta beans add a darker, earthier, more full flavor that ensures a thick layer of cream at the top. Lavazza is an excellent choice for espresso, French Press, and Moka pot coffee.
So, if you are on the hunt for some beautiful beans for making espresso, then a brand from espresso’s homeland is what you want to buy. So what is the best Italian coffee brand? Check out our top 7 Italian coffee brands list:
Italian Coffee Brands
1. Illy Classico – Best Italian Coffee Brand in a Can
Image Credit: [Illy]
Details
- Roast Level: Medium
- Flavor Profile: Caramel & Chocolate
- Ground/Whole: Both
- Varietal: 100% Arabica
Illy is considered to be one of the best Italian coffee brands. It’s just as popular in Italy as it is abroad. The main focus of Illy is to provide great-tasting coffee that is delivered as fresh as possible.
Illy’s top-shelf blend is the Classico. It’s a carefully curated mixture of fine Arabica coffees sourced around the globe. Illy sources their beans at above-market prices so that they can ensure a reliable, long-term relationship with farmers. For this reason, Illy always has the absolute best beans.
Professional Coffee From Professional Grinders
Illy’s medium roast Classico is an excellent example of Italians’ blending and roasting expertise.
This blend provides a rich and smooth full-bodied cup of espresso. The flavor is very well-balanced and has some subtle chocolaty and caramel overtones to it. Also, the roasting process adds a bit of toasted flavor to the blend.
The team at this company really knows what they are doing. In fact, one of Illy’s most significant innovations don’t even involve the coffee beans. They completely reimagined the coffee canister itself.
When you buy coffee beans from Illy, they will arrive in a pressurized, oxygen-free container that guarantees that your coffee will taste as fresh when shipped worldwide as it does when you sit down for a cup in Italy.
2. Pellini No. 82 Vivace – Best Italian Cofee Brand For Espresso
Image Credit: [Pellini]
Details
- Roast Level: Dark
- Flavor Profile: Bold & Full-bodied
- Ground/Whole: Whole
- Blend: 90% Arabica / 10% Robusta
Pellini is a family-owned Italian coffee brand. The company was starting with the mission of spreading Italian espresso culture the world over. With Pellini, you can get that authentic Italian coffee flavor right there in your own kitchen.
This coffee is composed of a blend of 10% Robusta and 90% Arabica and beans. The added Robusta bean embodies this blend with a full mouthfeel and always guarantees a rich crema on top. This is a powerful, bold coffee flavor that possesses a strong balance between earthiness and sweetness and is very low in acidity.
This variant by one of the best Italian coffee brands is excellent for espresso, but its also great when topped with foamed milk in a cappuccino.
Buy Pellini No. 82 Vivace on Amazon
3. Lavazza Crema E Gusto – Best Italian Brand Coffee Brand (Ground)
Image Credit: [Lavazza]
Details
- Roast Level: Dark
- Flavor Profile: Bold, chocolate, Vanilla
- Ground/Whole: Ground
- Blend: 70% Arabica, 30% Robusta
Lavazza is one of the leading Italian coffee brands and its specialty is arabica-robusta blends. In fact, many Italians use Lavazza coffee beans for at-home brewing.
Lavazza’s Crema e Gusto beans are one of its boldest and darkest flavors, and that makes then a fantastic option for a pre-ground roast. They’re so flavorful that even when they’re not at peak freshness, you’ll still get a tasty brew.
This amazing blend is composed of 30% Robusta and 70% Arabica beans that are purchased from farms in India and Brazil. Crema e Gusto’s high proportion of robusta provides a dense crema along with dark, earthy flavors and aromas. The Arabica bean then adds a touch of sweetness, along with subtle touches of vanilla and chocolate.
Coffee made with this blend is low in acidity and has a syrupy mouthfeel. As far as how best to prepare Crema e Gusto, we would have to say that it’s best when made in a French Press or Moka pot but also works well in an espresso machine.
