I am sold! Just ordered a bag of Super Crema off Amazon. Look forward to seeing if I can reproduce this quasi chocolate milkshake.

Thank you for providing parameters btw. A note on temperatures that might be relevant to this thread: my initial instinct was that 92 deg C (about 197 F) seems a little too high for Italian style roast profile, but given that it has robusta in it, this might actually make sense. For instance, Malabar Gold to me has never tasted good below 94 deg C whereas I typically do not go beyond 91-92 deg C for a pure arabica blend. I just started on a bag of Kimbo Espresso Napoli (the bag doesn't specify if it has any robusta and my guess is it does not), and even at 88 deg C and 18 in : 30 out ratio, it's coming out too bitter (tastes of pure roast)! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Please note that I'm grinding on a Monolith Flat so the Niche may give you a different flavour profile or require different parameters for a similar output.

Hope you enjoy it and don't forget to put it in mason jars and freeze it the minute you open the bag. You'll need a different grind setting when you use the frozen beans as well.

So, it has taken me 2-3 days to dial in Super Crema, but the shot I pulled just this morning was incredibly sweet. To me, it feels like more of a dark brown sugar/caramel sweetness rather than chocolate sweetness, but I certainly see what you meant by molten chocolate ice cream. I'd just add the word lukewarm next to it! (And yes indeed -- to the first order, the flavor difference could well be due to the flat vs. conical burrs.)

The bag I received off Amazon a few days ago was roasted in April 2022, which was frankly a pleasant surprise. Definitely not getting any aged unpleasantness in the cup. Also I am generally surprised by how good these beans are. After my previous encounters with those grocery store Lavazza tins, I always looked at it as a "cheap" (for a lack better word) consumer brand that was far inferior to, say, Illy. And while SC is not specialty coffee kind of good, I would not mind stocking up on something like this to be used during the shipping and waiting periods for the specialty subscriptions. That's usually what I do with the Illy Classico and Illy Intenso cans.

As discussed above

Saka Grand bar: https://cantinacoffee.com/products/saka-gran-bar
Josuma Malabar Gold (let rest 3 weeks post-roast): https://josumacoffee.bigcartel.com/prod ... two-pounds

Lavazza and Kimbo also a solid choice.

I've found Cerini Coffee in NY to be a good source for Italian blends. Their stock may turn over faster than an Amazon seller's.

Glad you had a good experience with Super Crema. This morning I found myself short of beans as I forgot to take my next bag of Hatch out of the freezer last night. I was able to make a few quick adjustments and pull out some frozen Super Crema and finish the morning coffee round. Just as I remembered it. Amazing stuff really. The other Lavazza worth mentioning is the Gold that Tony spoke of. I haven't cared for any other Lavazza but those two are winners.

Did you try the Lavazza Gran Crema? I recently went through a 1 kilo of it. While it wasn't as fresh as I'd like, it did have a great flavor. Saka Gran Bar had chocolate and an incense flavor, the Lavazza was all chocolate. It was especially nice as a crowd pleaser in lattes and caps.

I grabbed it on a steep discount for fun. The espresso Italiano is on sale for $13.50 a kilo right now. Not sure about it.

Edit: Looks like the Espresso Italiano is their cheapest blend.

Defintly did not enjoy the Gran Crema. I've tried about 6 Lavazza now and stand by recommending only the Gold and Super Crema.

Interesting. I'll need to try the Super Crema. My expectations of the Gran Crema were buffered by the deep discount. I have one jar of the Gran Crema left in the freezer so it would be fun to taste them back to back.

I've enjoyed Lionshare espresso blend from Cafee Lusso: https://caffelusso.com/collections/blen ... esso-blend