I'm a year into this obsession and have been roasting and grinding my own beans continually since starting. I've got a fairly standard technique and have been making consistently exquisite espresso for a while now. Unfortunately, I neglected to place my last order for green beans in time and was caught short. Coincidentally, my son bought me a can of Illy espresso as a gift, which I intended to use as a shelf decoration, but when my beans ran out, I thought -- what the heck, I'll give this stuff a try.

I find the Illy stuff totally unusable. Although it doesn't look it, it must be ground very coarse. No matter how much I fill the basket or how much pressure I put into the tamp, I get almost instant liquid out of the PF, first black, then blonding within five seconds. I just don't see any way to use this stuff. I had thought about regrinding it, but that would probably just choke up my grinder. I'd like to know who is using this stuff (and how). Illy must have gotten its reputation for espresso in someway (other than the cups).

I haven't seen the grind first hand but it's not necessarily too coarse, just stale. The degradation over time (e.g. out gasing) can increase water flow.

You may have bought the wrong grind. The preground for espresso flows well when you open it; or at least it used to.

My observation as well although it has been years since I tried Illy. It was usually a little quick but close. It was usually decent for about one day, then it goes to pot real fast. I have seen some of them with very old use by dates on the can as well. I think I have a couple cans that came with some Illy cups that was best by 2006. Probably would not be very good today.

On Illy's website, I can only find one grind "for espresso machines". You can get two roasts or decaffeinated, but if you buy grounds for espresso, you get no choice on the granularity. I'm sure the pump pressure of my QM Vetrano is much higher than you would get out of a garden variety home espresso machine. I do keep it on the high side because I grind quite finely, but consistently pull 27 second shots with a perfect rat tail and lots of crema.

I just found it odd that the stuff was so unsuitable for my setup.