Buy Lavazza Crema E Gusto on Amazon
4. FORTE By Filicori Zecchini – Best Budget Italian Coffee Brand
Image Credit: [Filicori Zecchini]
Details
- Roast Level: Medium-Dark
- Flavor Profile: Toasted Cereal
- Ground/Whole: Whole
- Blend: 70% Arabica & 30% Robusta
The Forte blend by Filicori Zecchini’s is another great example of a great blend to use for Italian espresso. Forte is an exceptionally bold blend and this makes sense if you consider its name. ‘Forte’ is, in fact, Italian for ‘strong.’ Even though this is a low-priced coffee, Filicori Zecchini offers some of the best blends you can get in Italy.
Forte Thinks Outside The Box
The trick that they use is the reversal of the roasting and blending process.
As you would think, most companies create and blend and then roast it, Filicori Zecchini, does that backward. They roast each bean on its own before it is blended. This method ensures that each type of bean is perfectly roasted to suit its unique own unique flavor profile.
This company gets its beans from farms throughout Guatemala, Brazil, and India. Because of this, Filicori Zecchini coffee is always of the highest quality and consistency.
This brand is known to have a very strong flavor. It’s composed of 70% Arabica and 30% Robusta coffee beans and has an earthy and bold flavor. In this blend, you can taste hints of toasted cereal. This isn’t the type of coffee you would use for a pour-over, but we would recommend it for a Moka pot brew or an espresso.
Buy FORTE by Filicori Zecchini on Amazon
5. Lavazza Gran Filtro – Best Dark Roast
Image Credit: [Lavazza]
- Roast Level: Dark
- Flavor Profile: Caramel, Chocolate, Toasted
- Ground\Whole: Whole
- Blend: 100% Arabica
Even though Lavazza specializes in Arabica-Robusta blends, this 100% Arabica dark roasted blend is so delicious, you wouldn’t be able to tell that it came from a company that didn’t specialize in that.
This blend has a full-bodied, rich flavor and a strong aroma. It has a great aftertaste that can be known to somewhat linger, and it has a far sweeter flavor because it doesn’t include any Robusta beans. You would think the sweetness would be overpowering, but it is kept tame by the smoky flavors of the dark roasts.
The is a mostly Brazilian blend, and that gives it the chocolate and caramel flavors. Then, a dash of Indian coffee is added for some real spice. This combination creates an exceptionally versatile coffee.
Like most other best Italian coffee brands, the Gran Filtro does a great job in a Moka pot or as an espresso. But that’s not all this amazing coffee can do, it brews just fine in a standard filtered coffee pot just as well.
Buy Lavazza Gran Filtro on Amazon
6. Illy Decaf – Best Decaf Italian Coffee Brand
Image Credit: [Illy]
Details
- Roast Level: Medium
- Flavor Profile: Caramel, Chocolate
- Ground/Whole: Ground
- Blend: 100% Arabica
Most of the time it goes like this: If you removing a coffee’s caffeine, you remove its flavor. And while that is true in most cases, Illy’s Decaf is an exception to the rule. This is the decaffeinated version of the company’s best-selling Classico blend, and they have worked really hard to ensure that the flavor is left unscathed.
This blend is made up of 9 artisans curated Arabica beans that are sourced from all around the planet. Then, they are expertly blended by Italian roasters and roasted to the perfect medium.
Unlike other companies, Illy uses an advanced carbon dioxide decaffeination process that is far more efficient than conventional solvent-based decaffeination methods.
Decaf is Underrated
This decaf is surprisingly full-bodied and has a rich mouthfeel, yet gentle, subtle flavors. It has the taste of caramel and chocolate that you would expect the best Italian coffee brands to have, but because of the decaffeination process, this blend’s aromas take on a much more floral arrangement. You could say that it smells a bit like orange blossom and jasmine.
7. Lavazza Super Crema – Best Medium Roast
Image Credit: [Lavazza]
Details
- Roast Level: Medium
- Flavor Profile: Hazelnut & Brown Sugar
- Ground/Whole: Whole
- Blend: 60% Arabica & 40% Robusta
Lavazza’s has this Super Crema medium roast blend that is just fantastic. Its composed of 40% Robusta beans and 60% Arabica beans. This blend has, by far, the heaviest concentration of Robusta beans compared to any other coffee on this list. Keep in mind, however, that this is not just any Robusta bean. The Robusta beans that Lavazza use are of the absolute highest quality.
