Lavazza Super Crema Whole Bean Coffee Blend, light-Medium Espresso Roast, 2.2 Pound (Pack of 1) ,Premium Quality, Aromatic, Mild and creamy

Balanced and repeatable, I tune my brew as best as I know how and all versions of Lavazza repeats cup after cup, bag after bag. Just like the Hotel in Florence, invited friends over and their first cup was greeted with “Now that reminds me of Italy”. I have purchased this brand anywhere for 2 bags to 6 at a time without hesitation. I have the Breville BES870XL Barista Express Espresso Machine, a spin tamper and also use a spring-loaded tamper for each cup and perfect.

I don’t normally jump on just any coffee. I am very VERY picky about my coffee flavor. This coffee, I can definitely say, hit the spot. I was skeptical before I opened it because of the reviews of rocks in the bag, so I was careful to check all the beans before I started to grind them. So far I haven’t encountered any. I chose to make my cup of Joe via French press. (For those of us who don’t want to waste the money on extra kitchen clutter, that means I used a kitchen funnel with a coffee filter in it and poured the hot water over the grounds to run into my cup until full.) I added a little (a lot) of sugar and milk and sat down to try it. First impressions, it was nice. Not to overpowering or bitter. It was smooth with a nice subtle flavor that blended well with the sugar and cream. Most other coffees leave me with the after taste of dragon mouth coffee breath. I didn’t feel like I got that with this. I used the Super cream light-medium expresso roast and I am extremely happy with this purchase.

First and foremost, I paid full price for Lavazza Super Crema and received nothing for this unbiased review. My machine is the Breville Barista Express with a manual tamper. I have used these beans for several weeks now. Here are my thoughts:

1. Beans – The beans are medium roast so they are not oily and thus pass through the hopper and grinder without problems. The beans reach proper pressure on the gauge essentially every cup. This is an important consideration with the Barista Express machine. In you are new to making espresso, then these beans should work well for your machine. I have used many beans over the years and in my experience, the oily beans tend to hang up, and even when an appropriate amount is dispensed, they will not reach enough pressure in my machine, despite making the grind very fine.

2. Smell – Beans were fresh, expiration date was several months away, and the aroma was pleasant. In my opinion, some other brands of coffee beans have a off-putting smell, almost a burnt rubber smell, especially with a really dark roast. These did not have that smell.

3. Taste – I really enjoyed the taste, as did my family. Unsurprisingly, Super Crema creates a good “crema” with making espresso with provides a silky mouth feel. Brown sugar tasting notes. When blending with milk, this makes for an especially good latte or cappuccino– velvety smooth, but with just the right amount of “bite.” No harsh bitter aftertaste. I typically add a sweetener to my coffee drinks, and these did not require as much sweetener to be added as some other coffee beans. Obviously, the brewing machine plays no small part in the taste, and these beans worked well with my Barista Express.

4. Caffeination – There are two different beans in Super Crema, arabica and robusta, which you can differentiate when looking at them closely. Visually it appears to be about 70-80% arabica and 20-30% robusta, which is also consistent with what I have read. If you are used to dark roast arabica, expect some moderately increased caffeination due to the medium roast (less roast leads to more caffeine) and the addition of robusta beans (also more caffeinated).

There you have it. For making cappuccinos and lattes, these beans are 5/5 in my opinion. I will be buying them again.

Sabor y crema excelente (Sage Barista Express)