Great topic, had a really fun time reading it. I've been a fan of dark roasted, classic style italian coffee for a while but I live in a small Eastern European country where I have to choose between 5-6 months old Lavazza/Kimbo or more expensive freshly roasted medium to light roasted third wave coffee. Occasionally i'd be able to buy something freshly roasted in the medium to dark range here.
So far I have a Lelit, a decent grinder and mostly pull shots with medium roasts and while I love them, I kinda miss the days I was using a moka pot and grinding italian beans.
I've been meaning to go back to the more traditional espresso route for a while now but i'm a bit worried that I will just buy a big bag of 5-6 months old Lavazza/Kimbo/Davidoff/Pellini and end up super disappointed that it is stale because i'm spoiled by freshly roasted stuff. This topic makes me more optimistic and I will probably end up giving this a shot at some point.
Would love to read some similar experiences of people who used freshly roasted beans for years and got back to this type of espresso.

I apologize if this has been discussed already but can anyone recommend the best way to get Lavazza beans at a reasonable roast date? Just bought Gold Selection on Amazon and it had a January 2022 date. It has been pretty meh. Perhaps due to the age, I don't know where to go next as I'm very sensitive to robusta bean blends. I'm totally fine drinking 3 shots of Lusso GMC but 1 Lionshare and I get the shakes. Any other all arabica Lavazza blends I should look into? Thanks!

Lavazza Espresso Italiano is 100% arabica but I have not tried it yet. Qualita Oro is also 100% arabica and it is pretty decent - medium roast and nicely balanced. As for the roast date - I live in Bulgaria and it is almost impossible to get a Lavazza bag that is roasted earlier than 6-7 months - it seems like this is the standard here. Some other coffees like Tchibo or Kimbo seem to come here a bit fresher.

For something more traditional - you might wanna try Kimbo Aroma Gold. It is a 100% arabica too, pretty dark roast (even if it is marketed as Medium Dark) and can be pretty good if you are into this type of coffee. Makes for a good espresso, but you have to dial-in with lower temperature (if your machine allows for that) and coarser grind. Otherwise it becomes too ashy or intense for me. When I played with the temperature and started using 91c - it is actually pretty decent. Not very complex compared to some specialty coffee but a good representation of Italian coffee without crazy robusta content.

Also do consider that you just might not be into classic, stale-ish coffee. I started experimenting with this types of coffees a little more in the last month and I like them but I will perfectly understand why somebody who is into specialty coffee will not. No matter what you do, most of these coffees will come to you already old in a way.

I suggest the Factory 1895 specialty coffee brand from Lavazza, between tradition and innovation. It should be easy to buy in the USA.

One of the best specialty coffee roaster in Italy is Orso Caffè in Turin. Perù and El Salvador are two great specialty blends, absolutely recommended.

This is a reliable list of the best specialty coffee roasters in Italy. Enjoy!

https://www.dissapore.com/spesa/caffe-i ... re-online/

Wow, what a thread. After reading (and skimming) all of 42 pages there were only 3 pictures of beans...

I too want to try "classic Italian roasted coffee". Described in another thread of this forum as "coffee that has visible oil/shines when you open the bag, and has a decent amount of Robusta in it, say 20%+, and more typically 40%-50%".

I'd much prefer my coffee to be fresh, not few months old. Despite talk about Italian roasts keeping longer I wonder... Isn't dark roasted coffee going stale sooner? Perhaps" stale flavors" don't matter much for this style of coffee, still If I can I want to give it a honest try that involves it being really fresh.

So after looking at the shelf with commercial coffee in my local supermarket(I didn't expect much, I was there anyway for groceries). I found all coffees sold are 100% arabica, including ones that have words "Italian espresso roast" . Out of the many brands sold (in a small town Poland) including lavazza, kimbo, and others only one of the biggest manufacturers (Tchibo) prints manufacturing dates on the bags. And the freshest was 2 months old.