As a matter of fact, this blend’s ‘Super Crema’ name is derived from the fact that it has extra Robusta beans. So, if you are one of the millions of people that enjoy a dense, rich, and creamy espresso, these are definitely the beans for you.
Ultra-Light Taste Profile
This coffee has a light taste and can even be thought of as refreshing. The stars of the show as far as flavors are concerned are the blend of brown sugar and hazelnut overtones. This blend has an unexpected fruity aroma, so it’s great in the summer.
How To Choose The Best Italian Coffee Brands
As you might expect, Italy is the origin of espresso coffee. So, the coffee culture in this region is world-famous. You may actually be surprised to find out that you can’t grow coffee in Italy. Yep. That was not a typo.
While Italy has the best sourcing, blending, and roasting methods for coffee, they do not have the type of environment that is right for growing the beans themselves.
When choosing the best Italian coffee, it’s important to keep in mind that it has an extremely powerful flavor.
If you want to enjoy your coffee like an Italian, then you are looking for either a strong ristretto or an espresso. These are coffee drinks that are meant to be taken on the go, so they fit well into a busy lifestyle. For more social occasions, you may want to make a cappuccino.
Usually in Italy, an espresso would rarely choose for breakfast. No, that’s cappuccino time in Italy. This makes sense because most families can be seen sitting down together all at once at the breakfast table often.
Dark And Medium Roasts Are Where Its at
Italians generally lean towards medium-to-dark coffee blends. This is due to the fact that Italian coffee culture orbits espresso more than anything else.
If you are working with light roasts and aren’t careful, you run the risk of under-extracting an espresso. This can make it taste sour, so that is never a good thing. So, for this reason, many people roast darker beans when making espresso.
For this and other reasons, the medium-to-dark spectrum is where most roasters’ area of expertise lies. This all but ensures that this kind of coffee will maintain that authentic Italian experience, especially if you use using a high-end espresso machine. In this spectrum of roast, you can expect flavors of caramel and chocolate, along with a natural sweetness.
Buy Whole Beans When Possible
Pro Tip: It’s always best to start with whole beans. This is because grinding it yourself as guarantees maximum flavor from your roast.
Remember, though. there is some wiggle room. The best Italian coffee brands are known to be extremely forgiving when they are pre-ground. This is because beans naturally bold flavors. Illy has a proprietary sealing mechanism for its canisters that works great. It ensures that your ground coffee is as fresh-tasting as the day it was ground.
One of the most important aspects of buying pre-ground coffee beans is the bean’s grind size. Most coffee brands in North American only offer one grind size. Generally, this is the size that works best for your average coffee machine. Italian brands, however, offer ultra-fine grind sizes, which are great for espressos. So, make sure to keep this in mind and get the right grind for your brewing method.
Robusta Bean is Under-Rated
Historically, the Robusta bean has been considered by the industry to be a lower quality bean than the Arabica. But you may want to take a closer look at the Robusta Bean to find out if that really is the case. Is the Robusta Bean low quality?
The Robusta bean is a lot easier to grow, so that makes it cost less. Also, the Robusta bean is known to have a lot more caffeine. This is the bean that is added to espresso blends and there are two main reasons for this. One is that, as mentioned earlier, Robusta beans contribute a dark and earthy flavor to the blend. This complements the sweetness and acidity of the arabica nicely. It also provides the blend with a denser, foamier crema.
If all that is true, then why exactly does the Robusta have such a bad reputation? It has been described by some as having an unpleasant rubbery taste, but that really only happens if the bean is poorly processed by the grower.
So, when processed by Italy’s skilled coffee roasters, you have nothing to worry about in regards to the use of the Robusta bean. This is especially true if you are also brewing the coffee using an Italian method, like a Moka pot or an espresso machine.
Conclusion
Everyone is well aware that the Italians make the best supercars, the best leather shoes, and the best coffee. After all, it is the homeland of espresso, Antonio Meccariello, and Maserati. Remember to not be afraid of the Robusta Bean. As long as it’s processed right, it adds an excellent layer to a blended coffee’s flavor profile.
When it comes down to the wire, Illy makes the best coffee that money can buy. These have a strong, established place in the market for a reason. These guys are born from generations of coffee bean grinders and have passed down their methods for generations.