Well, I went on with the great "can of Illy" experiment. They are on sale for $11 at my local grocer and given the expiration date of sometime in 2018(!!!) I figure they're fresh enough to give them a fair shot. This is the whole bean, "red" label can.

The medium roast is a bit darker than the typical high-end local roasts I buy normally in California. The can had slight positive pressure on opening, presumably the nitrogen packing. The aroma was good, what I would expect for freshly roasted beans at this degree of roast. Slight oil sheen on some. It appears to be something of a melange of slightly different roasts blended.

Espresso:

I tried several different approaches to pulling this as espresso, from the "American 3rd wave triple ristretto" to a 7g single using the La Marzocco single basket. Tried different doses, grinds and brew temperatures on the LM-LM pid dial.

Not unexpectedly, I found the coffee to perform best when making Italian style espresso and brew ratios. Also, it works best with cooler brew temperatures in my opinion. A double normale of 14g:27g ratio produced espresso with the characteristics I've found in better coffee bars in Italy. The resulting brew has a moderately full mouth feel, a nice caramel sweetness, low acidity, slight fruit, a balanced bitterness. There's little acid/fruit, so the low water temperature is necessary to bring it out at all. The roastiness is highly present, but doesn't have any ashy/charcoal/burned flavor.

It makes a good tasting cappuccino, with the caramel notes really coming out in milk. Again, using the (smaller than american) Italian-sized cappuccino cups worked out well.

It is kind of unremarkable - no big fruit, no especially notable characteristics.

I really didn't care for the triple ristretto with this coffee. It just felt thick and heavy with no particularly interesting flavors in it.

All in all, it is a good coffee, at least fresh from the tin and what appears to be a pretty fresh sample. I like something more interesting, but it is certainly very drinkable, especially when sticking to traditional preparation ratios and sizes. That doesn't surprise me, since it is clearly blended and roasted with Italian tastes in mind. When in Rome, as the saying goes.

I probably wouldn't buy it on a regular basis. But I'd certainly drink it. It also seems like something good to keep on the shelf at home, in case of running out of freshly roasted local stuff.

Sounds about like my Illy experiences. See how long its' good qualities last if you freeze it. There are lots of other good ones out there that are worth a try from time to time. I just ordered some of these, which look interesting:

Le Piantagioni Del Caffè Alto Palomar:

http://www.lepiantagionidelcaffe.com/en/?p=23

MariaSole - Linea Verde:

http://mariasole.co.uk/maria-sole-linea-verde-bio

As stated on the maariasole website:
"The MariaSole Caffè Espresso is roasted like 100 years ago"..,.to a teen like mine (I started late) that sentence, due to the word "like", would to her mean, Dad, like they roasted these beans a hundred years ago?

Actually, I emailed the company to suss out shipping for any folks stateside.

"The MariaSole Caffè Espresso is roasted like 100 years ago"..,.to a teen like mine (I started late) that sentence, due to the word "like", would to her mean, Dad, like they roasted these beans a hundred years ago?

That's the general opinion of Italian coffee here on HB. If one gets a stale batch they certainly taste like they were 100 years old. Thankfully I don't often get stale batches of brands I buy regularly, but I have been burned when trying new brands from online retailers. The MariaSole looked too interesting to pass us, so I took the plunge. I really like to have one Southern Italian espresso blend on hand for a special morning cappa or an after-dinner treat. I'll post my impressions when they arrive.

Interesting. I'm not a fan of illy, but have been drinking it occasionally - in cafes, at home (I bough a can last summer) and even on the vending machine in our company. In all cases it had relatively pronounced acidity (at least according to my taste, used to various italian blends available here which usually don't have much acidity or fruit notes - mostly less than Illy). I live only about 100 km from Illy factory in Trieste, so in most cases this coffee was relatively fresh I suppose (probably the oldest was a can I bough - about 2 months or so)

peacecup wrote:That's the general opinion of Italian coffee here on HB. If one gets a stale batch they certainly taste like they were 100 years old. Thankfully I don't often get stale batches of brands I buy regularly, but I have been burned when trying new brands from online retailers. The MariaSole looked too interesting to pass us, so I took the plunge. I really like to have one Southern Italian espresso blend on hand for a special morning cappa or an after-dinner treat. I'll post my impressions when they arrive.

I got a VERY warm and friendly note from Eduardo, who posted through their UK distributor. Jack, please let us know how you like the espresso from there.

The best "commercial" beans I have tasted to date is the Danesi 'Gold Quality' Central/South American blend available on amazon. Medium roast,well balanced with tons of flavors with muted or no acidity. Perfect for espresso-based drinks. You may want to try it and try to consume the beans at their prime (3-12 days after opening).

Ps: I tried all Danesi varieties but only the Gold Quality is delicious. I use the Vesuvius/Compak E10 grinder.

Good luck.

nuketopia wrote:Well, I went on with the great "can of Illy" experiment. They are on sale for $11 at my local grocer and given the expiration date of sometime in 2018(!!!) I figure they're fresh enough to give them a fair shot. This is the whole bean, "red" label can.

The medium roast is a bit darker than the typical high-end local roasts I buy normally in California. The can had slight positive pressure on opening, presumably the nitrogen packing. The aroma was good, what I would expect for freshly roasted beans at this degree of roast. Slight oil sheen on some. It appears to be something of a melange of slightly different roasts blended.

Espresso:

I tried several different approaches to pulling this as espresso, from the "American 3rd wave triple ristretto" to a 7g single using the La Marzocco single basket. Tried different doses, grinds and brew temperatures on the LM-LM pid dial.

Not unexpectedly, I found the coffee to perform best when making Italian style espresso and brew ratios. Also, it works best with cooler brew temperatures in my opinion. A double normale of 14g:27g ratio produced espresso with the characteristics I've found in better coffee bars in Italy. The resulting brew has a moderately full mouth feel, a nice caramel sweetness, low acidity, slight fruit, a balanced bitterness. There's little acid/fruit, so the low water temperature is necessary to bring it out at all. The roastiness is highly present, but doesn't have any ashy/charcoal/burned flavor.

It makes a good tasting cappuccino, with the caramel notes really coming out in milk. Again, using the (smaller than american) Italian-sized cappuccino cups worked out well.

It is kind of unremarkable - no big fruit, no especially notable characteristics.

I really didn't care for the triple ristretto with this coffee. It just felt thick and heavy with no particularly interesting flavors in it.

All in all, it is a good coffee, at least fresh from the tin and what appears to be a pretty fresh sample. I like something more interesting, but it is certainly very drinkable, especially when sticking to traditional preparation ratios and sizes. That doesn't surprise me, since it is clearly blended and roasted with Italian tastes in mind. When in Rome, as the saying goes.

I probably wouldn't buy it on a regular basis. But I'd certainly drink it. It also seems like something good to keep on the shelf at home, in case of running out of freshly roasted local stuff.

Resurrecting an old thread. How good is the creama from Illy red can? I can never get the amount of great creama which I get from a local roaster.

I have a Macap Mc4 and Unic Pony espresso machine. I am able to pull a double with 16 grams only due to the size of my portafilter.