So I looked online, as I'm getting my light roast coffee from a small roaster that always supplies it fresh (and the price is pretty good for the quality). I found only 2 roasters in the entire country doing dark/Italian espresso roast and I decided to try one (as this was Wednesday and they said they roast on Thursdays). So I got a bag of their Italian roast described as: "dark roast, 70% brasilian arabica, 30% Indian robusta". I got it today - one day after roasting.

And it's not looking that dark to me. My typical roaster sells "espresso roasts" he describes as medium (single origin and blends) that look like the same level. So I decided to post a photo to ask, is this definitely too light for a genuine classic Italian espresso roast?

I know a picture isn't ideal, but I used a built in flash in the phone and they do look pretty much the same on my screen as in real life. So, the question is, is this too lightly roasted?

(the top of the bag is white if you want to do your own white balance adjustment)


And the second question is, does anyone know a roaster in Central Europe (preferably Poland / Germany) that can provide a genuine classic Italian roast with 20%+, robusta that's fresh and in small bags?

Or, is roasting darker essentially a waste of high quality speciality coffee and I should go for one of the big commercial brands once I find one with 20%+ robusta and sufficiently dark?

Edit: I've since cupped this coffee. It's definitely nice and I'll drink it, but I doubt it is an "authentic Italian dark roast".

The prevailing belief is that Italian roasted coffee does not stale quickly, with the caveat that it is stored well. I can't explain to you why that is the case and I haven't read a compelling explanation either. Some say it's due to the robusta content; some say it's because of the roasting methods.

I don't know that it has to be black and shiny with oil. My primary experience with Italian coffee is the Neapolitan roaster Saka that is imported by Cantina. The beans arrive usually within a few weeks of roasting so are quite fresh compared to what you might by on Amazon. I left an unopened bag in the cupboard at room temperature for months and did notice some deterioration but it wasn't enough to ruin the coffee.

Photos of beans are hard to gauge because of lighting. You need something to use as a reference or else you can't tell how dark they are. But here is photo of five of the Saka blends (robusta content ranging from 0% to 60%). I took the photo because the roasts all appeared to be of the same depth, at least to my eyes. I think it is medium-dark as opposed to dark, but I can't properly quantify that (despite owning a DIY color meter). Oil is rarely visible on the Saka blends. I think it's good coffee and I'm not alone in that assessment. Prior to the establishment of Cantina there were group buys being arranged by members of HB (a minimum of 6kg was required by Saka).




(beverage does not conform to the definitions of espresso by the WBC, SCA Heritage, or INEI)

Interesting, and thanks for the photo. They do look very similar to my beans - roast level wise. No oil sheen visible, but not far from it.

Regarding photos, it is true lighting can skew how a photo looks, using a calibrated light source like a built in flash(so hopefully the camera knows how to adjust the color ) helps, as well as putting a white sheet of paper in the background as you did. So I still think it's useful.

I've found some more local online shops/roasters that sell their own roasts no more than a week old, but the descriptions are very inconsistent. For example they'll say "it's an Italian dark roast" and further down in "product specs" it says its medium or even light in one case. They do blend various origin arabicas with up to 80% robusta (it seems a lot!).

Should "classic Italian espresso" coffee be composed of any particular origins? Let's say 50% Brazilian, 20% Colombian with 30% Indian robusta? I ask because I saw a review of one of these 60/40% coffees where the author said - "good ratio but bad choice of coffees - tastes too earthy, not chocolatey enough" .

I also found one shop that sells commercial coffee, but helpfully they list roasting dates and they have some Italian roasted Kimbo "il cafe Di Napoli - intenso" that's 3 weeks old (if I choose to get it it will be 4 weeks old by the time they post it due to holidays - probably the most "authentic" I can get easily). Again they describe it as a dark Italian espresso roast while on the bag it says "medium roast, intensity 12/13". Does anyone know that specific coffee?