illy Caffe Whole Bean Coffee (Medium Roast), 8.8-Ounce Tins (Pack of 2)

by illy

Product Features

• Pack of two 8.8-ounce cans of Italian medium-roast coffee beans
• Made from pure Brazilian Arabica medium roast coffee beans
• Air-free packaging preserves freshness while ensuring reliable flavor
• Uses a Northern Italy roast to brew a lighter, smoother cup
• A product of Italy

Product Description

Medium roast coffee beans

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001E5DYTO
• UPC: 003753900528
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,660 in Grocery & Gourmet Food (See Top 100 in Grocery & Gourmet Food)
  • #26 in Grocery & Gourmet Food > Beverages > Coffee, Tea & Cocoa > Coffee > Whole Bean

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just try it, August 25, 2010

By 

Paul DeZan "paul55764" (Burlingame, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: illy Caffe Whole Bean Coffee (Medium Roast), 8.8-Ounce Tins (Pack of 2) (Grocery)

Many vocal critics of illy coffee have never actually tasted it. As Dr. House says, everybody lies and illy is apparently a very popular thing to lie about. I've caught several vocal critics lying about illy (by serving it to them, getting the typical "This is fabulous!" reaction, then telling them what they're drinking. You know, the Folger's Coffee Crystals technique).

Why is this?

Well, on the surface illy does appear to be frivolous and therefore an easy target.

- It's very expensive, especially for coffee that comes in a can

- It's got a very fussy, very European marketing envelope around it

- It tends to be sold in fussy, trendy stores

- Because it's roasted and packaged in Italy, it is always several months old when you buy it

- Did I mention that it's very expensive?

As a result, it's easy to dismiss illy as an elitist, "image" product that can't possibly be worth what it costs. And it's easy to convince others of the same thing, whether you've actually tried illy or not.

The truth is illy is really superb coffee, just about the best I've ever tried. Since I've started drinking it at home, I've found I'm actually drinking much less coffee overall, because I only know a couple of places that serve illy locally and I just don't feel like bothering with anything else, at least most of the time. The ironic net effect of this is that illy may actually be saving me some money!

I don't know if illy will be worth what it costs to you. There are some very good coffee beans sold by Costco for roughly 1/5 the price, much better than anything you can get at Starbucks or Peets. (In fact, if Starbucks or Peets is your idea of really good coffee, stop reading this now. Not because I think you're some tasteless boob, but because those brands are in the very modern, very successful mode of bitter, over-roasted, burned-tasting American coffee and I don't personally care for that. So if you like those brands, you're probably not going to like illy or any coffee that I like. Personally, I like the bottomless cup of Peerless my favorite diner serves much better than Starbucks.)

What I do know is that if you like coffee enough to own a decent grinder and other caffeine paraphernalia, you really ought to try illy. In particular, if you like light-medium roasts but find most are just too wimpy, you may just love this stuff.

If not, you'll at least have a cute, fussy little can you can sub-divide some of your Costco walnuts into. And that is something.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars consistent high quality, May 4, 2008

By 

Petur O. Jonsson (Fayetteville, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Illy espresso beans are my favorite of all the widely available commercially produced roasted espresso beans. This is the standard medium roast that Illy produces and it is a bit less aggressive and milder tasting than the dark roasts of Lavazza (the other major Italian brand that some people favor).

When properly ground, tamped, and brewed Illy espresso has a delightful aroma and flavor, unmatched by any of the other brands.

Granted, Illy is quite pricey, and I do not use it all the time for this reason. However, you get what you pay for. Usually, I buy my espresso from a small roasting house in the Midwest that produces a decent medium roast substitute that I do not mind using most of the time. But Illy definitely produces a higher quality bean.

One way to judge the quality of roasted espresso beans even before you taste the coffee that they will produce is to look at the evenness of color and size of the beans. The reason is that beans of a uniform size tend to roast more evenly than beans of varying sizes. Moreover, even when the beans are of a uniform size, it is important that they be roasted in small batches and churned during the the entire roasting process to ensure that they all get roasted to the same point. This is why most high quality coffee is roasted in small batches in a rotating drum that roasts all the beans to the exact same point. Moreover, since the moisture content of the beans varies a bit from batch to batch, quality control in the roasting process is extremely important. And it is here that Illy is unmatched. Just do a simple visual comparison of the color and consisteny of Illy beans when compared to any of the other widely available brands and you can easily see why Illy is the best.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars illy Caffe Normale Whole Bean (Red Top) Coffee, 8.8 Ounce Tins (Pack of 2), December 6, 2009

By 

Sam G. Mubara "Darby" (California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: illy Caffe Whole Bean Coffee (Medium Roast), 8.8-Ounce Tins (Pack of 2) (Grocery)

Fancy coffee packaging. The quality of beans is very good. The reason for 3 stars is the price. I find Lavazza Tierra which %100 Arabica like Illy has the same quality or better for a fraction of the price of Illy beans.